Last updated: 9/30/2019
Last updated: 9/30/2019
Last updated: 9/30/2019
2025 Free Agents - Toumani Camara
After a successful 4-year college career at Georgia and Dayton, Camara entered the 2023 draft and was selected 52nd overall by the Suns. After playing Summer League for the Suns, he was included in the Deandre Ayton trade and ended up in Portland, where he has looked very promising thus far, starting the majority of games in '23-'24. At 6'7" with a 7'0" wingspan, Camara has an NBA body. He isn't super explosive, but has functional athleticism. The idea behind that functionality is that he could become a very switchable, multi-positional defender. He has decent feel but needs to improve in his shooting and overall ball skills. The Trailblazers have had Camara guard the best opposing player often, and he has held up pretty well in those situations. He also posts good steal and block rates. Offensively, Camara has not been super efficient, posting just a 55% true shooting. Overall his scoring needs improvement at each level, as his 53% 2-point shooting and 33% 3-point shooting were both below average. He does rebound well on the offensive end. Camara is on the older side for a rookie, as he was drafted as a 23-year old. However, he has been a really nice surprise for the Blazers thus far, and I would expect them to keep him around at least another season, if not the remainder of his contract.
Summary
Camara's $2.2 million salary for 2025-2026 is non-guaranteed, and if he is waived he will become an unrestricted free agent and the Trailblazers will have no form of Bird rights on him. If he is waived, teams could claim him off waivers, but would need to fit his salary within cap space or an exception to do so, as his contract doesn't fit within the minimum salary exception as it was a four-year contract. If Camara becomes a free agent, other teams will have multiple ways to sign him as even teams without cap space could use any of the Non-Taxpayer MLE, Room MLE, Taxpayer MLE, or Bi-Annual Exception to sign him. If Camara is waived and clears waivers, his value will likely have dropped low enough that he would only have offers for the minimum.
Cap Considerations
Josh Minott (Not waived by 3rd year of 4-year 2nd round contract, 2024) Brandon Boston, Jr. (1 year non-guaranteed minimum, 2024) Johnny Juzang (4 years, $12 million, 2024)