Donovan Clingan and Zach Edey will always be linked together and compared with one another for the remainder of their NBA careers. Both experienced collegiate success, having faced off against each other in last year's NCAA national championship game. Clingan had more team success with back-to-back NCAA national championships with UConn. Edey had individual success as the back-to-back Naismith College Player of the Year.
Unsurprisingly, both entered the NBA as promising prospects with physical tools and skills that projected to make an immediate impact at the next level. Although Edey was the better player in college, many teams, including the Blazers, were higher on Clingan as a prospect. Clingan wound up being the Portland Trail Blazers' No. 7 overall selection, while the Memphis Grizzlies took Edey at No. 9.
Clingan is younger, but more importantly, it was easy to see how seamlessly his game would translate to the modern NBA compared to Edey's, particularly on the defensive end. Edey is more offensive-minded than Clingan, which makes it more difficult to contribute his strengths in the modern NBA as a back-to-the-basket big man.
Blazers made the right call taking Donovan Clingan over Zach Edey
The discrepancy between the two prospects' strengths and weaknesses was on full display in the Blazers' recent 115-99 win over the Grizzlies. Fans were excited to see how the Clingan-Edey matchup would look but were left underwhelmed from that standpoint, as Edey played just 11 minutes.
Despite his limited role, Edey finished the game with the second-worst plus/minus on the team (-22), along with six points, three rebounds, two assists, and two turnovers on 2-of-4 shooting. A familiar issue returned to haunt Edey, as his five fouls essentially caused him to be a non-factor.
On the other end, Clingan has been exactly as advertised for Portland. He's proving to be the safest prospect in the 2024 draft class, which was filled with uncertainty even at the top. Clingan finished with a plus/minus of +21, resulting in a substantial 40-point differential between him and Edey's on-court impact. He finished with seven points, 11 rebounds, and three blocks on 2-of-4 shooting, even connecting on his lone three-point attempt.
The stats themselves don't even do it justice for how much more dominant Clingan looked compared to Edey. This game was a prime example of what made Clingan the more coveted draft prospect in the first place, with his ability to impact winning without having to score a ton of points.
It's too early to officially declare the Blazers as the clear-cut winners of the Clingan-Edey draft debate. But almost an entire season in, we're getting a large enough sample size to feel confident that Portland made the right call on draft day.