UConn in the NBA Jan 2026 | Page 3 | The Boneyard
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UConn in the NBA Jan 2026

There's a nice write up on Clingan in the Basketball Notes article in today's Boston Globe. This is a short excerpt from it.

UCONN-ECTION IN PORTLAND​

Clingan front and center as Trail Blazers starter​

“I feel like I’m definitely getting better,” he said. “My touch around the rim, being aggressive, being patient. I feel like the threes are starting to fall a little bit, all the work I’ve put in, just starting to see things fall into place.”

www.bostonglobe.com

Hot topics as the NBA enters 2026: 65-game award minimum, All-Star voting popularity contest, and more - The Boston Globe

There is sentiment the NBA overreacted by mandating players log at least 65 games to be eligible for league awards.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

The RuffRuff Alternate Access™:

Hot topics as the NBA enters 2026​

 
Look for Liam to get some good burn in this 4th quarter for the Hornets.
They are torching OKC 101-71 right now.
 
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HW611 said:
Thank you for getting ahead of this. This was always the point.
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Wasn’t it like a month ago that you were arguing he should model his game after Zubac (who has taken a dozen threes in his entire career) and that it was a waste of time for him to be taking any threes until he masters his post game? I’m very confused where you currently stand on the appropriateness of how Clingan is being deployed by the Blazers.
 
Trailblazers are truly unique. Deni Avdija is the only Israeli player in the league. A Jewish Israeli Serb nicknamed Turbo who is all of a sudden a star in the league. A giant from Bristol, CT who is leading the league in offensive rebounding and raining down threes nightly and a Canadian pogo stick who never played in college and gets better and better. It gets even weirder that they don't even have a point guard playing for them.

Those three guys at 25, 22, and 21 is something serious to build around.
 
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WhereistheDove? said:
Wasn’t it like a month ago that you were arguing he should model his game after Zubac (who has taken a dozen threes in his entire career) and that it was a waste of time for him to be taking any threes until he masters his post game? I’m very confused where you currently stand on the appropriateness of how Clingan is being deployed by the Blazers.
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A poster tried to write off him ever having a post game while saying he should keep working on his 3s.

I took objection to that because it was another case of this board only being capable of talking about becoming a better 3 point shooter and acting like every other skill doesn’t matter and can’t be worked on.

I noted how guys like Zubac and Duren were killing it without chucking 3s.

It’s cool Clingan has a hot streak going on. But as another poster pointed out, it also came with him taking more 2s and not having almost half his attempts be 3s which was the issue at the time.

Taking more 2s and having success from there naturally makes the 3s you take afterwards easier.
 
HW611 said:
A poster tried to write off him ever having a post game while saying he should keep working on his 3s.

I took objection to that because it was another case of this board only being capable of talking about becoming a better 3 point shooter and acting like every other skill doesn’t matter and can’t be worked on.

I noted how guys like Zubac and Duren were killing it without chucking 3s.

It’s cool Clingan has a hot streak going on. But as another poster pointed out, it also came with him taking more 2s and not having almost half his attempts be 3s which was the issue at the time.

Taking more 2s and having success from there naturally makes the 3s you take afterwards easier.
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Just eyeballing game logs and monthly averages:


I agree with your point but two things: this is not exactly a hot streak. He’s played 32 games this year. The first 16 he was at about 25% from three. The last 16 he is at about 50%.

He has been pretty consistent at 2-3 a game. It has decreased fractionally but from about 2.8 to 2.2 or so.

His total shot attempts have also decreased so he’s not exactly getting more post touches/dump offs/whatever. In the last 16 games he has yet to exceed 10 total shot attempts more than a single time.

His scoring increase is almost solely due to improved shooting from three and slightly improved shooting near the rim. His shot attempts have been pretty much 7-8 all year.
 
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HW611 said:
A poster tried to write off him ever having a post game while saying he should keep working on his 3s.

I took objection to that because it was another case of this board only being capable of talking about becoming a better 3 point shooter and acting like every other skill doesn’t matter and can’t be worked on.

I noted how guys like Zubac and Duren were killing it without chucking 3s.

It’s cool Clingan has a hot streak going on. But as another poster pointed out, it also came with him taking more 2s and not having almost half his attempts be 3s which was the issue at the time.

Taking more 2s and having success from there naturally makes the 3s you take afterwards easier.
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That’s an interesting recollection of those discussions. I’m glad you’ve come around to seeing the value of his 3 point shot.

HW611 said:
This board wanted to tell me it was a good thing he was spending energy shooting 3s though.

