Trail Blazers’ Donovan Clingan displeased with his summer league debut

Offensively, Portland Trail Blazers rookie Donovan Clingan showed little during his summer league debut Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada.

But Blazers summer league coach Jonah Herscu wasn’t the least bit bothered by Clingan’s 1-of-8 shooting performance during an 83-77 loss to the San Antonio Spurs.

That’s because the 7-foot-2 center, chosen seventh overall during June’s NBA draft, impacted the game in other ways with 13 rebounds and five blocked shots.

“I thought he was awesome,” Herscu told reporters at the Thomas & Mack Center. “I thought he protected the paint. Get him more comfortable on the offensive end. But his size really impacts the other team on the offensive end.”

Clingan finished with four points and one assist on offense. Of course, those are not the numbers the Blazers hope to see from Clingan moving forward.

But for a team that ranked near the bottom of the NBA in points allowed in the paint, seeing Clingan gobble up rebounds and swat away five shots, and alter others was encouraging.

“He’s such a selfless player that he’s not concerned with scoring,” Herscu said. “That’s gonna happen naturally for him … Just protecting the rim, rebounding, making some plays offensively is what he values.”

Clingan said he took time adjusting to the pace of play and the competition level.

“Once the second half came along, I was feeling good,” Clingan told reporters.

But not good enough to walk away pleased with his night, even on defense.

“I feel like there were a couple of shots around the rim I could have had a better contest on, if not blocked,” Clingan said. “There’s some floaters, some paint shots that they made that I’m not happy with. But you just go back, watch film, you learn from it.”

In the rebounding department, Clingan had five in the first half, seven at halftime, and six in the second half.

Still, he wasn’t completely pleased.

“I wish I had rebounded the ball a little bit better in that first half,” he said. “But I was able to figure it out in that second half and do better on that end.”

What Clingan wanted to avoid was allowing his shooting woes to impact the rest of his game.

“No matter how poorly you play on the offensive end, that shouldn’t affect your defense,” Clingan said. “Defense wins ballgame. So, you got to protect the rim at a high level. You got to help your team win and that’s all I want to do. So, I was just trying to be the best defender because I knew offensively tonight was not my night.”

Clingan’s defensive presence helped Connecticut with back-to-back NCAA men’s basketball national championships. The Blazers got a glimpse of that version of Clingan on Saturday, and Herscu left pleased.

“He’s such a selfless player that he’s not concerned with scoring,” Herscu said. “That’s gonna happen naturally for him … Just protecting the rim rebounding, making some plays offensively is what he values.”

-- Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook)