Cronin: Choosing Yang Hansen at the 16th pick is considered to be an early move. We will lose confidence in the future

06 June 28th News At this year's draft, the Trail Blazers selected Koward with the 11th pick and traded him to the Grizzlies for the No. 16 draw and the first round + two second rounds of the 2028 Magic, and then selected Yang Hansen with the No. 16 draw.

A reporter asked: In the mock drafts of various media, Yang Hansen did not appear before the 35th pick. Have you ever considered continuing to trade downward? Or are you worried that he will be intercepted by other teams?

Trail Blazers General Manager Cronin replied: "This is a good question. Our strategy is to be as low as possible (choose him). We don't want to 'choose the person in advance (overdraft)', but after the No. 16 draw, we felt less confident, but Yang Hansen was too important to us, so we decided to take the lead in advance and use a slightly higher draft position than the technical level to select a player that we attach great importance to. This draw can also express how much we value him."

The team after the 16th pick in the first round of the NBA can be seen in the figure below: