Yang Hansen made his highly anticipated NBA debut with the Portland Trail Blazers, who fell to the Golden State Warriors 129-123 in their first preseason game. Hansen fouled out of the contest, finishing with four points, four rebounds, one assist, and four turnovers.

Although it’s a limited sample size of just 21 minutes, we were still able to see how Hansen finally fared against NBA-level competition, which was one of the biggest question marks surrounding him as a prospect.

As expected, it was a mixed bag of both positive and negative takeaways. In those limited minutes, it was already apparent that Hansen still needs time to adjust to the speed of the NBA, needs to figure out how to optimize his strengths in his downsized role, and, most importantly… is going to be just fine.

Yang Hansen still needs time to adjust to the NBA speed

One reason why Hansen was widely projected to be a second-round pick was due to concerns about how his speed would translate to the faster-paced and more competitive NBA. There were multiple times in which the Warriors exploited that weakness on the offensive end. It was particularly evident in pick-and-pop situations, as Hansen wasn’t quick enough to get back to the perimeter to contest Quinten Post, who shot 4-of-9 from beyond the arc.

With how many centers are able to effectively space the floor in the modern NBA, this is going to be something that Hansen will need to address. Portland has aspirations of being an elite defense this season, but that will be difficult to achieve if teams are constantly hunting Hansen on that end.

Can Hansen’s strengths translate to his role?

Throughout the offseason, the praise surrounding Hansen was consistent: he’s an elite passer for his position with a tremendous basketball IQ.

The basketball IQ aspect of his game seamlessly translated to the preseason, as he was frequently in the right place and making the right reads without the ball. But the key phrase here is without the ball. Hansen has an incredibly high ceiling as a potential offensive hub, similar to how Nikola Jokic is utilized in Denver or Alperen Sengun in Houston. However, the issue with that is he’s a rookie! He’s nowhere near good enough for the entire offense to be run through him at this point in his career.

That will make it more challenging to utilize his strengths. He’ll have to find other ways to impact winning beyond his elite passing with his solid screens, rebounding, and rim protection.

He’s going to be just fine

5.2 million people in China tuned into Tencent’s streaming platform to watch Hansen’s summer league game against the Memphis Grizzlies. Who knows how his preseason debut compares, but the hype surrounding him is real.

This preseason game showed that expectations should be tempered a bit, but we also shouldn’t overreact to just one game. Hansen looked a bit nervous to start the game, finishing his first rotational shift with just one foul and one turnover in the stat book after five minutes of play. He finally settled down in the second half, showing flashes of the upside that justified Portland’s first-round gamble.

It was also evident that Hansen, along with the rest of Portland’s frontcourt, missed Scoot Henderson in this contest. Jrue Holiday recorded seven assists in the first half, but sat out the entire second half. Hansen would have benefited from playing alongside more playmakers. There were multiple possessions where a smaller defender switched onto him in the post, but Portland failed to get him the ball to capitalize on that mismatch.

His next opportunity to get the Yang train back on track is on October 10, when the Blazers take on the Sacramento Kings in Portland’s home opener.