Two members of the Portland Trail Blazers made it on HoopsHype’s list of the top 26 power forwards heading into the 2025-26 season: Toumani Camara and Jerami Grant.
Coming off a stellar sophomore campaign that included NBA All-Defensive Second Team honors, Camara was the higher finisher at No. 13 on the list. HoopsHype’s Frank Urbina handled the write-up that accompanied the staff rankings. He paid respects to Camara’s less-discussed offensive game, while raving about Camara’s calling card as a defensive
menace.
A young player we have huge hopes for in 2025-26 is Portland third-year forward Toumani Camara, who is coming off a magnificent season, one that saw him average 1.5 steals, finish Top 10 in Defensive Player of the Year voting and earn 2nd Team All-Defense honors, ridiculous feats considering he was a late second-round pick in the 2023 draft.
Camara also has a little something on the offensive end, shooting 37.5 percent from beyond the arc last season and finishing well off of cuts to the basket.
But it’s his defense that makes him special, as Camara is a pest on the less glamorous end of the floor, guarding opposing ball-handlers 90 feet away from the basket as they try to bring it up, jumping passing lanes, blocking shots and facing up foes off the ball to prevent them from getting to the ball – all while possessing the ability to defend multiple positions.
The veteran Grant placed nine spots below Camara at No. 22 on the list. Urbina acknowledged Grant is coming off a down season scoring the basketball, but he also said the rangy forward’s versatility on both ends of the floor still makes him an effective player.
Versatile power forward Jerami Grant is coming off a pretty down campaign, one that saw him shoot just 37 percent from the floor and average his lowest points per game total since 2019-20, when he was a role player for the Denver Nuggets. Not only was Grant pretty inefficient in 2024-25, but he also hasn’t played in more than 63 regular-season games since that same campaign, another worrying trend now that he’s reached the other side of 30.
On the other hand, Grant is shooting 39 percent from three over the past three seasons combined, has a good face-up game, can handle the rock a bit, and can defend multiple positions, albeit none at an elite level.
Grant is a solid player, but he may be best suited coming off the bench if he were to join a contender, to make a bigger impact on winning.
The power forwards list is the second-to-last installment of HoopsHype’s offseason positional rankings series, with only the center position remaining. Outside of Camara and Grant, three other Blazers have been featured in the series so far: Jrue Holiday (No. 21 among point guards), Shaedon Sharpe (No. 17 among shooting guards) and Deni Avdija (No. 10 among small forwards).
You can read HoopsHype’s full list of power forwards here.
