I love that in support of their best defensive player, the Portland Trail Blazers are taking the offensive.
Because when it comes to postseason honors in the NBA, you can’t trust that Toumani Camara’s body of work will speak for itself — even though it should.
In his second NBA season, the 24-year-old Camara is one of the league’s most versatile and tenacious defenders.
A Defensive Player of the Year-caliber defender.
The Blazers launched a nifty campaign this week making a DPOY case for Camara. It contains highlights in which he locks up LeBron, denies Dame, shadows Shai and jockeys with Joker.
It lists his defensive accomplishments and statistics, including his league-leading 29 (and counting) drawn charges. It shows him describing his defensive process, including studying football cornerbacks.
The whole thing has a real “Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you’ll land among the stars” vibe to it.
Because as slick and snazzy, complete and convincing as the campaign is, Camara won’t win Defensive Player of the Year.
That will be Jaren Jackson Jr. or Evan Mobley or Lu Dort. Or perennial contender Draymond Green.
The trophy for the league’s top defender is an individual award but also sneakily a team prize. The winner annually lifts his team to be among the league’s top defenses, which in turn leads to a stellar win-loss ratio.
Even with Camara leading the way, the Blazers still rank only 17th in defense and are 33-43 with six games left in the season.
But if the movement gets the attention of enough people to garner Camara a spot on one of the two All-Defensive teams, then it will have been a campaign well run.
Those should truly be seen as the true individual honors. The 10 best defenders in the league. Top stoppers, full stop.
And this is where I hope the media members with a postseason awards ballot are paying attention to what has happened this season in the Rose City. Because I know how easy it would be to miss Camara’s impact.
I have voted many times in the past. The defensive teams are among the hardest things to vote for and to, if there is such a thing, get right.
The slots are limited but the options, seemingly, endless. Defensive stats are harder to quantify and sort than offensive metrics. Last season, 34 players received votes for the 10 spots, compared to 25 players who received votes for 15 All-NBA positions.
The solution for voters when there is so little clarity? At least for me when I was in that position? Reach for the key defenders on the league’s best defenses.
That’s why I’m at least a little worried that Camara will get overlooked by voters nationwide who haven’t yet found a reason to tune in to Blazers games.
In the last decade, only five players to earn All-Defensive honors played on teams below .500.
That’s just five players out of the last 100 All-Defensive team selections.
Those players were Victor Wembanyama last year, Alex Caruso twice, Jrue Holiday and Anthony Davis.
Wembanyama is a generational defensive specimen and a categorial outlier. Caruso built his defensive reputation on a Lakers championship team before getting to Chicago. Holiday and Davis both had previous selections under their belts while anchoring winning teams in New Orleans.
I say all of this only to highlight that Camara would be bucking history if he makes an All-Defensive team.
He’s not a household name. Hasn’t won at a high level. And doesn’t have past honors to fall back on.
But reducing Camara’s candidacy to the Blazers’ record would overlook the degree to which he has elevated what was supposed to be a tanking team.
The player that Lakers coach JJ Redick called a “banshee” isn’t solely responsible for the Blazers’ defensive renaissance. Deni Avdija, Donovan Clingan and, especially, coach Chauncey Billups have helped raise the bar.
But Camara gets the leading credit.
In each of the four seasons before Camara joined the Blazers, the franchise was among the league’s four worst defenses. Twice they ranked 29th out of 30 teams.
Oddsmakers figured the Blazers wouldn’t win more than 21 games this season. They could end up with north of 35. Does that happen without Camara? Does their spirited, darkhorse push for the play-in?
No way.
Ultimately, it might seem trivial whether Camara makes the All-Defensive first team, second team or no team at all. It’s just hardware. Camara should rack up defensive awards throughout his career and, whether he wins this year or not, is firmly established as a key piece of the Blazers’ foundation.
But consider that the Blazers have lacked a defensive identity for far too long.
And that no Blazers player has earned All-Defensive honors since Theo Ratliff in 2004. And that the last player to make the first team was Buck Williams in 1991.
Recognition for Camara would help validate the Blazers’ process. It would signal that at least in this one way, they are moving in the right direction.
When you think about the source of the Blazers’ resurgence, it has been all defensive.
And so has Camara.
--Bill Oram is the sports columnist at The Oregonian/OregonLive.