Donovan Clingan Shines in First Preseason Start as Trail Blazers Blow Out Jazz

📍 PORTLAND, Ore. — One of the only rebounds Donovan Clingan didn’t get in the Trail Blazers’ preseason finale on Friday was in the first three minutes.

Collin Sexton missed a pull-up jumper, and Walker Kessler outdueled Clingan for the rebound, which led to a second-chance three by Keyonte George. Chauncey Billups wasn’t having it, and let the rookie know about it at the next timeout.

“He said to me, ‘D.C., you can’t grab that rebound?’” Clingan said after the game. “So I made sure I grabbed every other one.”

Billups may not run his practices like Clingan’s coach at UConn, Dan Hurley, but he’ll call guys out for mistakes like that.

“I love it,” Clingan said. “I want to be pushed. I want someone to be hard on me. That’s what I like. That’s how you be great.”

Making his first start of preseason with Deandre Ayton getting the night off, Clingan played 24 minutes and finished with 14 points, 20 rebounds, four assists and four blocks in Portland’s blowout win over Utah.

The 24 minutes are the most Clingan played in four preseason games, about in line with the 22.5 minutes per game he averaged last season in college.

“I wanted to push his minutes more tonight,” Billups said. “And even when he got tired, keep an eye on him, but push him. I thought he did a really good job. What impressed me the most was, even when he got tired, he kept talking.”

(Clingan, for what it’s worth, said he felt “great.”)

Most of his scoring came around the basket, although he did hit one shot from three-point range (his foot was on the line). Offensively, he’s still very much a work in progress. Throughout the preseason, he’s been hesitant to use his overpowering physicality to his advantage and move defenders out of the way. Friday against the Jazz was a step forward in that regard, but his ceiling on that end of the floor is yet to be determined.

The organization is OK with a long runway for Clingan in his rookie season. Even with Ayton resting, he only played 24 minutes. That will be less when the season starts, and that’s before considering that Robert Williams III is currently expected to be back, if not opening night, then close to it. Clingan has time to work his way into the kind of shape, and develop the tools, to be what the Blazers ultimately believe he can be.

Those things are going to take time. But the things Clingan was good at in college—rebounding, blocking shots and screening—he’s been good at so far against NBA competition.

“He’s about where I thought he’d be,” Billups said. “He’s young, he has no experience. But he does two things right off the top. He rebounds—and for his size, he does a good job of rebounding outside of his area. Not just the ones that come to him. And then his rim protection. I think right now, the speed of some of these guys surprises him. Where he’d easily block those [shots] in college, they’re getting over him. So the speed of the game he has to catch up to. But those two things, he’ll be pretty elite at. He’ll only get better.”