Welcome to Portland, Donovan Clingan!

wut? you're gauging by playoff "dominance"? That's not just moving goal posts, it's loading them in a cargo plane and dropping them off in Timbuktu...at night...after drinking everclear. Nobody ever said Gobert was a dominant playoff presence; just that he's been solid and impactful

try this: In Gobert's 82 game playoff career, his PER is 18.6 and winshare/48 is 1.71; those are better than any Blazer last season (other than Timelord). Gobert has averaged 12 & 11 in the playoffs. And he's altered a lot of opponent shots. While he's not Wilt or Hakeem or Duncan, that doesn't mean that Clingan can't be like Gobert

 

I agree. I also agree with the statement you made earlier about the center position.
I certainly hope Clingan can get as good as Gobert. That would really be awesome.

 

Pretty widely accepted that he doesn’t match well against teams in the playoffs.
If Clingan can give half of what he brings in the regular season I’m good with that.
The point of the original post was that the Blazers should look to help themselves at the center position.
Maybe you don’t agree with that?

 

"widely accepted" by who?

Clippers 2017 (injured & missed 2 games; avg 8-7)
Warriors 2017 (avg 16-13)
OKC 2018 (avg 14-11)
Houston 2018 (avg 12-10)
Houston 2019 (avg 11-10)
Denver 2020 (avg 17-11)
Memphis 2021 (avg 17-13)
Clippers 2021 (avg 13-12)
Dallas 2022 (avg 12-13)
Denver 2023 (avg 15-12)
Phoenix 2024 (avg 15-11)
Denver 2024 (avg 10-11)
Dallas 2024 (avg 12-8)
Lakers 2025 (avg 8-10)
Warriors 2025 (avg 10-9)
OKC 2025 (avg 5-6)

for 12 straight playoff series over an 8 year stretch he averaged a double-double. He averaged 17 points twice and 13 rebounds twice. Yes, he appears to be slowing down based upon the small sample size of the OKC series and the earlier series this season, but he's essentially 33. There are 12 years separating where Gobert is and where Clingan is

bluntly speaking, the notion that Gobert has ever been 'played of the floor' in the playoffs is myth. There might have been a game, here or there, where his matchup was bad and he was replaces for a quarter. But over the course of 15 playoff series in 9 years, no team has forced him to the bench.

I would agree it's probably fair to question the Clingan-->Gobert comp at this point. Gobert is a 4 time DPOY. That's elite talent

 

At this point, I’d say that it’s less of a comparison than an aspiration. Donovan has the size, rebounding and shot blocking instincts that make it a reasonable thing for him to build his game in Gobert’s model.

 

Im more concerned about Shaedons three and the teams overall shooting, then Clingans game right now. If Shae wants to be an all star in this league he better become a more consistent shooter. He's going into his 4th year and this team is still one of the worse shooting teams in the league.

 

Man some of you sure don’t know what letting the cake bake looks like… calling him a career backup when he only just finished his rookie season. I think he will continue to grow as a player as he matures into a grown man. What is he 20? Give the kid some time to learn the pro game and get another year or two of NBA weight training and professional recovery treatment.

Really don’t get the doom and gloom chicken little bs around here.

 

Not taking as many stupid 3's as he does would be a good start, being selective would be nice to see, no reason he can't learn that if he wants to

 

We will soon find out....

 

How many of those series did his team win?
Just curious?

 

Hope so. Certainly if he can get a decent mid range and three point shot. He will be much better.
That was in my original statement. He will be better than Gobert also if that happens.
The original statement was about the pick this year. I think they should consider strengthening the center position because there is a chance he won’t be much better than Nurk.

