#MCM- C.J McCollum, SG, Portland Trail Blazers
@Hoover__26 March 28
There have been plenty of unlikely heroes in professional sports, far too many to mention. C.J. McCollum is certainly one of them. After starting his high school career standing at 5’2” tall (he is now 6’4”), he became an elite high school player. Then, after joining a Lehigh team that had 0 players to ever play in the NBA, and hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2004, he helped his team defeat 2 seeded Duke (sounds like this tourney). He then made history as the first Lehigh player to play in the NBA after being drafted 10th overall by the Blazers. Now, he’s gone from a reserve guard to one of the elite scorers in the NBA. After overcoming all of this, I can’t wait to see what he does next.
McCollum’s numbers have made a quantum leap this season (as @jagibbs_23 predicted before the year began). Not only has he gone from under 7 points per game last year to over 20 this year, but his game as a whole has improved. His three point shooting has gone up every year he has been in the league, and his balance of shots has greatly improved. He used to take about 40% of his shots from long range, and about 29% of those threes were from the corner. Now, he takes more open midrange jumpers, and shoots over 44% from 3ft out to just inside the three point line. He has improved his True Shooting Percentage every year he’s played, and is sitting at 7th at his position in Assist/Turnover ratio this season. McCollum is currently sharing the backcourt with Damian Lillard, who takes 20 shots per game, so C.J. is clearly not the team’s #1 option. This could be seen in multiple ways, as some may say that playing with an elite teammate draws the defense away and creates more scoring opportunity (the Draymond Green argument). However, it should also be considered that playing with a shot-hungry star actually decreases the number of opportunities you have to increase your numbers (what I consider the Rudy Gay or Kevin Love argument).
C.J. McCollum has been possibly the fantasy surprise of the year, sitting in the top 30 in total espn.com fantasy points. He has been one of the most consistent guards in the NBA this year, and has won some people a ton of fantasy matchups. With the kind of talent and potential he has, I wouldn’t be surprised if this week’s #MCM still has more to show us.
McCollum’s numbers have made a quantum leap this season (as @jagibbs_23 predicted before the year began). Not only has he gone from under 7 points per game last year to over 20 this year, but his game as a whole has improved. His three point shooting has gone up every year he has been in the league, and his balance of shots has greatly improved. He used to take about 40% of his shots from long range, and about 29% of those threes were from the corner. Now, he takes more open midrange jumpers, and shoots over 44% from 3ft out to just inside the three point line. He has improved his True Shooting Percentage every year he’s played, and is sitting at 7th at his position in Assist/Turnover ratio this season. McCollum is currently sharing the backcourt with Damian Lillard, who takes 20 shots per game, so C.J. is clearly not the team’s #1 option. This could be seen in multiple ways, as some may say that playing with an elite teammate draws the defense away and creates more scoring opportunity (the Draymond Green argument). However, it should also be considered that playing with a shot-hungry star actually decreases the number of opportunities you have to increase your numbers (what I consider the Rudy Gay or Kevin Love argument).
C.J. McCollum has been possibly the fantasy surprise of the year, sitting in the top 30 in total espn.com fantasy points. He has been one of the most consistent guards in the NBA this year, and has won some people a ton of fantasy matchups. With the kind of talent and potential he has, I wouldn’t be surprised if this week’s #MCM still has more to show us.