Zach Lowe - 10 Things..CJ's Pull-Up Artistry

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...things-like-featuring-cj-mccollum-jumpers-nba

10 things I like and don't like
1. C.J. McCollum's pull-up artistry
This dude is ridiculous. It's time to start talking about McCollum as one of the best pure shooters alive, along with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Dirk Nowitzki, Kevin Durant, Kyle Korver, Chris Paul, and a few others.

In his last 20 games, McCollum is averaging almost 26 points on a 50.5/41/89.9 shooting line. He has hit 46 percent of his pull-up jumpers, best in the league among guys who have fired at least five of those suckers -- the toughest shots in the game -- per night. Since the league started tracking pull-ups in 2013, only three players have exceeded that mark on five-plus attempts per game: Paul and Durant in 2014-15 (at 47.7 and 48 percent, respectively) and Nowitzki (46.8 percent) the year before.

In the NBA, there are threats, and there are weapons. A threat keeps a defense on its toes. They worry about it, but they don't change their whole scheme to account for it. They warp everything for a weapon. Nikola Vucevic's midrange shot is a threat. Nowitzki's is a weapon.

McCollum has weaponized an allegedly inefficient shot. He needs almost no space to stop on a dime, snap into that straight up-and-down balance, and rain fire. Keeping up with McCollum around a pick -- being almost on his hip -- isn't good enough unless you can reach around him, Kawhi Leonard-style, and contest his shot from behind.

Defenses have to sandwich him high on the floor, and that creates openings for the four other Blazers. (If only Al-Farouq Aminu could hit a shot again ...)

Portland will have issues playing championship-level defense as long as McCollum and Damian Lillard share the floor for 20-plus minutes per night. That has led a lot of thinkers -- including this one -- to suggest Portland's GM, Neil Olshey, quietly explore McCollum's trade market. Lillard is still the more valuable of the two; he jacks more 3s from further out on the floor, attacks the hoop with more muscly verve, and is better at setting up teammates.

But McCollum has made it a conversation.

That last line is obviously referring to the multiple threads on this site!

 

I completely agree! I am glad we have these conversations on this board though, helps me to process my thoughts and feelings. The more we discuss though and the more games that are played, I feel even more inclined that we need to keep both. Can't find a scorer like CJ that easily. It may take a lost season, but I'm hopeful the organization can get it figured out.

 

I agree, to an extent. But in order to make it work on a championship level, we'll need to add a big defensive SG to our bench. That way, depending on who we meet in the POs, we can have someone come in and make things hard for the opposing team's best guard for 20m. If we had a Tony Allen-type player off the bench that would help in situations where CJ/Crabbe/Turner just don't cut it.

 

Sure, neither of Dame or CJ are even average defenders...but I think the similarities between our combo and the situation GSW went through with almost trading Klay for Love is something we need to pay attention to.

A backcourt with the firepower and scoring ability Dame/CJ and Curry/Klay possess DO NOT come along often. A player like Draymond helped put them over the top...and he was found in the second round! I think you have to keep our core together and continue to stockpile talent and try to score in the draft. You can see since Christmas with adjustments to our defensive schemes that Dame/CJ can be a part of a solid defense. We just need to continue to construct a roster that plays to their strengths and hides their deficiencies. We've just got to be patient.

 

Klay is considered one of the best defenders in the league at his position. He's probably overrated, but he's at least in the conversation. Any comparisons to the defensive ability of our back court and how other players might cover for them die right there. GS has the luxury of hiding one bad defender, knowing most teams don't have two comparable points of attack.

 

Oh, I totally agree. That's how we make Dame/CJ work defensively, is to get that 3rd defensive bench player we can deploy when Dame/CJ are getting toasted by Klay/Redick/CP3/etc.

 

Someone like Avery Bradley. But he's prolly too good offensively now.

Maybe Wessy in a bench role?

 

Somebody compare our record with and without Aminu. I bet he's more of a difference maker (re: our record) than Lillard. He's that good of a defender.

I think saying both Lillard and McCollum could be good defenders is like saying Tony Allen could be a good shooter. Sure, in theory. But it ain't gonna happen.

 

But back to Lowe's comment: I agree. Memories of Brandon Roy's ability, at his peak, to get a bucket pretty much any time he needed. Only slight qualms I have is that he tends to ignore open or rolling teammates. It's not because he's selfish - he's ready to give up the ball most of the time, it's just he gets locked into scoring. But so long as they're going in...

 

Defense isn't just about athleticism and effort. At the high school level and below, perhaps, but in the NBA, talent factors into defense. Some players are much better than others at recognizing how the other players are moving, where they should be, how they should move. It's like saying passing is just about effort and desire--vision and pattern recognition are talents like anything else.

I don't think Lillard and McCollum dog it on defense--I think they're just not good at it. I'm sure they can work on it and improve to an extent, but most of their gains have probably already been made on their journey to this point. They already know all the basics and taught stuff. They likely just don't have the talent for it.

 

11-12 with Aminu. 10-10 with him as a starter.

 

And I don't mean to compare them defensively. But if you look at them offensively, I don't know the stats but I would have to say Dame/CJ would probably be the closest thing to them in the NBA. For us, it's all about finding our "Draymond", our 3rd piece that makes everything work. A healthy Aminu has had a great impact on us defensively, but he's not that final piece.

All I'm saying is that we need to be patient. Continue to build around Dame/CJ and keep looking for that transformative 3rd piece.

 

Sweet vindication is mine!

 

What Minstrel said. Why is it so hard to believe that defense requires special talents that not everyone has? Do we really believe that the only difference between, say, Tony Allen and CJ is that Allen tries harder?

Think of it this way: I used to think that face recognition was just something everyone did. But it turns out that we have it to vastly varying degrees. Some people are "super recognizers" - they can see you once in a crowd and recognize you years later. At the opposite extreme are people who are face blind (like Oliver Sacks, who once confused his own reflection in a restaurant for somebody else). Same thing for the things Minstrel lists, particularly peripheral vision and overall "sense" of where everybody is. Some people have it naturally.

Of course you can get better, but there's a ceiling, like with Shaq and his free throws. He actually put in hours of practice, but always got dogged about not practicing.

 

No he's not. He's an average starting PF on defense - woefully below average on offense. Has anyone ever cast a single vote, or even mentioned his name, for All Defense? Despite sitting out much of our awful defensive stretch this season, and coming back around the time we implemented meaningful defensive changes, his DRtg in 109, which puts him in the 215th - 264th (he's actually listed at #264) "best" defenders in the league.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2017_per_poss.html

He's very versatile - he can switch between guarding multiple positions and does just about a good on SGs as PFs - but he's not a great defender, or even necessarily a good defender. He has long arms, and decent quickness, but that's it. Far too often he's out of position and late on help or closing out on his man. For every good defensive play he makes, there are two or three missed assignments.

Aminu is our most versatile defender, but he's not our best defender. And even if he were, that's damning with faint praise.

 

wrong...incredibly wrong...even Lebron praised his defense...Aminu was not 100% when the season started and he was hobbled and trying to play through it...ended with a hamstring rehab....clearly a difference now that he's got his mobility back. Defense is a TEAM skill....break the string and it breaks down...Mo Harkless was lost without Chief guiding him vocally on D.....the whole team recognizes him as the best defender and his goal is to make the all defensive first team...not the skills competition at the allstar game