PORTLAND, Ore. — Before the Portland Trail Blazers traded franchise icon Damian Lillard to Milwaukee this summer, there was an intense back-and-forth between Phoenix and Portland that was holding up the three-team deal.
Blazers general manager Joe Cronin was insisting that Phoenix include second-round pick Toumani Camara in the deal.
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“Joe was adamant,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups recalled.
On the other side, the Suns were fighting to keep Camara, the forward who wowed coach Frank Vogel in summer league and offseason workouts. How hard did Vogel fight?
“Extremely hard,” Vogel said.
In the end, the Blazers got their man, getting Phoenix to include the 6-foot-8 rookie from Dayton, along with Deandre Ayton, in exchange for Jusuf Nurkić, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson in the blockbuster deal that also included Grayson Allen going from Milwaukee to Phoenix and Lillard to Milwaukee.
“That was one of the hardest parts of the trade,” Vogel said. “Obviously, losing Deandre was big as well, but Toumani … we were high on him as a prospect. And once we got him in our building and saw him play in summer league, we got even more excited about him. But in this league, to get something good, you have to give up something good.”
Three months later, the rest of the NBA is beginning to understand why there was so much fuss over the 52nd overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. Camara is not only starting for the Blazers, but he has become their primary on-ball defender, and his defense is leaving an imprint on some of the game’s biggest stars.
On Sunday, Stephen Curry had his string of 268 games with a 3-pointer snapped on a night when he was mostly guarded by Camara. Earlier in the season, he hounded Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell to 7-of-20 shooting, three nights after he helped contain Lillard to 7-of-21 shooting. And after Portland won in Indiana, Billups credited Camara’s physicality on Pacers’ star Tyrese Haliburton as one of the turning points.
“There’s a lot more on that list, but those come to mind,” Billups said of Camara’s growing defensive resume. “He’s been good … really good.”
Hours later on Tuesday, the rookie added to his list. With Camara (pronounced cuh-MAR-uh) picking up Devin Booker full court much of the night, the Blazers snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 109-104 victory over the Suns. The game turned in the third quarter, when Portland outscored Phoenix 38-20, and when Booker went 1-of-6 from the field. Sure, Booker finished with 26 points, but he took 25 shots to do it, a victory of sorts for an NBA defender who is slowly building a reputation. Camara on Tuesday also added five points, nine rebounds, three steals and a block.
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“He has served a great purpose for us,” Billups said. “His head coach really believes in being competitive and playing defense and scrapping out there — and that’s what he does — he shares my spirit that way. I think what I need to do better for him, and with him, going forward is just always letting him guard the best player. Not always the guy bringing it up the floor. So he can learn how to guard everybody, because he is going to be that type of player.”
The funny thing is, the first time the Blazers and Camara were in the same gym together, neither thought they would see each other again.
When Camara landed in Portland in May for his pre-draft workout, he was exhausted. He had flown directly from Chicago, where he had just taken part in the NBA Draft Combine. His workout with the Blazers was a blip in his schedule of workouts with 18 NBA teams.
By the time he was finished with his Portland workout, everyone in attendance was in agreement: He stunk.
“To be honest, my workout in Portland was probably one of my worst workouts,” Camara said. “In my head, I was like, ‘I’m never going to Portland.’”
Said Billups: “He didn’t look very good. He really didn’t. He was a big, strong kid, pretty competitive, but he didn’t shoot it well. He didn’t look great. He didn’t stand out.”
In the 58-player draft, Camara was selected 52nd by the Suns.
Weeks later, at the Las Vegas Summer League, Camara started to open eyes. Among those opened: Billups and the Blazers.
“I can remember watching summer league, one of the first games, and … the kid is good!” Billups said. “He’s really good. Active. Tough as heck. I didn’t really see that in the workout, which is why I always say you can’t put too much into a workout. You have to actually see a guy play (five-on-five).”
So far, Camara has started 17 of 26 games and is averaging 7.3 points and 4.8 rebounds and leads the Blazers with four charges drawn. He has more points and rebounds than all the players combined who were drafted in the 2023 second round.
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His numbers don’t adequately capture his impact, largely because he is a defensive standout, which is often difficult to measure by statistics. But in a season for Portland (7-19) that is more about development and growth than wins, Camara has become perhaps the Blazers’ brightest beacon of hope. He is the type of player for which Billups has been advocating since his arrival three years ago: tough, smart and cares about defense.
