Urbina: Well-Rounded CJ McCollum Is “Brilliant” Offensively

Portland Trail Blazers fans are already accustomed to seeing the intense offensive output of their two star guards, but one writer makes a case that one of them might be the best all-around scorer in the whole league. Frank Urbina of HoopsHype makes his case for CJ McCollum.

The Lehigh product doesn’t have great size at 6-foot-3, or absurd athleticism like many of his counterparts at the position. Even so, he’s coming off a career season – one that saw him average 23.0 points and 3.6 assists per outing on fiery shooting splits of 48.0/42.1/91.2 percent.

When you take a deeper dive into his numbers, you will note the year he just had was ridiculous for yet another reason: According to NBA.com, McCollum was statistically above average to excellent in every single play type listed on the site.

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He presented further stats to state the case for him. McCollum scored better than James Harden and Russell Westbrook in one-on-one situations. He also had a surprising skill running the pick-and-roll, the single best shooting mark of any player firing between the three-point line and the paint, and the single best shooting mark of any three-point shooter when their defender is within two feet of them.

Per NBA.com, only nine players heaved at least 20 shots from three-point range when being guarded closely (defender within two feet of the ball-handler). McCollum led all of them by successfully converting on 43.5 percent of such looks.

Just to reiterate, that is 43.5 percent from beyond the arc while being tightly defended. That’s a higher percentage than all but five players league-wide shot from deep, period (among those who attempted at least 100 threes on the year).

Urbina also listed McCollum’s abilities off the ball and shooting with his feet set, where he shot better than Klay Thompson and Bradley Beal. Overall, those are some absurd numbers, and give Blazers fans a lot of reasons to be pumped for the upcoming season.