Game 54: Portland vs Denver 6:00pm Chargetv and KUNP

[zzaj]

I feel that DC isnt getting enough love for this game.

17 / 20 / 2 / 3

He is 20, clearly not physically developed and still working on conditioning. When he gets over 24mpg he is at -

10.6ppg / 14.4rpg / 3.6bpg

Edey - 2 years older, much better conditioned and far more developed is at this when playing over 24mpg -

14.3ppg / 10.6rpg / 1.8bpg

Those are pretty insane numbers for DC. He is basically already a guaranteed elite rebounder and shotblocker long term. Its very unlikely that those traits dont scale with bigger minutes. Obviously he needs to work on offense, conditioning and fouls but he looks like, at minimum, a capable low usage starting big. And thats if he doesnt develop past where he is now, at age 20.

I have not seen less excitement for a Top-10 Blazers picks producing at this level in recent memory. The kid is really promising.

Yep, agreed. And playing in altitude in Denver--no small feat.

I think the lack of love is partially due to not playing big enough minutes to get in a flow, and partially because the NBA trains fans to only love offense.

Also...we're Blazer fans. We've grown accustomed to being very cautious around bigs.

Scoot and Deni are the only players I'm really that invested in watching, honestly. I REALLY am interested to see what an actual offseason will look like for Clingan, where he gets to work specifically on his body and functional parts of his game.

[DusterBuster]

Everyone keeps talking about how Clingan isn't conditioned yet for NBA minutes... it's almost like if he could have been given those 30mpg from the jump, he could have been in NBA condition by now... but I'm just a silly little fan, so what do I know.

[BNM]

Everyone keeps talking about how Clingan isn't conditioned yet for NBA minutes... it's almost like if he could have been given those 30mpg from the jump, he could have been in NBA condition by now... but I'm just a silly little fan, so what do I know.

Or, maybe Chauncey just needs to tell him to play harder.

From the Chaincey Billups Masterclass: How to Develop NBA Talent:

1) Play Harder
2) The End

[Wizenheimer]

Everyone keeps talking about how Clingan isn't conditioned yet for NBA minutes... it's almost like if he could have been given those 30mpg from the jump, he could have been in NBA condition by now... but I'm just a silly little fan, so what do I know.

last night, Clingan played 31 minutes at a mile-high elevation. And he was in enough shape to still be rebounding at an elite level at the end of the game. A player is not going to get 10 offensive rebounds, on the road, if he's out of shape. He may not be in optimal shape,but dominating the offensive glass takes maximum effort, and while he had 10 of those boards, the entire Nugget team had 12, and they are used to the elevation

getting in game shape actually requires game minutes. [i]Consistent[/i], ample game minutes and Clingan has had neither. Look at the minutes over his last 10 games:

17:37
20:20
10:37
7:44
11:06
9:34
16:53
5:52
21:09
31:00

that is way too inconsistent of minutes to a 1st year Big if the goal is to get him in optimal shape while developing him

if Clingan isn't in great shape, and I think the level of shape he is in is being exaggerated downward, then a lot of the blame is on Chauncey, not Clingan

[Norm2953]

He's going to get a chance to play in the remaining games of the season for Ayton is going to
be down for at least 4 weeks with his calf sprain and in all likelihood will end up sitting
with the season just about over.

[zzaj]

Yep, 4 weeks until re-eval for Ayton. My money is on him not playing the rest of the season.

Clingan was noticeably huffing hard last night, and at one point signaled to be taken out. He's pretty obviously not in game-shape, and how could he be with sub 20 minutes most of the season, and only then every other game.

[Walton1one]

Read on Twitter

[DusterBuster]

Everyone keeps talking about how Clingan isn't conditioned yet for NBA minutes... it's almost like if he could have been given those 30mpg from the jump, he could have been in NBA condition by now... but I'm just a silly little fan, so what do I know.

last night, Clingan played 31 minutes at a mile-high elevation. And he was in enough shape to still be rebounding at an elite level at the end of the game. A player is not going to get 10 offensive rebounds, on the road, if he's out of shape. He may not be in optimal shape,but dominating the offensive glass takes maximum effort, and while he had 10 of those boards, the entire Nugget team had 12, and they are used to the elevation

getting in game shape actually requires game minutes. [i]Consistent[/i], ample game minutes and Clingan has had neither. Look at the minutes over his last 10 games:

17:37
20:20
10:37
7:44
11:06
9:34
16:53
5:52
21:09
31:00

that is way too inconsistent of minutes to a 1st year Big if the goal is to get him in optimal shape while developing him

if Clingan isn't in great shape, and I think the level of shape he is in is being exaggerated downward, then a lot of the blame is on Chauncey, not Clingan

Preaching to the GD choir my guy!

