Trail Blazers Training Camp, Day 1: Donovan Clingan's First Day of School
The Blazers kicked off training camp with the first of two sessions on Tuesday.
📍 TUALATIN, Ore. — The Trail Blazers kicked off training camp on Tuesday with what everyone called a “first day of school” feel, and not a lot of action.
This year, Chauncey Billups is trying a new approach to the typical two-a-day practices teams do at the beginning of camp. The morning session was mostly non-contact walkthrough work. Tonight, things will get serious.
“I’m trying to simplify it and have it be kind of short early, so we can go longer in the evening,” Billups said. “That way, we can actually play and get after each other a lot more.”
Needless to say, No. 7 overall pick Donovan Clingan’s first day of NBA training camp under Billups is a little bit of a change of pace from practices under Dan Hurley at UConn.
“I’m pretty sure this is probably easy lifting for him,” Billups joked. “But obviously college and pro are very different as far as how long you can go, the things you can do as coach. It’ll be an easy adjustment for that.”
Clingan is enjoying the change.
“Coach Hurley is intense,” he said. “Chauncey’s great. I feel like it’s two different styles. Practices were definitely harder at UConn, for sure. Chauncey’s more laid-back. Danny’s intense. It’s two and a half hours of getting yelled at. I love both coaching styles. I haven’t been here too long, I’m still adapting to what they need me to do. But I love it here.”
In a crowded frontcourt with Deandre Ayton, Robert Williams III and Duop Reath, Clingan may not play much right away. But he’ll have every opportunity in training camp and during preseason. Since he got to Portland three years ago, Billups has taken an eat-what-you-kill approach to deciding minutes and rotations.
“We’ve got a lot of good guys that deserve to be out there,” Billups said. “But at the end of the day, I’m not going to be the one making the decision. It’s the players making the decision. How well you play, that’s probably how much you’re going to play, or if you’re in the rotation, or you’re starting. I’m just the messenger on that. Players decide that.”
Whether Clingan plays a lot early or not, he’ll have plenty of help adapting to the NBA.
“I think it’s going to be awesome for him,” Billups said. “He’s still so young. He’s a kid. To be able to learn from D.A. and sit back and listen to Rob, there’s so many guys. This is going to be an incredible experience for him, to learn not only from playing but be able to sit around listening.”
The team has tried to make it clear and obvious that Clingan isn't going to play much. Despite their best efforts of sending that message to fans, be prepared to hear a lot of people upset when the shiny new draft pick doesn't play. I question the wisdom of drafting a guy 7th overall that is going to be 3 or 4 deep at the center rotation but hey I'm not the GM and that's probably a discussion for another day.
Thanks as always for the coverage, Sean!
Hi Sean, nice summary of Day 1. In reading your summary, a thought and question came to mind. When Chauncey says something to the media, he is not only saying it to the media but to the players as well. So when Chauncey says, that the players will decide (based on actual performance) how the minutes are distributed. What does that really mean? On the one hand, it sounds like he's trying to establish a meritocracy. Which is a good thing.
As someone who closely follows the team. Is what Chauncey said, true? Is that how minutes are really distributed? On the surface, it doesn't seem as though that is the way minutes are distributed. For example, if actual performance was the determining factor in how many minutes you got, Scoot would not have played much last season. The decision about who gets and doesn't gets minutes, is much more complicated than just performance.