CJ MCCOLLUM APPRECIATION THREAD!

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PG should never be an All Star over CJ again. I know they play different positions, but does not really matter. Media needs to stop disrespecting our boys.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
Maybe he is, but that's not the vibe I've ever gotten from him. I've always seen him as someone who wants the limelight, wants the big city, wants the connections. I just have a feeling that he's going to gravitate toward a bigger market with an eye toward furthering his media presence.

I very well could be way off here, but that's what I see.
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Most players want to be loved and appreciated by their fans. CJ IMO gets too much abuse on social media and message boards. Not saying he does not deserve to be criticized at times, all players do, but CJ is one of those players who gets more than they deserve. I think the vibe you feel is the uneasiness he has in Portland knowing so many fans view him mostly as trade bait. It takes a toll.
 
Pinwheel1 said:
Most players want to be loved and appreciated by their fans. CJ IMO gets too much abuse on social media and message boards. Not saying he does not deserve to be criticized at times, all players do, but CJ is one of those players who gets more than they deserve. I think the vibe you feel is the uneasiness he has in Portland knowing so many fans view him mostly as trade bait. It takes a toll.
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Piggybacking on this ... whether you like the style he plays or not, the fact is he has proven consistently he can get it done in the playoffs, and he does it in ways that are more than scoring.

And the fact that a guy who can break down a defense and get a quality shot for themselves almost whenever the ball is in their hands is one of the most valuable if not the most valuable skill in high-level basketball. He makes plays. But some fans get caught up in who he isn't or what he isn't instead of realizing there really aren't a lot of players clearly better than him in the NBA. Just the attention he commands from other teams makes the players around him better.
 
CJ IS THE MAN! THIS is exactly why you don't trade CJ. You NEED guys who can create their own shot in the POs, and CJ is one of the best in the league.

Also, that play where he ripped the ball from Paul, went 3/4 length of the court and drilled the 3 was NAAAASTY. That steal alone was one of the best steals I've ever seen. Then to cap it off with the pull-up 3 with a defender on your back? GTFO, man - it's too good!
 
blue9 said:
CJ IS THE MAN! THIS is exactly why you don't trade CJ. You NEED guys who can create their own shot in the POs, and CJ is one of the best in the league.

Also, that play where he ripped the ball from Paul, went 3/4 length of the court and drilled the 3 was NAAAASTY. That steal alone was one of the best steals I've ever seen. Then to cap it off with the pull-up 3 with a defender on your back? GTFO, man - it's too good!
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That was a phenomenal play.

One of my favorites from him last night was really early in the second half, he got the ball near the top of the key, started right, dribbled through the paint, back out the left side, back up top, back down the right side again, and hit a floater. Had the Thunder defense in a tizzy as he dribbled around and through all of them--literally running circles around the opposition.
 
blue9 said:
Also, that play where he ripped the ball from Paul, went 3/4 length of the court and drilled the 3 was NAAAASTY. That steal alone was one of the best steals I've ever seen. Then to cap it off with the pull-up 3 with a defender on your back? GTFO, man - it's too good!
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This shot was the most "CJ what the fuI FUCKING LOVE YOU CJ !!" shot ever
 
TorturedBlazerFan said:
I think it was Charles.

It was fantastic though, I don't think he realized grant was that close.
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Coulda been--I was half-asleep by that point. I just assumed it was Kenny because Charles has been told (by Kenny) that he's not allowed to comment on guards.
 
TorturedBlazerFan said:
I think it was Charles.

It was fantastic though, I don't think he realized grant was that close.
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I low-key thought he was trying to get Grant to run up his backside for three (or one) free throws. But, the dude was just feeling it most of the night, so maybe he was just like "fuck it - this is going in".
 
OKC is a great matchup for CJ because we can hide him on defense by guarding Ferguson. If we play a team that posts CJ up or has a player that can get his shot off over the top of him then some of the reasons people want to trade him will come back up again. I'm happy to have CJ right now though.
 
hoopsjock said:
OKC is a great matchup for CJ because we can hide him on defense by guarding Ferguson. If we play a team that posts CJ up or has a player that can get his shot off over the top of him then some of the reasons people want to trade him will come back up again. I'm happy to have CJ right now though.
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And yet, I've seen CJ make PG really work hard the couple of times he was trying to post him up.

CJ's pretty strong and physical. He's not little. He's short of the ideal for a 2 guard by an inch or two.

I guess I disagree with what seems to be the approach of most of the board that CJ is this huge defensive liability. He seems to block a lot of shots for a guard and many of the steals he comes up with are clutch. And he wears the opposition out on the other end because to defend him you have to be extremely disciplined and move your feet.
 
I think CJ has been more under control than ever. He doesn't take the dumbest shots like he used to. Also, him and Dame grew a lot from last 2 years losses. Especially last year's. They can't just take those wild shots like they did. They can't outscore everyone by themselves and taking turn being "young, immature and wild".
They are trusting others more. They have been challenged to become better leaders and they are responding. Can tell even from their interviews.
I love this version of CJ and Dame. I really hope they can continue to grow and take that next step this season.
 
PCmor7 said:
And yet, I've seen CJ make PG really work hard the couple of times he was trying to post him up.

CJ's pretty strong and physical. He's not little. He's short of the ideal for a 2 guard by an inch or two.

I guess I disagree with what seems to be the approach of most of the board that CJ is this huge defensive liability. He seems to block a lot of shots for a guard and many of the steals he comes up with are clutch. And he wears the opposition out on the other end because to defend him you have to be extremely disciplined and move your feet.
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I really don't want to bash CJ here in this thread, so please don't take this as me doing so.