[Wizenheimer]

Yep, 4 weeks until re-eval for Ayton. My money is on him not playing the rest of the season.

Clingan was noticeably huffing hard last night, and at one point signaled to be taken out. He's pretty obviously not in game-shape, and how could he be with sub 20 minutes most of the season, and only then every other game.

the only time I saw him 'huffing' any more than Jokic huffs was right after Braun had aggressively slammed into Clingan's torso, hard. I think that huffing was from that impact

[zzaj]

Yep, 4 weeks until re-eval for Ayton. My money is on him not playing the rest of the season.

Clingan was noticeably huffing hard last night, and at one point signaled to be taken out. He's pretty obviously not in game-shape, and how could he be with sub 20 minutes most of the season, and only then every other game.

the only time I saw him 'huffing' any more than Jokic huffs was right after Braun had aggressively slammed into Clingan's torso, hard. I think that huffing was from that impact

Oh that could very well be…it seemed like the TV guys were talking about something, based on the camera shots, but I watch with sound off—any time I decide to turn it on to hear about a challenge or something, the announcers seem to be talking about something completely unrelated to the game. Drives me nuts…

[Wizenheimer]

Yep, 4 weeks until re-eval for Ayton. My money is on him not playing the rest of the season.

Clingan was noticeably huffing hard last night, and at one point signaled to be taken out. He's pretty obviously not in game-shape, and how could he be with sub 20 minutes most of the season, and only then every other game.

the only time I saw him 'huffing' any more than Jokic huffs was right after Braun had aggressively slammed into Clingan's torso, hard. I think that huffing was from that impact

Oh that could very well be…it seemed like the TV guys were talking about something, based on the camera shots, but I watch with sound off—any time I decide to turn it on to hear about a challenge or something, the announcers seem to be talking about something completely unrelated to the game. Drives me nuts…

Blazer broadcasting is at best, barely mediocre; most of the time it's worse than that

and that Hammerstroh stats guys is obnoxious (LOL...ain't that some irony...me complaining about a stats guy). He's obviously been tasked with digging up wishful-thinking stats on the Blazers and most of the off-the-wall numbers he comes up with are meaningless. For example "Avdija's And+1 numbers just scream all-star!!!"....geeeezuzzz

if you bought the syrup Blazer broadcasting was selling about the Blazers most of the time, you'd think Portland was a top-5 seed in the league with a decent shot at the Finals. Brooke is OK though

[zzaj]

the only time I saw him 'huffing' any more than Jokic huffs was right after Braun had aggressively slammed into Clingan's torso, hard. I think that huffing was from that impact

Oh that could very well be…it seemed like the TV guys were talking about something, based on the camera shots, but I watch with sound off—any time I decide to turn it on to hear about a challenge or something, the announcers seem to be talking about something completely unrelated to the game. Drives me nuts…

Blazer broadcasting is at best, barely mediocre; most of the time it's worse than that

and that Hammerstroh stats guys is obnoxious (LOL...ain't that some irony...me complaining about a stats guy). He's obviously been tasked with digging up wishful-thinking stats on the Blazers and most of the off-the-wall numbers he comes up with are meaningless. For example "Avdija's And+1 numbers just scream all-star!!!"....geeeezuzzz

if you bought the syrup Blazer broadcasting was selling about the Blazers most of the time, you'd think Portland was a top-5 seed in the league with a decent shot at the Finals. Brooke is OK though

I see him mouthing away, but I know better than to turn the sound on. He gets a lot of heat here, but I actually liked Mike Rice. He had just enough of "coach realism" in him to fend off the complete homer-ism. And yeah, he had some good insight as a former coach.

I always listened to Wheeler because he at least went ALL THE WAY and made games exciting. He also could be real if the team was playing poorly.

[Wizenheimer]

Oh that could very well be…it seemed like the TV guys were talking about something, based on the camera shots, but I watch with sound off—any time I decide to turn it on to hear about a challenge or something, the announcers seem to be talking about something completely unrelated to the game. Drives me nuts…

Blazer broadcasting is at best, barely mediocre; most of the time it's worse than that

and that Hammerstroh stats guys is obnoxious (LOL...ain't that some irony...me complaining about a stats guy). He's obviously been tasked with digging up wishful-thinking stats on the Blazers and most of the off-the-wall numbers he comes up with are meaningless. For example "Avdija's And+1 numbers just scream all-star!!!"....geeeezuzzz

if you bought the syrup Blazer broadcasting was selling about the Blazers most of the time, you'd think Portland was a top-5 seed in the league with a decent shot at the Finals. Brooke is OK though

I see him mouthing away, but I know better than to turn the sound on. He gets a lot of heat here, but I actually liked Mike Rice. He had just enough of "coach realism" in him to fend off the complete homer-ism. And yeah, he had some good insight as a former coach.

