As if the Portland Trail Blazers’ 2025 offseason couldn’t contain more action and excitement, the franchise gave fans one more rush before the new season: The Blazers locked down guard Shaedon Sharpe to a four-year, $90 million contract extension on the same day they signed forward Toumani Camara to a four-year, $82 million extension.
On the latest episode of the We Like the Blazers podcast, co-host Brandon Mullen and I were just as excited as the rest of Rip City about locking in two key young players
at those price points. That was especially true because this is the same podcast that argued two weeks ago that Sharpe should get $140 million over five years. (We know, we know, we were really wrong).
Those contracts were the main focus of this week’s episode, as we talked about our surprise and what the deals mean for the Blazers. Like a lot of fans and pundits, Brandon discussed how the rational price points put Portland in a low-risk, high-reward situation.
Brandon: This contract, if Shaedon Sharpe continues to improve even a little bit, is going to look fantastic. … This contract and the Camara contract, if they both over-perform, could essentially subsidize other contracts that are otherwise not quite as team-friendly. The other way it helps them is in the trade market. If the Blazers choose to or need to trade either of these players at some point for whatever reason, it’s obviously helpful for that. [Sharpe’s] contract at this price is very close to impossible to being an albatross. This contract will be tradable even if Shaedon Sharpe does not get any better, and I think that’s a very important point. I will just say it now, Conor, I was wrong. I said five years, $140 million. I said I was trying to save Joe Cronin money. Clearly, I would not have saved Joe Cronin money.
We also gave strong scores for the Camara contract, especially considering how important the third-year forward is to the Blazers’ emerging identity.
Conor: The second half of last season, all of this hope about a defensive identity, it all starts because of Toumani Camara. He is the young guy setting the culture about what this team wants to be, and he’s the one who has done it the most. Making an All-Defensive Team on a losing team is a huge deal, so I’m just all for: Pay that guy. You gotta pay that guy!
The rest of the podcast talked loads more about the new contract extensions, including the favorable critical reception from NBA pundits and fans. We also dove into some listener questions from Bluesky about the deals and upcoming regular season (Note: the podcast was recorded on Monday, so our brief conversation around the Blazers starting lineup is outdated in light of Chauncey Billups announcing the starting five at Tuesday’s practice).
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