Reporters Skeptical Blazers Will Keep 2 Young Stars in Portland Long-Term

Will the Blazers hold on to both these intriguing young prospects?

Jan 17, 2023; Denver, Colorado, USA; Detailed view of a Portland Trail Blazers logo warmup jersey before the game against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

When the Portland Trail Blazers opted to use the No. 7 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft on a starry young center, 7-foot-2 former UConn champ Donovan Clingan, eyebrows were raised among the Portland faithful. That's because Portland just offloaded significant capital to acquire former 2018 No. 1 draft pick Deandre Ayton in a trade last summer, and Ayton is owed a boatload of money. But Clingan is a lottery pick on what's sure to be a bad time, and he'll surely be deserving of playing time.

During a fresh, center-themed episode of The Oregonian's Blazer Focused podcast, Aaron Fentress explained to cohost Craig Birnbach why he believes that one of Ayton or Clingan will have been traded by the time Ayton's next contract starts in the 2026-27 season.

"If Ayton's truly ready to turn the corner, and be 'DominAyton' like he was the final two months, I would assume that he would take this [Clignan draft pick] as a slap in the face," Fentress said. "That said, if the Blazers' 100 percent goal was, 'Look, we're taking the best player available regardless of position, and yeah, maybe we end up trading Clingan and keeping Ayton, who knows, we'll see what happens, blah blah blah, or at the very worst, we'll have a really good backup center' — which is not out of the question, because it's the type of draft where you're probably drafting backups anyway. Most people have said there might only be two or three legit, impact starters in this entire draft."

"So how that works out remains to be seen, but I just don't believe that those two will both be on the team two years from now... I imagine Ayton will be traded before he finishes the final year of his deal. You're not moving forward beyond that mark with those two on the roster, because... if Ayton's good, you've got to pay him. So you've got to unload a lot of money, he's not going to take a pay cut unless he has no other options. And if that's the case, that means he didn't play well, which means why are you keeping him anyway? You've just got to let him walk."

Ayton has two years and $69.6 million left on the four-season, $132.9 million maximum contract he agreed to while still with the Phoenix Suns in 2022. The 7-foot Arizona product averaged 16.7 points on 57 percent shooting from the floor and 82.3 percent shooting from the charity stripe across 55 contests last season (all starts), along with 11.1 boards, 1.6 dimes, 1.0 swipes and 0.8 rejections. Although he had promised that he would be unleashed as a newly re-branded "DominAyton" on the lowly Blazers, his scoring instead took a dip in efficiency and frequency from where it had been across the prior two seasons in Phoenix. Ayton had connected on 63.4 percent of his field goal attempts in 2021-22, averaging 17.2 points, while logging 18.0 points on 58.9 percent shooting in 2022-23.

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