2024 NBA Draft: Breaking Down Portland Trail Blazers Draft Class

The Portland Trail Blazers had one draft pick in this past draft and selected two time National Champion Donovan Clingan. How will he fit the organization?

The Portland Trail Blazers are in rebuild mode as they are doing their best to develop and build around their young player Scoot Henderson who will be going into his second year in the NBA. They had one only pick in this year’s draft.

Let’s dive into each selection they made and the summary of their draft.

No. 7: Donovan Clingan

Bob Donnan | USA Today

With their only draft pick this year the Trail Blazers drafted two-time national champion Donovan Clingan out of UConn. The 7-foot-2 center dominated the paint on both ends of the floor at the collegiate level and he played a huge role in UConn winning two national championships. Clingan is an elite interior defender who uses his size and length to block shots. He alters everything at the rim and intimidates players when they try finishing around him.

Most young big men struggle as post defenders, but Clingan is actually very advanced as a defender in the low post and should be able to contain post scorers in the NBA. He’s a lob threat at all times and is an efficient finisher around the rim. The Connecticut native has very strong hands and does a good job of catching balls with a lot of velocity on it.

He’s actually the second biggest player in this draft as he only trails the obvious Zach Edey in size. In the NBA you can rely on Clingan being a physical rebounder and a potential double-double guy if he ends up as a starter getting a lot of minutes.

Clingan plays with a lot of heart and toughness and that certainly means something. His major weakness is that he doesn’t have a ton of offensive versatility and projects to be an elite role player rather than a star player. He’s a poor ball-handler that doesn’t have a lot of moves in the low post. Clingan isn’t much of a factor outside of the paint as the numbers suggest he can’t shoot from out there. As long as Clingan stays healthy he should be one of the top paint players in the NBA.

Draft Summary

Again, the Blazers only had one draft pick in this year’s draft, and landing Clingan isn’t a bad option. The 7-foot-2 center should be a good fit next to Henderson due to his ability to finish plays at the rim and be an elite paint defender. Clingan’s feel for the game often gets overlooked but it’s clear the game comes easy to him. A big question that Portland needs to figure out soon is how will they manage all of these starting caliber centers on their roster.

They have Deandre Ayton who averaged 17 points and 11 rebounds this past season while starting in 55 games for the Blazers. Robert Williams has a bit of an injury history as he has only played 41 games in the past two seasons but when he’s out on the floor he’s an explosive center that makes a lot of winning plays out there. Before he got traded from the Boston Celtics he was their starting center for the last two seasons.

Now adding in the number seven pick they have three starting caliber centers -- none of which can share the court together due to their play styles. William could end up being the odd man out and traded solely due to his injury history. Portland really needs to make sure as many minutes are available as possible for Clingan so he can get comfortable right away in the NBA. Overall it was a solid draft for the Blazers as they got a winning center that will make winning plays in the NBA on both ends of the floor.

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