Toumani Camara: The Blazers’ Defensive Stopper, A Trade Steal, and One of The Best in the NBA

Toumani Camara: The Blazers’ Defensive Stopper, A Trade Steal, and One of The Best in the NBA

From the Portland Trailblazers, we have voted Tumani Kamara. Um, this is one that I think just a lot of people probably haven’t watched a lot of. Sure. On defense because Portland the last couple years has been kind of out of it by the time like January rolls around. This year they kind of worked their way back into it and Tummani was like a huge piece of it on defense. But I think he is a joke with how good he is on that end. Yeah. like this is one guy where they are going to be very good on defense this year. Like they’re going to be a top 10 defense I would guess because they’re going to have Klingan for a full year hopefully. Um Drew Holiday is there now. Uh they’re very clearly building around that piece of it. They are clearly going all in on like making their identity defense, defense, defense. And I think people will take notice of that. I think he will be their best defender outside of maybe Klingan. We’ll see what Clinging can do on that end. I think he has a chance to be like very special on that end. Um, if he continues to like get into better shape and like just lose some of the baby fat that he had this year and everything, but Kamar on the wing is like awesome. Uh, and it’s positional. It is smooth. It is polished. Uh, the big thing with him is like the guy just like takes charges and like is always in front of you like You know, it’s very similar to it’s more disruptive than what Nemhard does, but like it’s very similar in terms of like he just like kind of seems to teleport to areas where he is in front of his man and making it exceptionally difficult for that player to be able to get any space to be able to do what he wants to do. Yeah, it it’s funny because when you just look at like like he averaged one and a half steals per 36, less than a block. I he feels more disruptive than what those numbers say because he takes charges. I don’t know where the deflection numbers land, but it it’s just like he does disruption in a way that doesn’t always show up in the box score. So, I I’ll give you an example. A possession against the Lakers. He almost steals the ball from Reeves at half court. So, he’s getting out. He’s picking up early and he’s going to slow and stagnate the possession cuz he knocks the ball away and then the possession runs through and then he ends up taking a charge on Jackson Hayes rotating off the ball. Nothing really shows up in a traditional box score, right? Like you look at a box score, right? There’s no steal, there’s no block, there’s not even a deflection. You have to go to charge drawn. But he’s kind of one of those guys that just disrupts plays because he eats into the shot clock with the way he defends and he does have like he has transition contest, he has low man contest. He does do that stuff as well. But I I just love the energy he plays with, the activity he plays with. He plays hard. He’s active with his hands. He um defends on and off the ball and has some versatility with that. I mean, I mentioned, you know, guarding Austin Reeves and then there’s, you know, oh, is the Spurs game he was guarding Chris Paul to start that game. Not that Chris Paul is what he used to be, but then in another game he’s guarding Paulo Beno. And so, I just love the all-around versatility. Again, kind of a buzzword as we’ve gone throughout this that he has. And he never gives up on a play. There’s a very specific one I remember against the Pistons. He’s guarding the ball screen. He gets clipped a little bit. He peels off. Kade tries to throw the lob to Duran and Tammani is there to contest it and knock it away. Like he just always giving those multiple efforts on and off the ball. Yeah. So, in terms of like loose ball recoveries, he’s top 50 in the league. Uh charges drawn, he’s obviously first in the league. Like that’s, you know, the number where people look at him now. Like that’s just become a thing. Obviously, if you add the charges drawn to like the steel numbers, he really starts to elevate leaguewide in terms of like, oh, like he’s actually like basically forcing like two turnovers, 2.2 turnovers per game, right? Uh, you know, steals and charges drawn and, you know, other guys you have to do that 42, but like he’s damn near at the top of the league in terms of just like defensive stops in that way. Um, you know, deflections, he’s top 35 in the league. like he does consistently get home with deflections, right? Like he he is somebody that is more disruptive than what just like the pure steel numbers and everything say, but he also is like valuable and gets out like as a weak side rim rotator at times, right? Like he’s he’s bigger than what you think. Like he is like 6’8. He’s a bigbodied dude. Like he was a you know like a four or five in college basically who was just athletic enough to be a real wing in the NBA. Um, yeah. I mean, watching him defend is so fun because it’s it’s a combination of both things. It is cerebral in terms of like very clearly with how he’s like positioning himself. He has to like look I haven’t talked to him about this, but like this dude has to dig so deep into scouting reports. I feel like watching him like it is such a smart he’s so smart in terms of the way he defends. We’ll talk about this with another guy that is very high on our list, but he is so smart with the way he defends. And then on top of it, he does have the tools. Like he is extremely athletic. He’s 6’8 with a 7 foot wingspan. Like he is consistently in front of you uh on defense and can take bumps. Very switchable like you said. I mean, all of the tools are there with Kamar. Like he he is a serious serious defensive playmaker. uh on top of just being in the right position it feels like all the time like this to me like I will always take this guy who’s like a level below Matise Thybel I guess as a defensive playmaker or whatever um in terms of like hand disruption and everything and we didn’t rank Thyel just because uh you know just doesn’t frankly play enough at this point in his career right uh just you know has played 80 games the last two years so you know I get it if you think the eyeball should be here not for me necessarily But um I I think Kamar is just way more solid and steady and kind of brings a lot of the positive aspects that I does, but then is also just really strong and physical and switchable on the ball, too. I I think that’s what you get to with this group of guys. I mean, I think almost all of them, I know Dort was a little bit different of a category for us, but even going back to last episode with JDub, Jade McDaniels, you know, and then the guys we talked about here and are about to talk about, they give you some of the disruption, but they also just give you really solid point of attack on the ball, on and off the ball defense. Uh, a lot of them are similar in that capacity, even though some do go about it in different ways, right? like Jade McDaniels doesn’t look like um you know these guys and Assar does it with like elite elite athleticism but it’s still the the t I would still think it’s the same archetype of wing defender um that we’re valuing Here.

What makes Toumani Camara of the Portland Trail Blazers one of the best defenders in the NBA?!

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Sam Vecenie, a Senior NBA Writer at The Athletic, talks all about basketball. From the NBA, to the NBA Draft, to college hoops and even some high school, Vecenie has you covered in this show.