I always listened to Wheeler because he at least went ALL THE WAY and made games exciting. He also could be real if the team was playing poorly.

I liked Mike & Mike

[Shem]

So, other than telling them to play harder, a coach has zero responsibility for developing young players on his roster?

For a young team that drafted three players ages 19, 19 and 20 in the lottery the last three years, developing that young talent should be the highest priority. Nothing else should come close. Instead, Chauncey plays his veterans huge minutes to get meaningless wins in a desperate attempt to save his job.

Just look at the recent streak of 10 wins in 11 games. Who played the most minutes, took the most shots and scored the most points? Simons, Ayton and Grant. Why???? Did we "need" those wins more than developing our young players? Hell no.

Were we "showcasing' those veterans in hope of getting something back in trade? Why??? The entire league knows exactly who Anfernee Simons, Deandre Ayton and Jerami Grant are. And in the end, all three are still taking up roster spots and taking minutes and opportunities away from our young lottery picks.

And what did we gain - we hurt our chances of landing a franchise player in the 2025 draft. Thanks Chauncey.

Young players need playing time to develop. The only games Clingan has started have been when Ayton has been injured, and in the games He's started when Robert Williams was available, Williams played more minutes. Again, Chauncey valuing veterans and winning over developing the young players.

Clingan has played more than 23 minutes only 5 times all season. In those 5 games, the only other available center on the POR roster was Duop Reath. That's inexcusable. Clingan should be averaging over 24 MPG. He needs to learn to play effective defense without fouling. Don't yank him as soon as he picks up two quick fouls. Leave him in the game so he can learn to use his fouls more wisely. Worst case, he fouls out a few times. So what? We should not prioritize winning now with the veterans over developing the young players, but that's exactly what Chauncey is doing. The only time Chauncey plays Clingan significant minutes is when he has no other choice.]

Read on Twitter

Let's just say up until recently Clingan has been playing poorly. He injured his right knee at Houston after playing well and he hadn't look the same for a while until recently. Even though he's slow, he was slower. I seriously would point out at times how Clingan has not looked the same since the injury. Did you not see in some games where Clingan would be in for like 3-5 minutes and signal Billups to take him out of the game at times between coming back from his right-knee injury and recently?

BTW, speaking of Batum... if he had Wesley Matthews' personality, he would have been an all-star.

Enough with the strawmen. Try to focus and stay on topic. Your tales of Nate McMillian, Terry Stotts, Nic Batum and Wes Matthews are nostalgic, but irrelevant. BTW, as much as they wore out their welcome in POR, I'd gladly take Terry Stotts or Nate McMillian today over Chauncey Billups. That's just damning them with faint praise, as neither would be in my top 50 candidates for next Blazers head coach.

You mean you can't tell the difference between an example and a strawman when referring to Sharpe's laidback personality? May I suggest a vocab book for your next birthday.

If you really think about it, coaches always try to win. Even if that means playing veterans. Especially ones that get paid a lot. That's the politics of professional sports. Most of your frustration should be on Joe Cronin like Wizenheimer has been doing because he understand the politics of rotations in pro sports.

While Cronin has done some good things in the draft and trades (like Deni), he also made have overvalued some of the vets by holding back a trade to the Lakers with Jerami Grant by saying he wanted two 1st rounders instead of one. Now, those 1st rounders have been traded away by the Lakers to get Luka and another person (in another deal) I can't think of off the top of my head and don't feel like looking it up.

I can live with Ayton over Grant and Simons at this moment in terms of need of development of the young guys. Simons is in Scoot's way for sure.

And think about it. Ayton is going to be out for at least a month and don't be surprised that he's shutdown for the rest of the season for Clingan's development. Grant never usually plays much or at all in March during his time here so far. He'll get shutdown and Ant will too. With Ayton probably out for the rest of the year, that means Walker will get more minutes because we need size backup and Time Lord is too injury prone to be a consistent backup to Clingan.

But here's another problem you aren't addressing. It's likely Clingan is going to another injury prone big. Do you really think he's going to be injury free for the rest of the season and play every game until the regular season closes in April?