Blazers strike big with Clingan, Avdija via draft, trade

Joe Cronin said it was “a cool moment” when the Blazers realized their hopes to land UConn center Donovan Clingan had come to fruition

Updated 6/24/2024 7:35 PM

Joe Cronin met the media with a smile and an easy-going nature following Wednesday night’s first day of the NBA draft.

I’m pretty sure the Trail Blazers’ general manager felt like he hit a home run with the day’s bounty — sophomore center Donovan Clingan from two-time national champion Connecticut with the No. 7 pick in the draft, and Washington Wizards forward Deni Avdija.

After winning a pair of NCAA titles at UConn, Blazers draft pick Donovan Clingan said he wants to “bring championships back to Portland (courtesy Trail Blazers)

And maybe he did. Most experts considered the 7-2, 280-pound Clingan, 20, the premier big man in the draft, albeit in what is considered a weak draft class. The 6-9, 210-pound Avdija, 23, started last season for the Washington Wizards, averaging 14.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.8 assists. It’s possible he is a star in the making.

The problem is, it feels like the Blazers are down six runs in the seventh inning.

Portland is set up to fail — tank, if you will — for a fourth straight season in 2024-25. Blazer management will try to ensure that the team finishes with the poorest record possible to position itself nicely in the Cooper Flagg (or Ace Bailey) Sweepstakes. If that doesn’t bother you, you’re probably not paying thousands of dollars for season tickets.

Patience is a virtue, but fans can get tired of waiting through multiple seasons of calling off the dogs in March.

Since Wednesday’s trade hadn’t yet been ratified by the league office, Cronin was prohibited from making public comments about it. That’s too bad. It was a big part of the day’s agenda for the Blazers, who gave up a pretty good stash of assets — two first-round picks, including No. 14 in this year’s draft, plus two-second round picks and veteran guard Malcolm Brogdon — for Avdija.

(The other first-round pick dealt away comes in 2029, the year the Blazers possessed three first-rounders — their own as well as those of Milwaukee and Boston. Portland now must send the second-best of the selections to Washington in the Avdija deal.)

Avdija (pronounced “Ah-dee-yuh,” emphasis on the Ah) is a native of Israel. His father, Zufer Avdija, is a native of Yugoslavia who played professionally in Israel. At 19, Deni led Israel to the U20 European championship, earning tournament MVP honors. He was the ninth pick in the 2020 draft and was a part-time starter for the Wizards his first three seasons before earning a full-time starting nod this season.

Avdija had always been regarded as solid in ballhandling, defense and rebounding, but made a step up last season in shooting capabilities. He fired at a .506 clip from the field and .374 from 3-point range and got some votes for the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award. In a 133-126 loss to New Orleans in February, Avdija sank six 3-pointers and scored a career-high 43 points with 14 rebounds. He has signed a cap-friendly four-year rookie extension that begins next season and is worth $55 million.

Which brings us to Clingan, the man in the middle as UConn scored its second straight national championship in April.

“He anchored the best offense and the best defense in the country,” Huskies coach Dan Hurley said during the ESPN broadcast of the draft.

Clingan didn’t start as a freshman, coming off the bench behind junior center Adama Sanogo, a Chicago Bulls signee who spent most of last season in the G-League. As a freshman, Clingan averaged 6.9 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.8 blocked shots in only 13.1 minutes, shooting .655 from the field.

By then, he was on Portland’s radar.

“Our scouts were all over him a year ago,” Cronin said Wednesday.

This season, Clingan was the starter, averaging 13.0 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.5 blocks in 22.5 minutes while shooting .619. UConn had balanced scoring, with all five starters averaging between 11 and 15 points a game, and Clingan took an average of only 8.3 shots per contest. Even so, he played the biggest role of anybody in the Huskies’ 37-3 campaign.

“He will be a great addition for this franchise for many reasons — because of who he is as a person, the type of player he is, the defensive prowess and the winning mentality he brings,” Cronin said. “Donovan has a lot of good features.”

