7 hours ago 1

HoopsHype Overlooks Blazer Centers

While few would argue that the Portland Trail Blazers have an NBA top 10 center on the roster, how about if you expand it to 26 places? Frank Urbina and the HoopsHype staff did just that, listing their top 26 centers. If you are clicking on the link looking for Donovan Clingan, Robert Williams III, Yang Hansen, or Duop Reath, you aren’t going find them. Portland doesn’t get as much as a passing mention.

Are there really 26 centers in the NBA better than anyone on the Blazers? We have to keep in mind that all of the Blazers centers have serious strikes against them. Reath is probably fourth choice on the Blazers, so he’s not in the conversation. Yang hasn’t played a single minute of regulation NBA basketball, so he hasn’t earned the right to be considered. Williams has demonstrated everything necessary to be in the top 26, but he simply hasn’t been able to stay on the court. That leaves us with Clingan.

With just one season under his belt, Clingan has averaged 6.5 points, 1.6 blocks, and 7.9 rebounds in 19.8 minutes. That’s enough for Blazer fans to look forward to what he might become, but it would be a stretch to put him in the top 26. Every single player in the top 26 has a higher scoring average than Clingan. He does fair better when comparing his rebounds to some in the top 26, but Clingan’s 7.9 boards per game isn’t an elite number either. In terms of defense he averaged 1.6 blocks per game, tying him for ninth in the NBA. He was also seventh in total blocks in spite of playing hundreds of minutes fewer than everyone ahead of him. Objectively, his defense is extremely good under the basket. Where he struggled though was away from the basket. Teams that could drag Clingan out of the paint often found opportunities shooting over him or passing into the space he just vacated.

While it’s quite justifiable leaving Clingan out of the top 26, it’s clear that in terms of numbers he isn’t far away from making the list with modest improvement and more minutes. If he adds five minutes of playing per game along with another two points, two boards and a few tenths of a block per game, he’s in the conversation. But will that happen? If Williams is healthy those extra minutes might be hard to come by, especially if Yang gets off to a fast start. There is also no guarantee that Clingan’s numbers will improve. He certainly wouldn’t be the first sophomore to regress. Still, don’t bet against this being the last year for quite some time to come without a Blazers on this particular list. If Clingan doesn’t make it, perhaps Yang will.

Looking at who did make the list, Nikola Jokic was No. 1 one, followed by Victor Wembanyama, and Karl-Anthony Townes. Former Blazer Deandre Ayton just got in under the wire at No. 26.

This was the final installment in HoopsHype’s offseason positional rankings series. The Blazers had five players featured across all five positions: Jrue Holiday (No. 21 among point guards), Shaedon Sharpe (No. 17 among shooting guards), Deni Avdija (No. 10 among small forwards), Jerami Grant and Toumani Camara (No. 22 and No. 13, respectively, among power forwards).