1-5 today and 0-3 from 3 so far. Way more important stuff he could've been investing his time into.
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HW611 said:
Its just so frustrating watching a guy like Zubac play and wondering why Clingan can't model his game around a guy like that.

So many centers with a 3rd of his talent and doing amazing things in the league just by focusing on the right things.

6 of 27 which is good for 22% this month. On a shot that is 40% of his shots. Makes no sense for a 7’ to be allowed to waste his time with this.
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HW611 said:
Having a weak base would go hand and hand with struggling to make contested dunks.

All that time working on his 3 point shooting over the summer could've went to focusing on touch around the rim. This summer I hope he cuts that nonsense out and takes 1,000 hook shots and take the Zubac, Duren, Allen, etc. route of Bigs.

I'm not sure if there's a single European center that comes into the NBA without a competent post game/touch. They don't skip steps over there.

Clingan has all the ability to control the paint. His full focus needs to be mastering that before thinking about stepping out for a 3.
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Clingan remains on a heater 12 points and 17 rebounds on 2-4 three point shooting (5-9 overall). He’s 42% on 4 3PA in 3 January games so far. You all know my thoughts already - I’m assuming this is a hot streak that will cool off and he should focus more on converting his league leading offensive rebounds into close baskets instead of taking 4 threes a game. But for now, it’s working so let em fly!

Liam with a mop up minute three pointer and assist for a dunk as the Hornets wax OKC by almost 30 (???)

Polley is a G League starter now?? 20 points and 7 rebounds on 8-15 shooting (4-9 from three)
 
WhereistheDove? said:
That’s an interesting recollection of those discussions. I’m glad you’ve come around to seeing the value of his 3 point shot.
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Mind you, Clingan has two games where he’s scored above 20 points this year. Zubac has 6 and Duren has 11. Including 30 point games. In less games played than Clingan.

In one of those 20 point Clingan outings he was 1 of 4 from 3 and he hasn’t scored 25.

I’m not sure what this victory lap is about.
 
REB1094 said:
Clingan remains on a heater 12 points and 17 rebounds on 2-4 three point shooting (5-9 overall). He’s 42% on 4 3PA in 3 January games so far. You all know my thoughts already - I’m assuming this is a hot streak that will cool off and he should focus more on converting his league leading offensive rebounds into close baskets instead of taking 4 threes a game. But for now, it’s working so let em fly!
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In fairness to DC, one of those missed threes was a scramble where he ended up with the ball late in the shot-clock and had to chuck up a turnaround prayer. The best part about all of this for the Blazers is defenders are now actively challenging him and coming out of the paint.
 
CardiacAndre7 said:
He can’t accept being wrong. Sad.
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You are poster that wants to give up on a 7’2 guy having a post game but encourage them to keep working on 3s.
 

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HW611 said:
You are poster that wants to give up on a 7’2 guy having a post game but encourage them to keep working on 3s.
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That’s exactly what I said in that post!

It never ceases to amaze me how you read something and jump like 5 levels to try and make a point, it’s quite the skill.

Just admit your were wrong about wanting DC to stop taking 3s, and also maybe take back that ridiculous Duren comparison while you’re at it.
 
CardiacAndre7 said:
Just admit your were wrong about wanting DC to stop taking 3s, and also maybe take back that ridiculous Duren comparison while you’re at it.
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You want me to say this based on a hot streak that is causing DC’s best games to be Duren’s average?

Some of yall get so excited for someone to make 3s for the sake of saying they made them.
 
HW611 said:
You want me to say this based on a hot streak that is causing DC’s best games to be Duren’s average?

Some of yall get so excited for someone to make 3s for the sake of saying they made them.
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They are COMPLETELY different players and archetypes. That is what I want you to finally realize.
 
WhereistheDove? said:
That’s an interesting recollection of those discussions. I’m glad you’ve come around to seeing the value of his 3 point shot.
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He also thinks Clingan has maturity issues.

So many terrible takes from posters on Clingan. Dude is 21 years old, leading the league in offensive rebounding, 5th in rebounding while expanding his game all without playing with any point guard who would get him easy finishes and people are arguing about terrible takes they made on him.
 
CardiacAndre7 said:
They are COMPLETELY different players and archetypes. That is what I want you to finally realize.
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You are trying to argue that a 7’2 guy is incapable of making a living around the rim like Duran has been doing. So he needs to be able to make 3s.
 
HW611 said:
Mind you, Clingan has two games where he’s scored above 20 points this year. Zubac has 6 and Duren has 11. Including 30 point games. In less games played than Clingan.
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Is that some kind of advanced statistic of note I missed? We can call it Wins Above Duran, or WAD.
 
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