It figured that French natives Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr would go 1-2 — in either order — and they did, Risacher taken by Atlanta with the first pick, Sarr by Washington with No. 2. After that, it was a bit of a crap shoot.

“It was really difficult to predict what was going to happen between picks three and six,” Cronin said.

The Blazers were among the teams that talked to Houston executives about trading up for the No. 3 pick, though Cronin said that wasn’t the only option.

“We are really diligent,” he said. “We work the phones. We were looking at dozens of move up/move back, move in/move out scenarios. You try to plant as many seeds as possible and keep all your options open, because as the draft plays out, your whole perspective can change given what happens at three or four. We were looking at everything.”

I should interject here that Cronin didn’t say Clingan was their guy after No. 2, though I think he was. When I asked the Blazer GM if Clingan was third on their Big Board, he waffled just a little.

“I don’t like to give numbers,” he said. “I don’t want to put any added pressure on (Clingan). But we had him higher than the (No. 7) pick.”

The Blazers weren’t going to add another guard to their guard-heavy roster. The only non-guard taken between Nos. 3 and 6 was another Frenchman, 6-9 Tidjane Salaun, who went to Charlotte at No. 6. At a minimum, Clingan was No. 4 on the Portland list behind Salaun. I think Clingan was No. 3.

“It worked out to where Donovan got to us,” Cronin said. “That was one of the easiest selections we are going to ever make.”

The Blazers were 20th in rebound percentage a year ago and were among the weakest in the NBA in defending the paint. They were among the smallest teams in the league, too.

“Becoming bigger, more physical, more athletic has been a continued priority of ours,” Cronin said. “We did that today.

“Donovan is an interesting defender. What he does best is protect the rim, but his IQ and ability to navigate and react and play the right angles are just as deft. Donovan is going to be a nice, versatile defender. He will improve our defense, something we’re starting to get better at, but still have a long ways to go. Rim protection has been a big hole of ours. Donovan helps solve that problem.”

Clingan was one of the more than 50 players who came through Portland for a predraft workout. While defense is his forte, Cronin said he sees potential in the 7-2 center at the offensive end.

“It was good to be up close with him and watch him shoot a lot of perimeter shots,” Cronin said. “I think it’s something he’ll be able to do someday. He has a good touch. He has a lot of work to do, but I like his feel and his hands, his accuracy and overall skill set.

“My favorite thing about him offensively, though, is he’s an underrated passer. I like the plays he made for UConn, who ran an interesting offense with a lot of cuts and high IQ players. Donovan was an addition to that style of play, not a negative on that end.”

Cronin was asked how Clingan will pair with point guard Scoot Henderson, the Blazers’ selection at No. 3 in last year’s draft.

“The defensive anchor you play behind a talented guard is a huge part of this,” Cronin said. “But it’s also about someone who can do a good job on the other side of the ball — be a great screen-setter and a good role guy. (Clingan) has great hands. He has a good feel. He can pass, he can move a little bit. He has some work to do like a lot of young guys, but we like where he’s headed as a player.”

In a brief Zoom conference with members of Portland’s media, Clingan said he is “super excited” to be coming to the Blazers.

“I see the talent and the potential this team has going forward,” he said. “I’m excited to get to work, to build a great relationship with the staff, with my teammates and everyone in the building. I want to learn and grow every day. I want to bring championships back to Portland.”

Clingan’s workout in Portland was his second through the pre-draft process.

“I felt like they had interest from the beginning,” he said. “It went really well. I shot the ball at a high level. … it was nice to be out there, cool to be somewhere cross-country from Connecticut — a new landscape.”

The biggest lesson he learned through two years at UConn?

“Don’t change who I am as a person,” he said. “Just show up and be ready to learn and give everything you have every single day. As (an NBA) rookie, you have to come in with the mindset that you are willing to learn and be coached. You have to take your game to the next level, because it only gets harder from here.”

A primer on Clingan: He grew up in Bristol, Conn., 45 miles from Storrs and the UConn campus. Mother Stacey Porrini Clingan, an accomplished player during her time at the University of Maine, was 6-4. Father Bill Clingan, an electric field operations supervisor for energy-service company Eversource, is 6-6.

