The Portland Trail Blazers moved on from their starting center last summer and reached a buyout agreement with Deandre Ayton. It turned out to be an additive move, leading to Donovan Clingan’s breakout sophomore year. Portland’s former No. 7 overall pick already performed well enough in his All-Rookie campaign to earn a starting role. But the decision seems better than ever, as Clingan is playing the best basketball of his promising young career.
In 15 games after the All-Star break, the Blazers big man is averaging 15.3 points, 12.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.1 blocks per game. Did we mention he’s shooting 39.3% from beyond the arc on a high volume of 3.7 attempts per game?
There are only a few centers in the league who are capable of providing as much two-way impact as Portland’s center. Clingan is arguably already a top-10 center in the league and is only getting better at just 22 years old. He has emerged as the second most important player in this entire Blazers rebuild, solidifying himself as a building block alongside Deni Avdija.
Donovan Clingan is proving the Blazers right to build around him
Analytics will tell you that the two best shots in basketball are the three-pointer and anything around the rim. Somehow there is a hub in Portland that is now thriving in both areas. Clingan’s excellent rebounding and rim protection was expected, but the two-way impact he has made on this team with his floor spacing has been invaluable. This was a guy who shot 28.6% on just 0.7 attempts per game last season. We keep waiting for Klingon to return to the mean, but the more he increases his sample size, the more we believe this is the same player he is now.
Clingan individually deserves a lot of credit for this major breakout sophomore year, especially when it comes to improving his shooting and conditioning levels. He made a point of improving his conditioning over the summer and you can see how much it has helped him this season.
But the Blazers also deserve credit for prioritizing Klingon. This is a team that had playoff aspirations heading into the season and could easily keep Ayton on their roster. Although they forfeited $10 million of his remaining salary, they are actually paying the price for not keeping him. Despite Ayton’s flaws, it’s less about Ayton and more about how much they believed in the Klingons.
The timing of Klingon’s personal improvement and increased role seems to be aligning well. Knowing the Klingons, this breakout was probably always inevitable. But Portland certainly helped speed up the process by moving on from Ayton last offseason, a decision that feels better than ever given the way their new starting center has played recently.
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