There are legitimate questions about what the Portland Trail Blazers will look like on the court in a few years and which parts of their young core will be part of that future, but an athletic scoring wing and an All-Defense forward can fit in any plan.
Which is why Portland locked down two key young players on Sunday with rookie contract extensions. The Blazers and Shaedon Sharpe agreed to a four-year, $90 million extension, a story broken by Shams Charania of ESPN. The Trail Blazers have also agreed to a four-year, $82 million contract extension with defensive forward Toumani Camara, a deal also broken by ESPN’s Charania.
This is fantastic work by the Portland front office — they have locked up their two best wing players for the next five years at a price that will be less than 15% of the salary cap (hat tip to Keith Smith).
Sharpe is an athletic wing who averaged a career-high 18.5 points a game last season, adding 4.5 rebounds a night, but seems poised for a breakout season. He needs to improve his efficiency — 31.1% on 3-pointers last season and a 55.1 true shooting percentage that was a tick below the league average — and on the defensive end, but if he does, this will be a steal of a contract. His athleticism and ability to throw down dunks are not in question.
A lot of people around the league thought Sharpe’s extension would end up north of $100 million, to get him at $90 million for the four years is a win for the Trail Blazers.
The Camara extension locks up a 25-year-old All-Defense Team player from a year ago who has been improving on offense each season. Camara’s max extension would have been four years, $87 million, and that would have been a fair price. To get him on a contract worth less than $21 million on average is a great deal from Portland’s front office.
Camara was almost a throw-in part of the three-team trade that sent Damian Lillard to Milwaukee and brought Deandre Ayton to Portland, but he ended up being one of the best parts of it for the Blazers. On top of being an elite defender, Camara is improving on offense and averaged 11.3 points and 5.8 rebounds while shooting 37.5% from beyond the arc last season.