The Portland Trail Blazers selected 20-year-old Connecticut center Donovan Clingan with the No. 7 pick.The Athletic NBA Draft analyst Sam Vecenie on Clingan: It’s hard not to see Clingan turning into at least an average starting center in the NBA when he’s on the court. He has All-Defense-caliber upside. He’s utterly enormous and is elite at executing drop pick-and-roll coverage. He takes up an immense amount of space in the lane and his sheer presence should give his team strong defensive minutes around the rim. I also think there’s more to Clingan offensively than meets the eye. He’s a sharp passer and playmaker away from the rim, sees the court well and is a strong screener. His presence on the court will help everyone else on the team in subtle ways. I don’t expect him to display the scoring or playmaking upside of someone like Domantas Sabonis, so it’s hard to project All-Star outcomes for Clingan. Even Gobert is a stretch, as he’s more mobile than Clingan ever will be on defense. But I think Clingan can settle in just below that tier and maybe sniff an All-Star Game if things break right, like Jarrett Allen did back in 2022. The keys for Clingan are staying healthy and maintaining his conditioning — two things that have gone together for him over the last two years. If he’s able to stay on the court, he’ll have a valuable NBA career that has a good chance to return top-five value in this class.