'For Us, These are Wins': Trail Blazers Lock in 'Life-Changing Money' for Shaedon Sharpe, Toumani Camara

📍TUALATIN, Ore. — If Shaedon Sharpe wanted to, he could have waited.

If he had a breakout year and made an All-Star leap this season, he could have made a lot more than the $90 million over four years he signed for this week. And if he made that kind of jump, the Trail Blazers would have been happy to pay him accordingly.

But a day before Monday's deadline for players in the 2022 draft class to sign extensions, Sharpe and his agent read the market and decided the safest option was to take the deal on the table. Even if they could have gotten more later, there are a lot worse things to have to "settle" for than $90 million.

"It's life-changing money," Sharpe said Monday after practice.

Toumani Camara and his agent made the same calculation over the weekend, signing a four-year, $82 million extension as the Blazers locked in two of their core players through the end of the decade.

The two extensions are cap-friendly deals for the Blazers and more money than Sharpe and Camara's younger selves would have ever imagined they'd make, so everyone's happy. They also signify a broader trend in the NBA when it comes to how players, agents and front offices navigate the current structure of the league.