I’m sure he’s right on the end of that list - hard to really evaluate him after one year, didn’t start and played limited minutes. Kessler, his pre draft comp, Sarr and Edey in that 35-40 range and they all started. I think we’ll know much better after year two how Cling stacks up. He’s just not a guy that was built to come into year one logging big minutes, nor did the situation call for it.
Just for arguments sake with Edey:
Edey started 55 games. In those games he played 21.4 minutes and averaged
8.7 PPG, 8.5 RPG, 0.9 APG 1.3 BPG and 0.5 SPG. He shot
57.8/27.9/65.6. He played 11 games off the bench and basically had the same stats.
Clingan started 37 games. In those games he played
24.5 minutes and averaged 7.9 PPG,
10.0 RPG, 1.6 APG, 2.1 BPG and 0.6 SPG. He shot 52.6/25/54.9. He played 30 games off the bench (most of his starts came after Ayton went down for the year, or was otherwise out) and averaged only 13.9 MPG, 4.8 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 0.5 APG, 1.1 BPG, 0.3 SPG. Oddly his shooting was much better off the bench at 56.9/38.5/69.7 (likely due to fewer attempts).
IMO it came down to Ayton getting a ton of minutes when he probably shouldn't have in order for Portland to try and shop him. I don't think it is a coincidence that Portland benched him after it was clear they couldn't trade him (or you believe he was "injured") and they basically cut him this off season when they couldn't trade him. Part of it may have been due to Clingan's endurance but his play as a starter shows he could have played more than 14 minutes a game.
As starters, Clingan arguably played better than Edey overall and inarguably played more minutes per game.
