PORTLAND, Ore. — It was Thursday morning, hours after the end of the first round of the NBA draft, when Portland Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin knew he had to call up veteran center Deandre Ayton. The day before, Cronin used the seventh pick to draft Connecticut center Donovan Clingan. Knowing how egos and feelings can be bruised when teams draft announced players, the general manager of the Blazers wanted to make contact with his starter for the 2023-24 season.
When Cronin reached Ayton, who trains with the Bahamas national team, he said there was no steam coming from the other end of the line. No passive-aggressive silence. No insecurity about his position.
“Deandre was incredibly excited,” Cronin said.
All the questions Ayton could have asked: Why did you choose a center? …Is he replacing me? …What does this mean for me? – were rather formulated in a positive tone.
“He said, ‘OK, where can we take this?’” Cronin said. “(He asked) How can he help me? How can I help him? What can we do together? His attitude was great about the whole situation.”
The phone conversation goes a long way toward addressing a murky picture at center for the Blazers, who also have veteran Robert Williams III and second-year sharpshooter Duop Reath.
After spending much of last fall and early winter frustrated by Ayton’s missed rehab appointments, lateness to practice and temper tantrums, the franchise is now celebrating Ayton as a building block. While Cronin can’t say for sure what’s in store for the Blazers’ roster in the coming weeks, there’s a strong indication that Ayton will be at the heart of everything the Blazers do next season.
To start, coach Chauncey Billups is preparing to fly to Valencia, Spain, to watch and support Ayton as the Bahamas compete in the FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament. Billups will be in the stands when the Bahamas open play against Finland on Tuesday. As Billups talks with Ayton, it will likely be to talk about expanding his role next season. Billups said Saturday Athleticism He plans to experiment next season with the 7-foot Ayton at power forward and the 7-foot-2 Clingan at center. He also said he continues to encourage Ayton to expand his steady mid-range jumper to perhaps incorporate a 3-point shot.
“I’m willing to try things,” Billups said. “Several teams are playing big – Cleveland, Denver, Memphis… I’m going to try to have (Clingan) and DA together. But it depends who is on the ground. Is it Jaren Jackson? Is this Aaron Gordon? Is this Evan Mobley?
Billups nods and continues: “What I’m not going to do is put him out there to guard Jayson Tatum. Or Kevin Durant… it’s going to be situational. But I’m telling you, I think the league is going to try to expand inside. So, I think it’ll be fun.”
It’s too early to say for sure whether the Blazers will enter September training camp with Ayton and Clingan. The Blazers have a maximum of 15 players under contract, but Cronin said The Athletic he remains in a proactive mode of upgrading the workforce.
“I’m constantly looking for ways to improve,” Cronin said. “That’s my challenge. We’re not good enough yet. We have to improve. We love what we have accomplished, but we cannot rest. We must continue to move forward. A lot of what we do is player development… you know, we have a lot of young guys that we need to prepare. But our challenge is also to attract as many high-level players as possible.
Still, it’s become clear that Portland is intrigued by what an Ayton-Clingan duo can accomplish, whether together or in a pack.
Billups was quick to point out the Blazers’ last-place finish in basket protection last season, so he was thrilled when Clingan — who won a title in his last four years playing basketball (two in high school, two in Connecticut) — slipped to the Blazers in seventh overall.
“Our rim defense was a problem for us, we struggled there,” Billups said. “So I like what we did. We went out and got the best in the draft to protect the rim.
Billups said he will use the same drop defense he used last season (center drops to the basket while defending the pick-and-roll), when Portland ranked 23rd out of 30 teams in defensive efficiency. Dropping to protect the rim is Clingan’s strength, which is accentuated by his ability to stay vertical, a skill he said was honed by Connecticut coach Dan Hurley. Clingan said his drive to play elite defense comes from his mother, Stacey, who died of breast cancer when he was in eighth grade. His mother was a three-time Maine conference player of the year.
“My mother always told me that defense wins ball games; offense sells tickets,” Clingan said Saturday during his introductory press conference in Portland. “So you have to play good defense to win games, and I want to win games. I’ll take a block off the backboard on a dunk any day of the week.
That’s why Billups said the Blazers’ defensive principles this season will remain the same, but he expects different results.
“He’s going to spend a lot of time with that red paint under his feet for our defense,” Billups said of Clingan. “I think most teams will reconsider attacking our paint … it’ll change it.”
Billups said he also envisions Ayton and Clingan giving the Blazers an edge. Ayton, of course, is a top-notch mid-range shooter. Last season, Ayton made 55.2 percent of his 2-point shots from 16 feet and beyond. But what many may not know is Clingan’s shooting ability. During his pre-workout in Portland, Clingan stunned the Blazers with his outside shooting, which included NBA-best 3-pointers.
“I was shocked. Really shocked,” Billups said. “He shot it, and it was like… an easy shot.”
After practice, Billups took Clingan into his office and interviewed him. One of his first questions of Clingan was why he had only attempted nine 3-pointers in two seasons at UConn.
“He gave me one of the best answers a kid could have given me: He said, ‘I just wanted to do what coach needed me to do to win.’ And for me, it’s just a winner.
Billups said Clingan will enter the season with the green light to shoot 3-pointers, as long as it’s open and it’s a smart shot. With the Blazers building around Shaedon Sharpe and Scoot Henderson, two players who like to attack the basket, Billups said it’s critical for the Blazers to have big men who can space the court.
“Understanding that we’re going to attack the basket, giving Clingan space … their big guy is going to have to make a decision (stop the drive or defend the outside shot),” Billups said. “And that’s a weapon you can use. So it’ll be fun for me to design things to have that, because even late last year I was talking to DA about expanding his range.”
Cronin and Billups also noted that Clingan is an underrated passer who has a deep understanding of the nuances and feel of the game. All of which explains why Clingan has so much appeal to the Blazers — and to Ayton.
“At the end of the day, that’s the only thing that matters to me: winning,” Clingan said. “It’s not the points, it’s not the rebounds.
“It’s like my team wins and yours loses. »
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(Photo of Joe Cronin, Donovan Clingan and Chauncey Billups: Cameron Browne/NBAE via Getty Images)