Original and good article | After returning from the Data Analysis Development Alliance, what are the obvious changes in Yang Hansen?

After two good games in the Development League, Yang Hansen returned to the NBA court again, and his performance on the court has made visible improvement compared to the beginning of the season. Therefore, in today’s article, we will describe our progress in perception more objectively from the data level to see in what aspects Hexion has improved significantly:

Let’s first take a look at Hexion’s progress in scoring data. After being baptized by the core treatment of the Development League, Yang Hansen also greatly improved his own desire to take shots in official NBA games. After playing two garbage time games, he is currently taking as many as 20.5 shots per 36 minutes, and he is treated like a core center. Although the true shooting rate is currently a disastrous 41.5%, it is mainly due to the fact that his three-point output is large but completely inaccurate. There is a lot of room for recovery in the future.

In comparison, his most obvious improvement lies in the completion of two-pointers. After returning from the Development League, his two-point attempts reached 12.1 times every 36 minutes, and his shooting rate was 53.7%. Considering that most of Hexion's two-point shots are his own ball-handling offense, this shooting rate is enough to attract the opponent's help defense. In today's garbage time, Hexion also enjoyed the core defensive treatment of the Development League. After he gets the ball in the low post, the opponent will take the initiative to help defense or even double-team.

According to my personal statistics, Hexion made a total of 12 two-point shots in the three games after returning from the Development League. Among them, he made 4 of 5 low-post shots and scored two 2+1s, which was very efficient. He is used to catching the ball from the front and breaking through two steps before trying an underhand layup. However, the finishing touch of this move is obviously not very flexible so far. In addition, Hexion scored two out of four goals through air cuts or pick-and-roll catches. Both goals were beautiful dunks. Once he entered a comfortable eating area, Hexion's finishing efficiency was still very high.

In addition, Yang Hansen has taken 20.5 shots per 36 minutes in the past three sports games. This data even ranked first among all centers last season. It reflects that Yang Hansen has a very strong personal offensive desire, which is a very good thing in the jungle of the jungle. Although the shooting rate is still unsatisfactory, from the table above, the first-year Sarr is also a high-yield and low-efficiency player. His two-point shooting rate in the first season was only 45.4%. The same is true for Hexion. It is obviously impossible to expect him to make a positive contribution in his rookie season, but the key is to practice more and show his skills on the court. If there is no chance in the NBA, go to the Development League to train more. If you recall the Blazers and have the opportunity to play, you will be ready at all times and your progress will be very fast.

In addition to the number of personal shots, Hexion's more obvious improvement is reflected in the control of the backcourt and assists. As shown in the table above, Hexion grabbed 8.4 backcourt boards every 36 minutes after returning from the G League, which was completely opposite to his performance at the beginning of the season. Moreover, when he is on the court, the team's overall backcourt rebound rate can also increase by 5.5%, which shows that his personal control of rebounds is consistent with his influence on rebounds. We have already observed this in his two Development League games - against the background of significantly improved confrontation ability, the current Hexion has basically got rid of the previous habit of only blocking backcourt rebounds and not grabbing them. Now he is actively competing for rebounds, so the progress is also visible to the naked eye.

In terms of assists, after returning from the Development League, the coaching staff obviously gave more ball rights to Hexion, so he reached 6.5 assists every 36 minutes. Although it was a small sample, it also reflected Hexion's good center support level. What's more important is that while assists have increased, Hexion's turnover numbers have not increased, and the number of fouls has even been very well controlled. These are key improvements that can help him stay on the court more. Unfortunately, the growth in Hexion's personal assist numbers was not reflected in the team, and the assist rate on off dropped sharply. The Trail Blazers are indeed a team better at disrupting battles. If Hexion wants to get more possessions of the ball, it needs to start from the offensive end, improve the efficiency of the ball-handling offense, and attract more defensive attention from opponents.

Next, let’s look at the defensive end. Contrary to what many people say, Yang Hansen is actually a very active player on the defensive end. So far, the number of times he interferes with opponents’ shots every 36 minutes ranks second in the league, second only to Lively. First, let me explain the data called contested shots on the NBA official website. It records the number of times a defensive player presses forward and reaches out to try to block an offensive player before he takes a shot. This data is intended to quantify the player's effort and presence on the defensive end, so it is placed in the effort data column.

Generally speaking, shooting interference data is related to one's own defensive strategy and the player's own enthusiasm. From the table above, we can see that before playing in the G League, Hexion was mainly defensive on the court, so he interfered with two-point shots a lot. However, after returning from the G League, it is obvious that the number of times he interfered with three-point shots increased significantly. Judging from the impression on the court, he will often go outside to try to block the opponent's three-point shot, which shows that the coaching staff is beginning to try to get Hexion to adopt a defensive switching strategy instead of completely squatting.

Unfortunately, his active defensive end cannot make up for his slow reaction speed. When interfering with the opponent's shots, he is always half a beat slower. Therefore, the opponent's shooting rate is relatively high when facing his shots, especially the three-point shooting rate which remains at a high level of over 45%. If the defensive end wants to see a significant improvement in effectiveness, it will take a long process of training reaction speed.

In addition, Yang Hansen can currently complete 4.5 screen assists every 36 minutes, ranking 22nd in the league, which reflects his excellent screen quality. In the same team, Klingen's number is only 2.8 times per 36 minutes, and Lowe only has 2.0 times. This is the difference between them.. Judging from the skill package, Hexion is more suitable to partner with No. 1 players who like hand-off tactics and accurate shooting in positional battles. After Hexion's physical condition can adapt to the NBA, the Blazers have at least two different ways to use centers - Klingen's chaotic shooting and grabbing method and the positional battle 15 pick-and-roll method that is more suitable for Hexion.

So the future is bright, but we must first keep our feet on the ground before we can look up at the stars. In just one month, Hexion has already demonstrated his adaptability to the NBA. Let’s continue to work hard one step at a time~~