Nine years ago, nobody would have guessed that Camara would fit that description.
Toumani Camara has started 17 of Portland’s 26 games this season. (Rob Gray / USA Today)Camara grew up in Brussels, Belgium, and didn’t start to take basketball seriously until he was 12. It was then that he shifted from a club that was more centered on fun to a club that was more about competition and development.
“I decided I wanted to take basketball more serious,” Camara said.
When he entered the club, he was tall, but skinny, and had legs that were not proportioned like his peers.
“I was a very skinny boy with big calves, but no quads,” Camara said. “A real, weird-shaped body.”
On one of his first days, he was put through a defensive drill that scarred him. A defender was put the middle of four players who were stationed outside the 3-point line. The defender had to close out on the ballhandlers, one-by-one, until you got three stops in a row. That first day, Camara estimates he was the only one who couldn’t get those stops.
“I felt a little bit of everything … for sure embarrassed,” Camara said. “I think I was the only kid who stayed in that drill the whole time.”
Self-conscious about his build and shamed by his failures at defense, Camara went to work. He did weight work to strengthen his legs. He did ladder drills — sidestepping between ladder rungs — to quicken his footwork.
“When I love something, I want to excel and do better,” Camara said. “And that’s where I started to take pride in my defense and work on it. That’s what got me here today.”
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He is the fourth Belgian-born player in NBA history — joining Tony Parker, Xavier Henry and Frank Ntilikina — and he is among what seems like a dwindling number of players who pride themselves on defense first.
“I think defense is underrated,” Camara said. “Fans like to watch and see the ball go in the hoop, but it’s a two-way street. I want to excel in that area. I’m trying to bring defense back in the game.”
In the season’s 10th game, Billups had seen Camara blocked enough shots, swipe enough steals and stand in for so many charges that he knew he needed to make his first big move of the season: It was time for Camara to get into the starting lineup. Camara replaced five-year veteran Matisse Thybulle — a former NBA All-Defensive team member — as the Blazers’ starting small forward.
The move had nothing to do with Portland being in a youth movement. And it had nothing to do with Thybulle’s play, which has been solid. It had everything to do with Camara’s consistent play.
“It would have been easy for them to say, ‘Hey, we want to develop the young guy, so we are going to start Toumani,’” Thybulle said. “But that wasn’t the conversation. It was: ‘Hey, this guy is doing really well for us and we want to go with him and bring you off the bench.’ And there was nothing I could say. The proof is in the pudding when it comes to him.”
Camara has earned the respect and admiration of some of the most experienced players in the locker room. Malcolm Brogdon, the former Rookie of the Year and reigning Sixth Man of the Year, said Camara’s age (23 years) helps give him an edge.
“His mindset is what separates him from other rookies, I think. He is tough,” Brogdon said.
Billups has tasked Camara with a Hall of Fame list of players to guard this season: LeBron James, Curry, Luka Dončić, James Harden, Russell Westbrook … and Camara hasn’t backed down. In fact, he often has found himself in skirmishes when the stars don’t like his in-your-jersey full-court defense.
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“Mentally, he can fight through adversity, which is very impressive because he’s doing it night after night,” Brogdon said. “He’s earning his name on defense. His offense will come later, and that will be the icing on the cake, because he’s already a great defender.”
Thybulle said he finds himself in awe when he remembers Camara is a rookie.
“I told him this last week: It took me so much longer to get a feel of how to play different players and when to be physical, when to play off, when to push up … he just picked everything up so quickly,” Thybulle said. “I used to get into foul trouble as a rookie really, really quickly — and he’s had a couple games where he has — but it just feels like he is learning everything so fast. He has a really advanced sense of self and what his boundaries are and how to adapt to players while still being himself.”
And to think, he went from a draft where 51 other players were chosen before him, to a mega trade held up because of two teams fighting for him, to a starter who helped end an NBA-record streak by the game’s greatest shooter.
“I’m living a dream,” Camara said. “I feel like I’m in a simulation a little bit. This lifestyle is a little crazy. Lot of games. The pace of it is insane. But it’s always what I wanted to do my whole life. I’m happy to be here and want to stay here as long as I can.”
(Top photo of Stephen Curry and Toumani Camara: Soobum Im / USA Today)
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