 

7

 

As I said above. It would be a huge win for Clingan to ever put up numbers like Gobert so don't get me wrong here.
However I wonder if that is why some people are saying his impact is less? We all know JJ Hickson was a double double machine but it didn't translate to wins. Because we are talking about winning 7 of 16 series.
Your question is "Widely accepted by who?"
Pretty sure you can go back to a bunch of statements made here that he gets played off the court in big games and we have seen it here this season. He did have a decent couple game vs the Lakers but we all know Luka was battling a couple nagging injuries and Lebron is 40. Then we have the Warriors. Pretty sure if Curry is healthy Gobert is way less effective. Not sure they win that series if Steph is playing.
Now we are seeing OKC. Your own numbers have him averaging 5 pts and 6 rebs.
I can give you the point that Gobert is now 32 years old though I've always felt 32 was in their prime or at least at the end of their prime.

Even in their big win yesterday he ended up with 7 points and 7 rebounds. He did play comparable starter minutes with 28 as they played a number of bench players.

 

Only Clingan and Kessler were top 6 in both rebounds/36 and blocks/36:
https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2025_per_minute.html

I'm not sure how people measure "empty stats", but his certainly weren't. Consider this:
Clingan on/off per 100 possessions: +3.9
Blazers +/- per GAME: -3.0

On average, the Blazers outscored their opponents when Clingan was on the court, and were outscored when he wasn't, and the difference was a substantial 3.9 pts/100 possessions.
https://www.cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/5342/onoff#tab-team_efficiency

Making some semi-random comparisons...

Ayton on/off per 100 possessions: -6.4
https://www.cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/4446/onoff#tab-team_efficiency

Gobert on/off per 100 possessions: +3.9 (Interestingly, same as Clingan. I won't bring up their salaries or number of draft picks used to get them...)
https://www.cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/1310/onoff#tab-team_efficiency

Conclusion:
If you don't think Clingan is crazy good, then the emotional toll of being a Blazers fans has corrupted your eyesight, and I am truly sorry for you.

 

Clingan was great defensively and fine on offense. Might be better in year 2, I'm excited to see.

Ayton was horrific last season, so glad he's off the team. I wouldn't be shocked if he plays fine to start the year with the Lakers, has some big stats, but he's not a winning player.

Huge upgrade we get with Clingan starting.

 

Absolutely agree, but setting great screens is an important part of offense, which he's amazing at. However, yes, he's not great at putting the ball in the basket.

 

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45862189/most-interesting-sophomores-watch-2025-26-nba-season


5. Donovan Clingan, Portland Trail Blazers

Rookie season superlative: Clingan led the rookie class in blocks per game (1.6) and made the All-Rookie second team, averaging 6.5 points and 7.9 rebounds in just 19.8 minutes and shooting 53%. His per-minute production and defensive impact were significant, pointing to a bright future as a rim-protecting anchor on the Blazers' backline.

Why he's ranked here: The Trail Blazers seemingly cleared the way for Clingan and draftee Yang Hansen to share time at center next season -- Robert Williams III is still around, but could make sense as an eventual trade candidate on his expiring contract. It will be interesting to see how those minutes ultimately get divided based on performance. Clingan is deserving of the lion's share but also needs to improve his conditioning to handle bulk minutes. The fact that he started the final 27 games of the season is probably a fair indicator that he's up next.

As an aside, whether the Blazers experiment with Clingan and Yang together in double-big lineups will be something to watch. On paper, that fit is clunky, but considering Portland's apparent long-term investment in both players, there's at least some argument for finding out what it looks like. All things considered, Clingan is due for an expanded role and could solidify himself as one of the NBA's better interior defenders in short order.

 

Empty stats = Team didn't draft who I wanted

 

I think that I’ve been in the game long enough to know that it’s not always gonna be the brightest or the best or the easiest, whatever you want to say, but I think coming to a team and an organization that has the character of this team and organization makes basketball great. That’s why you want to come here and you want to play because you feel like you’re a part of something bigger than yourself. You feel like you’re a part of a bigger team and a bigger purpose.”....Jrue Holiday
liking the post for this jrue quote. got soul.