Final 30 seconds of Game 7. ON THE ROAD. “I told coach ‘flatten it out and I’ll get us a bucket’”
CJ McCollum. The Most Improved Player in 2016. In 2012, he led the 15th seeded Lehigh Mountain Hawks over the 2 seed Duke Blue Devils. He continues to be, as Zach Lowe once called him, “the NBA’s Dean Malenko: a man of 1,000 moves. Some guys have a magic crossover, in-and-out dribble, hesitation move or up-and-under around the rim. McCollum has all those at expert level, and he’s uses them to unleash hell from everywhere.” That was in 2016. Since then, he only went ahead and dropped 30 points in the 2019 conference semifinals to force a game 7. CJ then went on to set a Blazers game 7 franchise record 37 points, and 9 rebounds. Not to mention making the BIGGEST play of the night in a major league CHASEDOWN block. Essentially, Mr. McCollum was called upon time and time again to make big plays, and he delivered. If he wasn’t burdened with the likes of MVPs James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry, and perennial all-NBA selections Damian Lillard and Klay Thompson in his conference, he likely would have made an All-Star team already.
What I have here for you is a video of a season that’s already come and gone (the 2016-17 season). This is a video of what he does to get JUST enough separation to get a shot off. In CJ’s case, separation might not be “separation” as we interpret it. He doesn’t need as much space as mere mortals do. He shifts and stuns and stops and starts and twists and turns to get all the room he needs. If you give him a second to breath, he’s giving you buckets. Sometimes when the feeling is right, he’ll decimate defenders by dancing on ‘em, and there’s not a damn things very many people can do.
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Here’s the article where Zach Lowe wrote those things about CJ that I was referencing: espn.go.com/nba...