Portland Trail Blazers: Never Bet Against CJ McCollum
It’s still early in the 2019-20 NBA season and fans of the Portland Trail Blazers are beginning to worry that their star SG CJ McCollum won’t get back on track. Fear not, Blazer fans, McCollum is not wet behind the ears. For his career, CJ has averaged 17.9 points but even those numbers are misleading. In his first two seasons, McCollum could not get the necessary time or shot attempts needed to be considered with the game’s elites.
But that all changed in his third season. During the 2015 campaign, McCollum exploded from 6.8 points per game to 20.8 and just like that, a star was born. From there on out, McCollum has not averaged less than 20 points for the last 4 full seasons. So why the shrugs now? I mean, look at his numbers through the first seven games. McCollum is averaging 20.7 points but I guess fans are bickering because his shooing percentage is down (.401). Yet, they have not noticed that his free-throw attempts are up meaning he’s going to the basket more and not settling for the perimiter shot.
According to Stevie Cozens of Rip City Project–there’s’ no need to worry.
McCollum usually averages 43.3 percent from the field in October, this is in comparison to his career field goal percentage of 45.4 percent. This is a career theme and a sign that he will usually bounce back quickly in the next month.
While the Blazers are not running away with their division, it’s still early. The team has new pieces they are throwing into the mix and they’re still without their ace big man Jusuf Nurkic. Another thing Cozens wants fans to consider;
With the injuries to key players and lack of other volume scorers, McCollum has so far had to carry a massive offensive load that he isn’t used to. Alongside career high usage and minutes he’s had a bigger role than usual. It hasn’t been the easiest of starts for him or the team but its a long season and he has plenty of time to show everyone how good he is. Look for him bounce back prior to Christmas, he’s far too good not to.
In the long run, just give him time to get his footing. CJ McCollum is too good of a player to struggle all season. And when he does get it right, the rest of the NBA understands how dangerous he can be when he gets hot. The funny part about all this is, if fans call averaging 20 points struggling, then they may not know much about basketball to begin with.
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
