Donovan Clingan's Defense as Advertised in Summer League Debut
Despite an off shooting night, the Trail Blazers' lottery pick showed why he was one of the most coveted defensive prospects in the draft.
📍 LAS VEGAS — Simply by virtue of making it through the first game unscathed by injury, Donovan Clingan already had the best Summer League debut of any of the Trail Blazers’ recent lottery picks. And he showed some other stuff, too.
If Summer League game results matter to you, Portland lost 83-77 to San Antonio. They will have an uphill battle to win their second Vegas championship in three years.
If Summer League stats matter to you, Clingan had a rough night offensively. He finished with four points on 1-of-8 shooting, overshooting a few shots at the rim and overthinking the three three-pointers he took.
But if you came into the night hoping to see the best rim protector in college basketball the last two years at UConn make a similar defensive impact in his first test against professionals, you largely came away happy with what you saw.
Blazers assistant coach Jonah Herscu, who is serving as the head coach of the Summer League team, was happy with how the night went for the No. 7 overall pick. Clingan was not.
“I thought he was awesome,” Herscu said after the game. “I thought he protected the paint. His size really impacts the other team offensive end.”
Clingan finished the night with 13 rebounds and five blocks, which isn’t taking into account a handful of other layup and floater attempts by Spurs players that Clingan altered or deterred.
That’s a great debut for a player whose interior defense was his selling point in the draft. But Clingan didn’t see it that way.
“I feel like there were a couple shots around the rim that I could have contested better or blocked,” he said. “There were some floaters they made that I’m not happy with. I wish I’d rebounded the ball a little bit better in the first half.”
What about what he thought he did well?
“I’m hard on myself, so I’m going to say ‘nothing,’” Clingan said. “I protected the glass, I had a couple offensive rebounds, but I feel like I’ve got to rebound the ball better. I’ve got to finish stronger.”
Offensive struggles are hard to evaluate for big men in Summer League, especially when there are no NBA guards on the roster. More than anything else, this is why it would have been ideal for the team to let Scoot Henderson play at least the first couple of games in Las Vegas. If nobody is capable of getting Clingan the ball in the right spots, it’s tough to read too much into him not playing well at that end.
The much-talked-about three-point shooting might still be more of an idea than a reality. The three attempts from deep that Clingan took were all wide-open looks that missed badly. He’ll have plenty more opportunities to take them if teams are leaving him alone the way the Spurs’ defenders were on Saturday.
“He’s such a selfless player,” Herscu said. “He’s not concerned with scoring. That’s going to happen naturally. Protecting the rim, rebounding, making some plays offensively, that’s what he does.”
The things the Blazers came into Summer League hoping to see from Clingan were the things they saw. They drafted him to help shore up a defense that was second-worst in the league last season at protecting the rim. The purpose of Summer League is to catch glimpses of what a player can be when the games start to count. In Clingan’s Vegas debut, it was clear that he’ll be an impactful defender in his NBA career.
“I’ll have to watch the film to make sure, but I think it was a good first game for him to show what he’s capable of,” Herscu said.