The 52nd pick who guards Jokic AND Dame (!)

To Manny Kamara, where have you been hiding? This relatively unknown 52nd pick out of Belgium has been on a defensive rampage this season. Recently holding Tyrese Halliburton to zero points on just three total shots after harassing him all night. And I'm not even sure that was his best game of the month. He went into Milwaukee and held Damien Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo to two total points when guarding them. Which is insanely impressive on its own, but it's mind-bending when you learn that those two combined for 47 in the game. That's right, Lillard snuck in his 16 points when he didn't have to deal with Kamara, and Giannis dropped 29 while Toumani was busy locking down Lillard. They just kept routing the offense away from Kamara, and that defensive performance sprung a Portland upset. The Blazers even recently tried him on Nikoli Jokic, and he guarded him really well, considering Jokic might be the best offensive player ever and is a 7-foot center, while Kamara's built like a classic big wing. It's actually Toumani's exact combination of size, length, and athleticism that reminds me of another No. 33 who used to occasionally foil great big men while stifling point guards and just causing general havoc on the defensive end of the floor. Scottie Pippen is often thought of as a perfect sidekick, an offensive Robin to Michael Jordan's Batman. But he took a backseat to no one defensively, finishing top five in Defensive Player of the Year five times in a six-year stretch. And for my money, he was the best perimeter defender of the 90s. Heck, he may have been the best perimeter defender of the 20th century with the versatility to lock down slower guards and switch and hold his own in the post against bruising big men. Pippen was 6'8", with athleticism that blanketed the floor at times. And by comparison, Kamara measured 6'7 barefoot, which is 6'8 or 6'9 for those of you who prefer listing heights in shoes. And he has a 7-foot wingspan, so he's the definition of a big wing. And yet, he's often deployed on the opponent's best perimeter player, from Lillard to Devin Booker to Shea Gilgis-Alexander. He's also versatile enough to guard Kevin Durant, Giannis, and Jokic, so he's close to the modern ideal of being able to guard all five positions, where his primary role is hounding star players full court and making it hard for teams to initiate their offense. Because he's so big and applies so much pressure, he's vulnerable to blow-bys from quicker players. But this is actually where Kamara works magic, because if he's beaten by his man, he can come crashing in behind the ball and make all kinds of plays. He often picks up full court, so teams will set really high screens to get rid of him, but then he can fly back to the rim and make some crazy save. And did you catch that? He altered his jump on the fly as Simmons faked, and yet he still spiked the shot. Impressive. Very nice. We talked about rear-view blocks a ton with Matisse Theibel a few years ago, but Tamani isn't just targeting his own man in these spots. Here we see that customary full court pressure, and then when he gets behind his guy, he somehow follows the ball on the lob to stamp it. And on this one, he's stalking Halliburton up the court, gets picked off, and this time veers off to defend the big man. And with the help defender out of the play like this, it's normally a dunk. But Kamara's so fast and long, he can save it. In these kinds of situations, he has to read his own teammate and switch at the right time. And then his speed and vertical do the rest. DeAndre Hayton cannot believe what he saw. And I think Tamani's best plays are all versions of him parachuting in from the perimeter to defend the rim, whether that's off a switch or the more traditional chase-down block in transition. But he does this in help situations too, where he's sliding off a shooter, lingers in the paint, and then explodes to break up the lob pass. And this one's even higher difficulty, where he's on a shooter, eyes the pick and roll, and crashes in to block the dunk that is impossible. I mean, he has to be quick enough here to recover, and then instead of targeting the ball, he has to jump to the front of the rim anticipating the dunk. My word. Now, think of a possession like this, where he's covering the point guard, and the value he's adding compared to a typical defensive guard. After he switches off, he still reads the primary action, so he can swoop in and erase a layup. And yet he can match up with Jokic, take away the backdoor cut, jam the post, then hold his position, and when the double comes, he peels off to block the layup, then when they can't corral the rebound, he's left on Joker Island and still sends it. Nope. This time he's on the weak side, ends up zoning up against two players, and then look at this absolute madness. He blocks that putback by tracking the ball off the rim, and anticipating a rebound, and does it all without fouling. So, there's an intelligence to his defense, yet he's still growing and learning. He didn't really defend on the perimeter until the end of his college career, and yet he talks a ton already, and will do things like double the post here, in order to switch out the smaller defender, so he can be the one guarding Giannis. By yourself, by yourself, by yourself! Stay with him, stay with him! If you're on him, make him go right. He's struggling, he's struggling. Here he's glued to James Harden, but instead of fixating on him, he quickly identifies a breakdown, and teleports over to destroy Norm Powell. And Kamara's late blooming even reminds me of Pippen, who played center in college, and then moved to the wing in the NBA. Athletically, Toumani doesn't really have the bounce and speed that Pipp had, but otherwise there are a ton of similarities with their tensile strength and length. Scottie would fly in from the perimeter, then cause havoc around the basket for finishers. And he's the author of maybe my favorite chase down ever, telling Jon Paxson to get out of the way, so he could inhale this layup. Despite playing on the outside a lot, Pippen could protect the rim fairly well, and Toumani certainly has a similar skill set, helping out near the basket. Kamara has held his own against stronger interior players, although right now he's not as dangerous as Pippen, defending these post players. Scottie made entry passes a nightmare for opposing guards, and he had more aggressive and active hands on backdowns like this. So they both swarm around and use their length and athleticism to cause problems, although Pippen was more of a playmaker in his era, with those active hands and his quickness. Scottie was also a master of drawing offensive fouls and charges, and Toumani might actually outdo him here, drawing nearly 2 offensive fouls every 100 possessions, and his 70 total offensive fouls drawn is nearly double second place Jalen Brunson's 43. Kamara actually had 5 in the Indiana game alone, and he'll often draw moving screen violations, chasing around guards and denying them the ball. Pippen also used to have these games where he'd just fluster opposing guards into low volume shooting because they either didn't want that smoke, or he'd just outright deny them the rock, creating frustration or leading to turnovers and sometimes easy offense the other way. Kamara is already 24, practically archaic for a sophomore today, yet his defense has already improved from his rookie season. Is there even more room to grow there as he adds experience? Can his shooting and offensive game expand to keep him on the floor for 40 minutes? And throughout this, you may be thinking, Portland's not that good, so what's the big deal? But in the last month, they've posted the 6th best defensive rating in the NBA, and Toumani has been a driving force behind their turnaround. So while a Pippen-level defender is a very high bar to reach, Toumani Kamara is already one of the better perimeter defenders in the league, and I'm excited to see him keep growing. To support this channel, patreon.com slash thinkingbasketball. That's where we have proprietary stats on teams and players throughout the year. We also have a Discord community, and you can get all of our extra video content over there, or sign up on YouTube as a member, where we also livestream the podcast. Thanks for watching all the way to the end on this one. Hope you enjoyed it, and that you are having a great day.