It's been a rough season for the Portland Trail Blazers so far this year, as the team currently sits at 8-16 following Sunday evening's road loss vs the Los Angeles Lakers. The team has already dealt with a vast amount of injuries so far this year and has also frequently found its name pop up on the trade rumor mill as opposing organizations speculate on whether or not they may be willing to part with some of their veteran players.
One of the injuries the Blazers have dealt with this year was to rookie big man Donovan Clingan, who has missed the last seven games with a left MCL sprain. However, recently, the team got a positive update about Clingan's status moving forward.
“Blazers say Donovan Clingan has been cleared for on-court workouts and will be considered day-to-day moving forward,” reported Sean Highkin of rosegardenreport.com on X.
Clingan got off to a strong start to his rookie campaign after being drafted in the lottery out of UConn this past June. When everyone's healthy (which is rare), head coach Chauncey Billups has had some interesting decisions to make as to how to split up minutes between Clingan, Deandre Ayton, and Robert Williams III, each of whom can really only play the center position and have different skillsets that they bring to the table.
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Currently, Clingan is averaging 5.8 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, but his most impressive statistic is 2.2 blocks per game, as rim protection was indeed a big reason why the Blazers were willing to take a swing on him so high up in the draft.
In any case, up next for the Blazers is a home game against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday, December 13 after four straight off days this week. That game is slated to tip off at 10:00 PM ET from Portland.
a]:text-link [&_>a]:underline">Jackson Stone is a sports journalist for ClutchPoints with expertise in covering the NBA, NFL, and CAA Football. The Mercer University senior from Atlanta is on track to graduate with a BA in communications, and he has bylines at FanSided and USA Today Sports' Georgia athletics website.