the Trailblazers have very quietly won 10 of their last 13 games and aren't too far from a playin spot out west the Catalyst behind such an awesome stretch has been some absolutely suffocating defense in those 13 games they've had a defensive rating of 109.2 good for third in the NBA during the stretch and leading the way has been none other than second-year player to Mani Kamara Kamar starting to catch more and more eyes as he's as not just a good or even great defender but the type of guy you'd see on all defensive first teams
what is it though that makes him so difficult to score on and so valuable to the Blazers it starts with his role he's one of those players who's almost always going to pick up primary offensive options and make their lives as difficult as possible the thing is with the way teams stagger their stars and run through different guys at different times that means Kamar often matching up with two or three different players in the same game against New Orleans earlier in the season he spent a decent amount of time matched up with Brandon Ingram which
meant lots of mid postwork and limiting mid-range jumpers and he also spent some time matched up with Zion Williamson which brought with it a completely different approach a little over a month ago in Milwaukee Kamar had to match up with Damen Lillard which of course meant he had to deal with constant pick and roll and isolation play in space but when he wasn't on Dame he was battling with Chris Middleton in the mid post and forcing him into some really tough looks or he was on the Block battling with Giannis in the low post and
holding his own in those spots as well by the way when I say Kamar is picking up someone that means 94 ft with constant pressure he's one of those players who completely disrupts the flow of offenses and makes it annoying to even bring the ball up the court as a result he's a ble to speed up a lot of offenses forcing them to rush decisions and play with a lot more Pace that then puts him in a position to make plays if he knows his man is about to speed things up he can guess the
driving angle and cut them off but if he guesses wrong and his man gets around him he's not out of the play with a unique ability to recover from behind so like I said he's a nuisance he won't give creators even an inch of room to work with regardless of where they're at on the court and sometimes the only way to get him off the ball is with an illegal screen the reason all of this works from the pressure to the versatility is because he's got a pretty IDEAL Physical profile at 6'7 he's got perfectly
average height and he pairs that with a near 7 foot one wingspan which allows him to play a lot bigger than his position he's even at his moments bothering Kevin Durant who's basically made a top 15 alltime career off of not being affected by length unlike a lot of lengthy Wing Defenders though kamara's also got a strong sturdy frame so he can hold his own against bully ball creators that really stands out whenever he's defending in the post this time he's up against LeBron and absorbs a couple solid bumps to the chest before forcing him
into a really tough fallway jumper rarely ever will you see him moved off his spot or thrown off balance but even if he is he's got the recovery speed and length to still get a hand up that speed is the final piece to the puzzle it's not rare for a lengthy Wing to be strong it also isn't rare for a lengthy Wing to be agile what's rare is to check all three of those boxes he's very quick laterally with Elite hit Mobility which allows him to completely erase driving lanes and once he takes away those
driving Lanes not only is he a threat to make a play on the ball he'll put himself in perfect position to draw a charge this sort of eliminates the threat of an offensive player dropping the shoulder on this one you're going to see him cut off a drive from Zion and notice how he gets his body ready to draw a charge so instead of going through him Zion stops his drive and turns around for a lower percentage shot I think kamara's most impressive athletic quality though is his body control the reason he's able to stick
with shiftier guards is because he's always on balance bance even on a play like this where he falls for an up fake most Defenders would tumble into the ball handler but somehow he shuts off all of his momentum and lands perfectly Square I can honestly say I've never seen anything like that like I said he's got the agility to cut off most drives and because of that body control he can also decelerate to stay glued to the ball if the drive gets cut short this is actually another big reason he's able to match up with
more powerful creators his go-to defensive tactic against guys who like to drop the shoulder is to slow his own momentum and initiate contact with his chest then throwing them off balance instead now the strategy doesn't really work against players who really know how to sell the contact such as Shay for example so against guys like that it's all about preparing his body to absorb those bumps and he does an incredible job Luca's another one who makes it difficult and notice how after he cuts off a driving lane he leans back and braces his body knowing
the shoulder is coming that allows him to hold his position and get a hand up on the stepb three regardless of who you are it won't be easy to score on Kamar in isolation he's just too physically capable and his technique is just too good but he's also pretty good at making himself skinny to sneak over the top of screens so if ball handlers think they can lose him at the point of attack more times than not they're sorely mistaken this also applies away from the ball he's capable of staying attached to movement Shooters around
