Jokic& Gordon Youth Edition! 1.24-meter bouncing meets Yang Hansen, why can Xiao Yang solve Sharp s dilemma?

Some combinations are born to be excellent tactical partners. Jokic and Gordon's high and low post connections, Curry and Zhu Meng's top double-player are all classic cooperation initiated by inside players. Now that Yang Hansen has landed in the Trail Blazers, as the support center, is it possible for him to find his most tacit partner in Portland?

In the 2025 Summer League, the Trail Blazers signed Yang Hansen with the 16th pick, which was already very doubtful. Yang Hansen did have problems and flaws in the two games, but the overall performance was basically beyond the expectations of most people. If the Trail Blazers use high-level support as a conventional tactic in the regular season, the biggest benefit point is probably not Tanhua Show Henderson, but the super jumping man Sharp.

Sharp is a very famous player in the NBA who is famous for his jumping power. His vertical bounce of up to 1.24 meters is higher than Jordan. However, as a very willful player, as the number one high school student in the United States at that time, he did not play in the NCAA and directly participated in the NBA draft (drawing a loophole in the rules). Although he was selected as the 7th pick in the first round, he still could see the bad habits caused by the lack of system training.

From the perspective of style, Sharp is now a typical magic ball style. He either scores at the bottom of the basket with his physical fitness and bounce. Or he shoots three-pointers from the outside. In the 2024-25 season, Sharp averaged 6.6 three-point shots per game, but only had a three-pointer rate of 31.1%, and his long shot effect was not as high as expected. In addition, his mid-range effect is very poor. Within the three-point line and 16 feet away from the basket, Sharp only had 39.8% shooting percentage in the 2024-25 season. It is worth mentioning that among the long-distance mid-range shots, Sharp only made 30.2% of the shots were taken after receiving assists from his teammates, and his assist rate was much lower than that of other areas, which means that Sharp felt very uncomfortable when receiving the ball in this area.

Corresponding to this, Sharp's three-pointer shot is as high as 71.2%. In this regard, he is influenced by his magic ball style. After reaching a certain distance, he will be more persistent in trying to score three-pointers instead of two-pointers. So the conclusion is also very obvious. Sharp is willing to shoot three-pointers when he catches the ball, but it is not comfortable to catch the ball on a long-distance two-pointer and he doesn't like to shoot in this area too much.

Sharp's style and type can be solved by Yang Hansen's high-level support.

From the summer league, the Trail Blazers have consciously set him to play high positions to support him, so this also saw several easy layup opportunities that Yang Hansen passed to his teammates after several teammates interspersed down. This high-level dealing attribute solves some of Sharp's current problems on the field.

Sharp has excellent bounce power but his breakthrough speed is not too fast. Dribbling and shooting are relatively single, so it is easy to predict the ball when breaking through with the ball. Once it is targeted to defend or assist in defense. In addition, as a player who likes to run without the ball, having a center with a wide vision for him is undoubtedly the biggest driver to amplify Sharp's advantage.

Once Yang Hansen holds the ball at a high position, he only needs to give Sharp a hand-written cover, and the latter can make decisions quickly at the high position, whether it is a direct three-pointer, a long-distance jump shot with two moves, or a direct impact on the basket after receiving the ball, or a pass when Yang Hansen goes down, which maximizes Sharp's offensive power.

Why has Sharp been unable to play in the past two seasons? The reason is very simple, the center problem. The rookie season is still in the adaptation period. After adapting for a whole year, the team's center is a pick-and-roll "clean" player like Ayton, who can't even hold on to it. It's basically a personal decoration. After pick-and-roll, you can't rely on Sharp's own ability to solve the problem by himself.

Klingen is a standard blue-collar center with a squat pit. The pick-and-roll is not bad, but he lacks the means of passing the ball, so he still cannot provide support to Sharp. This may have unexpected results from Yang Hansen's arrival.

Since the two summer league games, Yang Hansen has been able to send 4 assists in each game. After he left the game, the entire Trail Blazers will not play anymore, which shows the organization's control over the situation on the court.

Sharp, who likes running without the ball, meets Yang Hansen who likes passing so much. It is exactly the perfect match made in heaven. Xiao Yang can accurately find the Sharp who cuts the air to prevent him from falling into positional battles, so it may be a completely different visual feast when the big passes through the small. In this way, Yang Hansen, who is at the high position, can give Sharp the opportunity to receive an all-over pass. At the same time, Sharp's three-point ability can also force the defensive players to expand outward after the pick-and-roll, creating space for Yang Hansen's downward.

To some extent, this is a bit like the prototype of Jokic and Gordon-style combination, but just a smaller trumpet, but more explosive bounce.

Of course, Sharp is still a player who has not fully realized his potential. Since he has never played in the NCAA, many teams have not developed the habit and tacit understanding of cooperation. Because of this, when Sharp comes out to pick-and-roll, or when the center passes the ball with his hands at high positions, he will have rough handling, such as occasionally having a brief stagnation and not knowing how to operate the next step.

Of course, the reason for this stagnation may be because of the match with a player like Ayton, and the pick-and-roll cooperation with Yang Hansen needs a deeper verification.

But no matter what, Yang Hansen's big and small air relay cooperation is still worth looking forward to. Once Xiao Yang can really become the initiator of the pioneers of the tactics, will Portland become a new aerial city?