Stacey Clingan died of breast cancer at age 42 in 2018, when Donovan was 14.

“I know she is super proud of me,” he said Wednesday. “She is smiling down on me. This is everything I have worked for my entire life.”

Donovan was destined to be big. He was 25 inches long and weighed 11 pounds, 14 ounces at birth. When he decided to stay home at UConn, Hurley breathed a sigh of relief.

“If we hadn’t gotten him, my whole staff would have gotten fired,” Hurley joked.

Clingan did well off the court at UConn, too. He drives a Rolls Royce convertible coupe, compliments of the school’s NIL collective, “Bleeding Blue for Good.” He has lucrative long-term endorsement contracts with such companies as F45 South Training, Panini America, Ritz Crackers, Incrediwear, Skims and Dunkin’.

Clingan told the Connecticut Insider he has “severe attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder,” for which he has long taken medication. He said he hardly ever sleeps well and has trouble sitting still in any setting. He plays golf, has a kayak and “loves the water.”

“It’s cool to see him go to Portland,” Hurley said. “I know Portland loves him.”

(I like Clingan, incidentally, but I like Purdue’s 7-4 Zach Edey — who went to Memphis at No. 9, much higher than expected — even more. Scouts evidently think Edey lacks the lateral quickness to make much headway in the NBA, but I think he will be very effective at both ends of the court.)

Does the drafting of Clingan signal the Blazers will have a trade of Deandre Ayton in the works? Not necessarily, Cronin said, stressing that adding Clingan is merely a step at upgrading a team that has gone 81-165 over the past three seasons.

“We’re not good enough to be content at any one position or even at a starting position,” Cronin said. “We have to build depth. We have to get real players all through this roster. That’s my challenge. That’s what I’m going to continue to do. It’s a success if someone challenges even your best players. It means you’re doing good, because you’re continually building the talent base.”

With a youth movement, however, that now includes a nucleus group of Henderson, Sharpe, Clingan and Avdija, it would make sense that Cronin will move Ayton, and probably Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons, too. It will be important to get strong assets in return, because all are proven NBA talents.

“Throughout this whole offseason I have been open-minded,” Cronin said. “We need to get better, and in some ways we need to get different. My goal is to work the phones and be opportunistic about finding players who can help us in not just the short term but the long term.

“We are building a culture. We want these guys to come in and compete and earn whatever roles they get. When you are a rebuilding team like we are, and you are trying to take that next step, we need guys who are capable of coming in and winning jobs. We are looking forward to becoming more competitive.”

That won’t happen next season. It will be 2025-26 at the earliest. But Cronin believes the Blazers took a positive step Wednesday by adding a couple of nice pieces for the future.

“My favorite part of the job is draft day in general, but specifically those moments where you have some control — you are able to maneuver a little bit — yet there is a lot of it that is not up to you,” he said. “You just have to wait it out and ride that wave. This one ended up being like that. You have all these contingencies, and certain things happen, and you know we were likely gonna get what we hoped at seven … it was good. But those moments right before that are as tense as they come.”

And then when things work out …

“It’s a cool moment,” he said. “All of us have been working so hard over the past year to have a moment where you are hoping something happens and then it actually does. Everyone is just happy. We all do the (group) clap that people see on TV. It’s relief. It’s joy. It’s optimism. It’s excitement. You go through an array of emotions. Shortly after, it’s what’s next? What else are we trying to do here?”

And what exactly is Cronin and Co. trying to do here?

There is Thursday’s second round of the draft, in which the Blazers have Nos. 34 and 40.

“Beyond that, we have to get into the offseason and look for ways to get better,” Cronin said. “We have to continue to build the talent base. We are committed to Scoot and Shae being a massive part of what we’re doing and finding ways to give them the support they need to make them better and maximize their development.”

Cronin is asking for continued patience from Blazer fans. At this point, there is no other way. It’s going to be another long season, but with a few new rays of hope on the horizon.

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