screens and he's got the length to make plays on the ball from behind if that wasn't difficult enough whenever a screener does land one hard enough to get him away from his man there's a pretty high chance he's selling the contact for an illegal screen or he's just accepting the hard screen and switching which brings me back to square one his versatility as a man Defender just look at this play against the Sixers embiid does a great job of slipping the screen to force a switch and Camaro responds by battling for position forcing the catch
all the way out near the three-point line then playing him straight up before selling contact for an offensive foul he unlocks so much switching within this Portland defense not only can he switch from guards to bigs he can do the inverse with seemingly nobody capable of breaking him down and so he's right at the center of the Blazer scheme where they'll switch any actions in the middle of the floor particularly between the wings just completely shutting off dribble penetration so he's one of the most valuable man defenders in the league you don't necessarily want him
matching up with fives but when needed he offers that one through five capability and that alone should warrant some attention for a potential all defensive team then the cherry on top is that if he's ever switched away from the action or or forced to defend a lesser offensive player he's still very effective as a helper his activity really stands out if you watch him on any given Possession It feels like he's always in the right spot at the right time and he basically never stops moving or rotating to make his presence felt as a low
man he clearly has a great understanding of where to be and when to be there on this one he slides down just a bit to tag a roll and that makes Edwards think twice only for Kamar to also be in the corner to contest a three and the reason Edwards had to think twice is because Kamar does offer some legitimate Rim protection at his position look no further than that game against the magic less than a month ago where he picked up this absolutely filthy rejection on Pao in transition only for pao to try dunking
on him again not even 30 seconds later with the exact same result with that said though when Kamar is coming over to protect the rim more times than not he isn't looking to go vertical he's looking to draw a charge just look at him on this play as ant looks to attack an isolation he's positioned himself in the middle of the floor early to help on a drive then when McDaniels gets an opportunity to drive off the catch he immediately beines it to the front of the restricted area to establish position he actually leads the
NBA and charges drawn with 23 and when you also add in the fouls he draws on a legal screens or when fighting for off ball position you're left with a guy who forces multiple turnovers a game even if he never touches the ball of course the drawback with getting in position to help early is that you have to leave a man in the corner well kamaro's also great at recovering to close that space anytime he's forced to close out from the paint to the perimeter he fully commits and if he gets beat you'll see him
spin back to the paint to stay attached to a drive and really to make a long story short there isn't anything Kamar can't do defensively I wouldn't say he has a singular superpower such as Lou dart's isolation defense or Dyson daniels's ability to force turnovers but when it comes to checking every box very few Wing Defenders can say they're as effective as Kamar defense isn't the question though he's in his second season and is already an all-nba caliber Defender the question is whether or not his offense would be able to hold up in a playoff
setting and whether or not there's room for growth as of right now his offensive game is very weak he'll have some moments such as when he went for 24 points against the Thunder or when he had back-to-back 17 and 18-point games against the Suns but the consistent product is still that of a pretty clear liability he offers little to no creation he's a poor finisher at the rim and although he's a solid passer he rarely finds himself in a position to make plays basically all of his time on offense is spent spotting up so his
development really comes down to if he can become a competent shooter he's already improved this season up to almost 36% on over 4 and a half attempts every 75 possessions but he's still a guy that defenses choose to leave open which does limit the spacing one thing I really like is that he responds to this lack of defensive attention by aggressively crashing the glass which can be a pretty big difference maker and the Blazers have explored some stuff using him as a screener to sort of mitigate the issues so we'll just have to wait and
see what happens as of right now I'm not sure I'd trust him enough offensively to stay on the floor in a playoff series against a top defense however with some more development as a shooter and maybe a little bit more of an offto catch slashing game I do think he can get to the point where he at least Treads water Treading Water offensively with all League caliber defense is a really good player who I think deserves to be talked about a lot more if you enjoyed this breakdown make sure to drop a like subscribe and
turn my post notifications on to be first on more content if you're interested in my more in-depth research make sure to check out the hoop venue podcast and my social media profiles you can find those links in the description feel free to let me know down in the comments what you think of Kamar as always I hope you all have a great day and I'll catch you guys in the next one
