One of the major drawbacks to having 30 clubs in the NBA is that if you follow a particular team in The League that happens to be in the other conference, they will only come to your town once a year. And so it is with our guy Toumani Camara and the Portland Trail Blazers. Last season they visited Detroit in November, barely five games into Camara’s rookie campaign, but he was already making an impact. Here is how I described that tilt:

https://www.udpride.com/toumani-does-detroit/

In the 14 months since that meeting, Tou has cemented his place in the Blazers’ starting lineup and made a name for himself league-wide as a dogged defender. The following is an incredibly in-depth piece on him entitled “Finding a Role: Toumani Camara”:

https://theswishtheory.com/nba/2025/01/finding-a-role-toumani-camara/ 

One of the more ridiculous articles written about Mani was this one: 

https://www.si.com/nba/suns/news/phoenix-suns-urged-trade-former-draft-pick-toumani-camara 

Quite frankly, there is NFW that the Blazers are gonna trade Toumani anywhere. A major reason why? 

Salary

Camara will only make $1.89 million this year and is under contract for two more seasons after this one, with none of the money guaranteed. Don’t know if Chauncey Billups has ever said that he’d like to have “15 Toumani Camaras” but if he could, all 15 of ‘em would cost less than what Portland is currently paying just to starting center Deandre Ayton.

The Blazers will never look to Toumani to be their leading scorer, he is in the starting lineup purely for his dynamite D. This is a great piece from NBA.com entitled “Toumani Camara Takes Charge”:

https://www.nba.com/blazers/news/toumani-camara-takes-charge

Mani is the NBA league leader in total charges drawn and charges drawn per game:

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/hustle-leaders

It’s gametime, kids! 

The City of Detroit is absolutely delirious over the NFC Champ and #1 seed Detroit Lions. Former Piston star and current Portland HC Chauncey Billups was introduced during the game last night and got a rousing ovation. He said during his pre-game presser that he was deeply moved by it.  He got a standing O here during team intros. It’s also “Mr. Big Shot” bobblehead night here at LCA. Detroit fans love them some Chauncey!

The Pistons enter this contest with a record of 17-18, good for 4th in the Central Division, while the Blazers stand at 12-22 and are 4th in the Northwest. Portland is coming off a big road win at Milwaukee, in which Tou had a line of 15/6/2/1. Meanwhile, Detroit has won three in a row, the most recent a big W vs. the always tough T-Wolves.

As per usual, Mani is in the starting lineup and will cover the opposition’s best player, that being Cade Cunningham. Camara makes the first hoop for the Blazers. Soon after, he draws his league leading 17th charge. Later Tou makes a tough, twisting layup but misses the freebie. He then blocks a Detroit three pointer.  He’s unfortunately credited with a missed triple on a heave from near half court with the shot clock about to expire. He sits with 2:30 to go in the 1st with 4 points, 2 rebounds, a steal and a block. The Blazers are, well, blazin’ and up by 17 when Camara re-enters with 8 minutes to go in the 1st half, shooting 64% from the land of plenty. Unfortunately, a Tou TO turns into a Cunningham three and the lead is cut to 9. And that’s what the bulge is at the end of the half.

Cunningham goes off to start the 3rd and the lead is down to 1 and the crowd is back into it. Mani stops that nonsense by draining a corner three. Soon after, he does it again! Another Tou TO leads to him committing his 3rd PF. The Pistons tie it up but Mani runs the baseline for a slam, then off of a missed TC three, Ayton says ‘dunk you very much.’ Toumani sits with 2 to go in the 3rd.

Camara returns with 7 and change remaining and the Blazers up by 1. The teams exchange long range ballistic missiles and Portland leads by 2 with less than 4 to go. The Blazers’ strategy is clearly to let ABC (anybody but Cunningham) beat them. Unfortunately, those guys for Detroit did just that. 

Your final:

Pistons  118

Blazers  115

Toumani finished with 12 points, 3 boards, a dime, 3 steals and a block.

Here are some questions I asked Toumani in the Blazers’ locker room after the game:

FTS: How’s the foot?  It was the left one that was injured, correct?

TC: It was the right one. It’s good, though.

(He was only out for one game)

FTS: You lead the league in charges drawn and had one tonight. What’s your secret? Ever get called for a flop?

TC: Just playing hard, trying to make the right play for the team. It’s a play that a lot of people hate, including myself. To do that to the other team, it’s a turnover, it’s something that’s just easy to control because the game is so fast. Nahhh, I don’t flop.

FTS: What part of your game do you think you still have a significant opportunity to develop?

TC: I think all of it, from A to Z. I can still improve, whether it’s my offense or my defense, my shooting, I still think I have a lot of room to grow.

FTS: Did you have a chance to catch up with DaRon when you played in Denver a few weeks ago?

TC: For sure. He’s good. It’s a shame that he’s not playing–it would have been a great moment to have him play against me. They seem to take good care of him over there, he’s happy and it was nice to see him.

FTS: What was the biggest change for you from year 1 to year 2 in the League?

TC: I think it’s just being more comfortable. I keep on learning more. I spent a long summer working on my shooting.

FTS: This season you appear to be a much bigger vocal leader on the court. Is this something the coaches have asked you to do or does it come from being a starter?

TC: I think it’s a mix of both. When I was at Dayton that was one of the biggest roles I had to be a leader and it kinda just stayed with me. Last year I felt I didn’t have the room to do that because I was a rookie. I feel this year the coaches have asked me to do a little bit more.

FTS: On or off the court, what is the biggest lesson you learned at UD that has helped you transition to pro basketball?

TC: The leadership. At UD, the other guys were freshmen, so I had to keep everybody together on and off the court and that helped me grow so much individually.

FTS: How did you use the time you were injured at the end of last season to improve your game this year?

TC: My season ended early, so I was able to study the game even more, during that time, the recovery time. It helped me mentally to grow and physically I was able to work out.

FTS: What is your approach to matchup preparation when you have the ability to guard 4-5 positions?

TC: I take my matchups pretty personally. Try to impact the other team’s offense, try to make the right play.

FTS: How are you liking the PNW?

TC: I love it–we got some great guys like Shaedon (Sharpe, who was sitting next to Tou and jokingly tried to convince me I couldn’t use a recorder in the locker room). I just hang out with them. It’s a nice city, I’m a homebody so I don’t do much, so it fits me pretty well. It reminds me of Brussels as it has similar vibes.

It was great to watch Toumani in action again.  See you next year!

That’s it “From the Swamp.”