CJ McCollum Is an Opportunistic Garbage-Time Scorer

CJ McCollum has made the most of his opportunities for the Portland Trail Blazers when in garbage time. Tom Haberstroh of NBC Sports broke down his Garbage Time All-Stars this week, looking at the top 25 scorers who do the most damage when up or down 15 points. McCollum made the list as an “Opportunistic Scorer”:

The Portland shooting guard is shooting 51 percent from the floor, 42 percent from deep and 91 percent from the charity stripe in these blowout situations. He fits the same profile as Thompson -- an elite shooter who rarely gets to the free-throw line. He’s also someone who, until last postseason, had struggled to put up the same caliber of numbers in the postseason as the regular season.

McCollum is still a super talented scorer in tighter situations (21.4 points per 36 minutes), but he finds himself on this list because both his usage and efficiency rise when the game’s stakes are lowest. This is best illustrated by his whopping 25.4 points per 36 minutes in garbage time. The Blazers would probably benefit by figuring out how to have McCollum more involved in crunchtime simply to lessen the burden on Damian Lillard and make the offense more democratic.

McCollum is in the same category as Klay Thompson, Zach LaVine, Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook. You can read the full article here.