Donovan Clingan has gone from being a problem the Portland Trail Blazers had to hide against in the 2026 NBA playoffs to one they can build around. In two straight games against Nikola Jokic and Oso Ighodaro, he averaged 20.5 points, 14.5 rebounds and 3.5 blocks while shooting 60/40/83.
That kind of line matters because the playoffs had already shown how quickly San Antonio could make him disappear. The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Phoenix Suns in the Play-In Tournament to reach the 7th seed, then lost to the San Antonio Spurs in five games, and Clingan’s presence never consistently changed the series the way it can when he is facing a center who plays like him.
The numbers against Jokic and Ighodaro were not just good; they were the kind of numbers that suggest Clingan can overwhelm a matchup when the opponent meets him on his terms. He averaged 6.5 offensive rebounds per game in those two outings, posted a +23 net rating and, in the game against Jokic alone, pulled down nine offensive boards. For a player who led the NBA in defensive rebounds last season, that is the profile of someone controlling the glass at both ends rather than simply surviving on it.
But the part that still hangs over him is the same one that surfaced in the postseason. The article makes clear that he has no problem against bigs that fit his profile, while more mobile big men remain a great challenge. That is where the regular season evidence fits in: his worst games tended to come against bigs who can shoot the three and drag him out of the paint, forcing him to defend farther from the rim and turning his size into something less decisive.
That is why the recent stretch feels revealing without closing the case. Clingan is anchoring the eighth-best defense in the NBA, and his two-game burst shows what happens when he is not pulled into space by a quicker frontcourt. The unanswered question is not whether he can dominate a matchup like Jokic or Ighodaro; it is whether he can do it often enough against the more mobile bigs that decided so much of his playoff story.
