Hansen Yang and Lachlan Olbrich Impress at 2025 NBA Draft Combine

It's often silly to put a lot of stock into NBA Draft Combine scrimmages, but it does serve as a good chance to evaluate prospects in a new environment, especially those who played in an environment that can make it more difficult to gauge their NBA potential. Two players who did wonders for their draft stock at last week's combine scrimmages were big men Hansen Yang and Lachlan Olbrich.

Yang, a Chinese center who has dominated the CBA for two straight seasons now, is a recent pickup for Klutch Sports, and was mostly considered a late second-round pick for 2025. But at the combine, he showed off his size (7-foot-2 with shoes) and bulk (over 250 pounds). In the scrimmages, opposing bigs stood no chance of moving him off the block. He flexed his talent, too. Burying a three, finding teammates with quality bounce passes and lobs, and even had some impressive defensive possessions, too.

Yang didn't rebound exceptionally well, and still looked slow on a couple of occasions. But generally, he made clear that his dominance in the CBA is no fluke. He's a difficult cover for just about any potential matchup at this stage of his career, and should be considered much higher than late second-round in the 2025 NBA Draft. That is, if he stays in this class. Yang could return to China for another season, or potentially take an NCAA opportunity. A dominant NCAA season could see Yang enter lottery discussions in 2026.

Yang was not the only international big to impress; Australian center Olbrich was arguably the most impactful player at the combine. Olbrich finished with a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double on Wednesday, and his footwork and touch around the rim enabled him to torch anyone who dared try to shut him down on the interior. Olbrich is undersized, and doesn't stretch the floor, making it hard to fully buy into an NBA future for him, but his energy, physicality, work ethic, and efficient inside play caught the attention of plenty of NBA executives last week.

Olbrich is an auto-eligible international prospect in the 2025 class and while his physical limitations will likely keep him in late second-round conversations, he may have done enough to cement himself as either a second-round pick or guaranteed two-way contract post-draft. Olbrich had an excellent season with the Illawarra Hawks in the Australian NBL, but the NBL is a much smaller league than the NBA and thus did little to lower doubts about his physical limitations.

But what Olbrich did at last weeks scrimmages did help him in that regard, and increased his chances of joining fellow Aussies Alex Toohey and Rocco Zikarsky in hearing their names called on draft night.

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