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The key factor in the success of the Trail Blazers! Can inside stars make breakthroughs in the new season?

2:11am, 11 August 2025【Basketball】

The American media NBA University updated its social media account, and he also talked about his comments on Portland Trail Blazers inside star Donovan Clingan in the account. It seems that he is still very optimistic about Klingen's prospects.

NBA University wrote: Donovan Klingen showed outstanding defensive rebounding skills in a limited sample last year and was able to play his part in this regard. Klingen has both world-class body shape and world-class predictive timing ability, which can also make up for his shortcomings in speed and explosive power to a certain extent. At the same time, he is also an elite-level insider deterrent, able to cause huge trouble for opponents' offensive players in the inside. As long as he can grow smoothly, he will have a chance to grow into an excellent basket defender in the future.

In the NBA regular season last season, Klingen played a total of 67 games, averaging 19.8 minutes per game, with averaging 6.5 points, 7.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.5 steals and 1.6 blocks per game, including 3.2 frontcourt rebounds, 1.1 turnovers and 2.8 fouls, with a shooting percentage of 53.9%, a three-point shooting percentage of 28.6%, and a free throw shooting percentage of 59.6%. Klingen's performance in the NBA last season was pretty good. He showed pretty good scoring ability at the basket, but his stability in outside shooting is actually seriously insufficient. Klingen has indeed shown good rebounding protection and frame protection skills on the defensive end, and he has performed well in the front and back rebounds. Of course. Klingen's problem also exists, and his problems in his athletic ability and movement speed are also very obvious. This can be clearly reflected, and this point seems to be unsolvable in the future. Although the Trail Blazers chose Yang Hansen with the first round pick this summer, they also directly bought out DeAndre Ayton's contract, which also shows that they have also confirmed Klingen as the team's starting center next season and future inside pillar. I don’t know how the situation will develop in the next season. By next season, considering that Klingen is already a sophomore rookie, I don’t know if his performance will be further improved next season. Can Klingen improve his abilities in all aspects on the offensive end and have stronger dominance on the defensive end by improving his experience and skills? Given the performance of the Trail Blazers in previous seasons, if Klingen can grow, things may change a little.