The Whiteboard: Donovan Clingan has "Future DPOY" written all over him

We need to talk about the Portland Trail Blazers.

Please don't go. I know that doesn't sound thrilling, considering the Blazers are 8-18, have lost six games in a row and will probably get worse in the coming months as the trade deadline approaches and GM Joe Cronin decides to smash the neon red "TANK 4 FLAGG" button in his office. That's real, by the way.

Anyway, I will rephrase; we need to talk about one specific player on the Portland Trail Blazers, rookie center Donovan Clingan, who has already stamped himself as an elite defensive center through 19 NBA games.

Clingan's scoring stats (6.1 points per game) don't scream "future star," but that's in part because Blazers coach Chauncey Billups hates us all and wants us to suffer — in other words, he's only playing Clingan 17.1 minutes per game.

Pretty much every other stat from Clingan does scream future defensive star, though, including 2.1 blocks per game (fifth in the NBA) a block rate of 6.1 (best in the NBA) an offensive rebound rate of 17.5 (best in the NBA). Portland is also considerably better when he's on the court versus when he's not.

Positive impact like that from a rookie deserves your attention — few rookies make their teams noticably better, but Clingan's presence utterly changes what Portland is capable of defensively... capable of actually getting multiple stops.

Watching Blazers games is generally bad for your health — but Clingan nearly makes the team watchable by himself. Rookie centers often look lost (especially on bad teams) but Clingan looked comfortable immediately in Portland. He's already developing a reputation around the league, too.

Kevin Durant said "They got a good one over there with him," after Portland played Phoenix on Sunday. This could well have been the play that sold Durant on Clingan's upside:

That's rare. That's a move that Rudy Gobert or Bam Adebayo pull off... not 20- year-old rookies. But through two months, I've seen enough to think Clingan could rise to that level of defender. He moves considerably more fluidly than 7-foot-2 centers typically move, and that mobility combined with pretty great instincts makes his ceiling "Defensive Player of the Year."

Granted, it's going to be hard to win DPOY when the guy in San Antonio is still around (Clingan isn't Wemby, because no one is). Still, a few All-Defense selections feel like the floor for Clingan's career.

He hasn't been perfect, of course. Clingan's foul rate of 7.1 needs to be cut basically in half, and sometimes gets too aggressive for his own good. His offensive game is more "putbacks and dunks" than it is offensive creation, but that's fine. He was picked No. 7 in this year's draft to make life miserable for opposing offenses, not be Karl-Anthony Towns.

Clingan is trying to expand his range to the 3-point line (he's 3-12 this season) and sure, him becoming Brook Lopez would be great — but I'm more interested in a consistent midrange game for Clingan, because I don't foresee him ever shooting 3s well enough to draw defenses out of the paint.

Still, the Blazers pretty clearly have their center of the future, and his play so far is probably the worst he's ever going to look. Any offensive game above "lob-catcher" is a bonus going forward, and I think that's achievable. At the moment, Clingan's defense is already good enough to warrant him being Portland's starting center and a centerpiece of its rebuild.

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NBA news roundup

• Karl-Anthony Towns returns to Minnesota on Thursday, a place he still considers home. Wolves fans, get your tissues ready.
• Golden State remains atop the NBA's "franchise value" list, with the Knicks and Lakers close behind.
• Magic Johnson's solution for the NBA: Bring back hate.

The messy West

Right now, the No. 5 seed Denver Nuggets and the No. 12 seed Sacramento Kings are separated by 2.5 games in the Western Conference. In between them are teams with "disappointing" starts, teams with "surprsing" stars and teams that kind of just... exist.

This parity will be fascinating to watch unfold throughout the season, and I'm curious which teams it will benefit and which teams it will hurt. Most likely, it will hurt teams like the Kings and Lakers, which both have sizable holes on their rosters but can rationalize not making helpful trades this deadline because they're in the mix for a top six seed.

As for help? San Antonio comes to mind first. A young team with a real superstar, being within shouting distance of a playoff spot should be enough to deter this team from making any big in-season moves. San Antonio has blown away expectations early and should just ride this wave until next summer.