Nice seeing him get some shine. My favorite player in this iteration of the team . https://www.theringer.com/2025/01/28/nba/3-and-d-history-toumani-camara-portland-trail-blazers
I keep seeing people on twitter and in the basketball p0dcast space trying to either: 1. Pry him for cheap. (Because the Blazers FO is incompetent hurr durr) 2. Trying to advocate for the Blazers moving him for a mid-late first. What are these people smoking?
The Athletic did a fun piece on him too: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6081285/2025/01/27/toumani-camara-defense-trail-blazers-nba/Toumani Camara 'doesn’t give up': What opponents see in Trail Blazers' young defender
Marks is not good at what he does and what he does doesn't make sense to me as a guy that likes sports journalism. Marks doesn't use sources, he doesn't break stories or have any rumors he reports. His job is to make up trade scenarios that are realistic and he should be able to do that having been an assistant GM in the past. What he doesn't do is take into consideration any intelligence others at ESPN who are journalists have gathered. So he puts out drivel like this. I've never seen a Bobby Marks trade actually happen. The dude just plugs bullshit into the trade machine and then puts it in an article. Worthless shit, if you ask me. People in this forum constantly post trade ideas that are much closer to what actually happens than what Marks puts out. It's asinine that ESPN pays this guy to do what he does because it confuses readers into thinking that these are rumored deals and Marks does admit that none of them are based on things he's hearing or getting from others. Just an absolute waste of time.
Yeah I wonder if Camara and Deni might be our two players with the most potential to contribute to playoff wins? Sharpe is so bad defensively. Scoot I've really enjoyed his improvemts, but at 6'2 only so much impact you can have unless your a Steph/Dame shooter. Camara and Deni have been high level difference makers on both ends. Camara more defensively and Deni more on O. That two way contribution is a legit championship type of hallmark.
It's fine to have Clingan Sharpe Rupert here. They either improve in which case great, or they don't and there's no downside to them being here. They're all barely at drinking age or under. The pieces that offer less than nothing are Ayton Grant Ant Thybulle. They take away minutes from our youth, take away shots from our youth, hurt our pick, clog up our salary cap, provide extremely bad or lazy play on a major part of the NBA game, and have no long term future here.
Completely false statement. Sharpe has set records with athletic measurements this season in games, Clingan has set block records. Sharpe led the team offense in multiple wins over playoff teams. That's certainly anything.
They are solid players but a long ways from the elite level 2 way player a contender needs. Avdija might be a 3rd option wrecking ball type of player that is hard to game-plan for. Camara could certainly be a the glue-man player good teams need maybe the Blazers need to discard the PG-SG-SF-PF-C template and simplify it to PG-Wings-C. Sharpe has been and continues to be a frustrating disappointment who rises above and flashes tantalizing talent regularly, but always sinks back to near invisible. But imagining the Blazers weren't bone-heading their way to several pointless damaging wins by riding Simons-Ayton-Grant so hard, and they got lucky in May, a 3 wing rotation of Camara-Flagg-Avdija might create a lot of wind in Blazer sails
My guess is Dame thinks Simons is the other “most valuable piece on this team”, which I would lmao out of the room for. But I’ll still take the toumani kudos, and I don’t necessarily agree he’s “clearly our second best prospect” but I do love him. I’d vote 1- Deni/Shaedon 2- Scoot/Toumani/DC 3- everyone else I see Tou having a serious offensive ceiling that he won’t break because he will be a dpoy candidate and prioritize that end, that’s the only “knock” I could even envision is just not being a two way mvp, but a one way mvp. I like his offensive potential but it’s much so potential ATM
I haven't watched much Jones but from what I've seen he seems like a better defensive playmaker whereas Camara is just more solid guarding everyone.