However, every single defensive metric shows CJ is really bad at defense. He does try hard, I'll give him that. I also agree that chasing him around on offense does wear out opposing players. PG has been guarding him a lot this series and that is contributing to his struggles.

Yes, CJ has forced PG into a couple of tough shots in this series but please don't mistake a couple of possessions for someone being good at defense. There is a reason why our defense has been really good against OKC and that is because like I said in my previous post the Thunder don't have the personnel to exploit him.

CJ's been great this series. If he continues to shoot +50% from 3 then the Blazers are going to be very difficult to knock out of the playoffs. The people who want CJ traded also wish that CJ would improve his efficiency and his passing. In addition to defense I like to monitor three stats in particular with CJ which are TS%, Points Per Shot, and AST%. So far in this series his TS% is 58.7% (up from 55.3% in the regular season) which would be even better if he wasn't shooting just 43.1% on 2 point attempts. His Points Per Shot is 1.28 (up from 1.18 in the regular season). His AST% is a phenomenal 21.7% (way up from his poor regular season of just 13.8%, which was by far his lowest in the 4 years post Aldridge). If this is who CJ is, sign me up for him being a lifelong Blazer!
 
hoopsjock said:
I really don't want to bash CJ here in this thread, so please don't take this as me doing so.

However, every single defensive metric shows CJ is really bad at defense. He does try hard, I'll give him that. I also agree that chasing him around on offense does wear out opposing players. PG has been guarding him a lot this series and that is contributing to his struggles.

Yes, CJ has forced PG into a couple of tough shots in this series but please don't mistake a couple of possessions for someone being good at defense. There is a reason why our defense has been really good against OKC and that is because like I said in my previous post the Thunder don't have the personnel to exploit him.

CJ's been great this series. If he continues to shoot +50% from 3 then the Blazers are going to be very difficult to knock out of the playoffs. The people who want CJ traded also wish that CJ would improve his efficiency and his passing. In addition to defense I like to monitor three stats in particular with CJ which are TS%, Points Per Shot, and AST%. So far in this series his TS% is 58.7% (up from 55.3% in the regular season) which would be even better if he wasn't shooting just 43.1% on 2 point attempts. His Points Per Shot is 1.28 (up from 1.18 in the regular season). His AST% is a phenomenal 21.7% (way up from his poor regular season of just 13.8%, which was by far his lowest in the 4 years post Aldridge). If this is who CJ is, sign me up for him being a lifelong Blazer!
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I understand what you are saying. I just don't put the metrics as the be-all, end-all. There are so many variables that go into playing basketball as part of a team. I think it's even harder to measure than the metrics used in baseball and football.

The Rockets tried to build a team on computer printouts. They were good. But they weren't perfect.
 
PCmor7 said:
I understand what you are saying. I just don't put the metrics as the be-all, end-all. There are so many variables that go into playing basketball as part of a team. I think it's even harder to measure than the metrics used in baseball and football.

The Rockets tried to build a team on computer printouts. They were good. But they weren't perfect.
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I don't like using stats as an end all either (especially defensive stats), but you can't just call someone a good defender because you saw him get a key block in a game and just ignore every stat showing he is terrible at defense either.

I also don't get how the Rockets using analytics to build a team has anything to do with the defense of one specific player.
 
hoopsjock said:
I don't like using stats as an end all either (especially defensive stats), but you can't just call someone a good defender because you saw him get a key block in a game and just ignore every stat showing he is terrible at defense either.
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I didn't do that, though. I said I think he's a much better defender than he gets credit for on the board and analytically, and I pointed out much more than one reason why I believe that.
 
hoopsjock said:
I don't like using stats as an end all either (especially defensive stats), but you can't just call someone a good defender because you saw him get a key block in a game and just ignore every stat showing he is terrible at defense either.
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I don't think anyone is saying he's a good defender. However, it does get confusing when people rag on and on about CJ's defense, but then rave about what a great defender Curry is...
 
blue9 said:
I don't think anyone is saying he's a good defender. However, it does get confusing when people rag on and on about CJ's defense, but then rave about what a great defender Curry is...
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Can I ask why you hate Curry so much? LOL! It seems like you just decided you weren't going to like him at the beginning of the year.

Personally, I think CJ and Curry are pretty similar on defense. Curry has also come up with some timely defensive plays (big steals, taking charges) so if we're going to give CJ credit for that we also need to give Curry credit for that. With either one though we're in trouble if they have to log most of their minutes guarding a bigger wing who can create.
 
yuyuza1 said:
That block/steal leading to the three was absolutely ridiculous. Whiny P was stripped CLEAN.
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It was arguably the best play of the night. So nice to see him cap off that steal by draining the 3.
 
hoopsjock said:
CJ's been great this series. If he continues to shoot +50% from 3 then the Blazers are going to be very difficult to knock out of the playoffs. The people who want CJ traded also wish that CJ would improve his efficiency and his passing. In addition to defense I like to monitor three stats in particular with CJ which are TS%, Points Per Shot, and AST%. So far in this series his TS% is 58.7% (up from 55.3% in the regular season) which would be even better if he wasn't shooting just 43.1% on 2 point attempts. His Points Per Shot is 1.28 (up from 1.18 in the regular season). His AST% is a phenomenal 21.7% (way up from his poor regular season of just 13.8%, which was by far his lowest in the 4 years post Aldridge). If this is who CJ is, sign me up for him being a lifelong Blazer!
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This sums up my perspective perfectly. Some (such as myself) were dissatisfied with the way CJ's "skills" translated into contributions to wins. In this series, he seems to have altered his play for the better. That doesn't negate prior criticism--in fact it validates it. Were CJ to play consistently the way he's played this series, I think it's fair to say that his detractors would be far fewer.
 
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