Your perception of McCollum is incorrect. He has never shown any tendencies that it's all about him as he often refers to Lillard as the leader and best on the team. Your hate is blinding you.
This play has nothing to do with making the extra pass. This play has everything to do with making the unselfish decision of sprinting up the court turning a 2 on 2 situation into a 3 on 2. Without CJ sprinting here TrentJR never gets this shot. My post was directed at someone calling CJ selfish. I showed a play. One of many CJ makes throughout every game. Showing that people are too focused on CJ when he has the ball. There were even a couple posts a couple weeks ago iirc that were 'hating' on cj because his leading the league in miles ran isn't effective because he's too slow. This play counters that point, also counters people who call CJ selfish.
There will always be examples of CJ doing something that can be pointed out as 'unselfish'. However, it is much easier to point out numerous occurances where that is not the case....and they are much easier to find. The exception almost proves the rule just by it's rarity.
While it's easier for people to recognize when a mistake is made. It's far more difficult for people to see when a player makes a play like CJ did in the specific play I pointed out. Simply because they're not looking for that play. I'd put money on 9 out of 10 people on this board missed CJ sprinting up the court to force that 3 on 2 opportunity. It was more excitement because Trentjr made a wide open 3. They don't ask why he got that wide open three. But I guarantee you they don't miss when he has a bad turnover from over dribbling. CJ is a flawed player, but he's far from selfish like the post I quoted stated. I expect better takes out of this fan base than to call someone who is clearly not selfish, selfish.
Nah that's BS. It's because he rarely attacks the rim. This season CJ has shot 88 Lay-ups, 5 Dunks and 332 Jump-shots. You obviously can't get much calls shooting mostly jump shots. In comparison, Dame has had 188 Lay-ups, 12 Dunks and 292 Jump-shots, so you can see why Dame would go to the line more frequently, as most fouls happen under the basket.
there's also the factor that Dame doesn't shy away from contact in the paint....CJ avoids it like the plague
I don't think anyone has said he is ALWAYS selfish. But his style of play lends itself to selfishness just because at times he will dribble the air our the ball very often passing up WIDE OPEN teammates. His assists went down for 4 years in a row while his usage rate went up. To be fair, his assists have ticked up a bit this season but still not even to his 3rd year in the league which was his first year starting. There are also many nights when teammates are shooting so much better than he is but instead of trying to get them the ball or creating to draw defenders and getting them a shot, he will continue to make sure he gets his. #9 in eFG% while 2nd in FGA. Doesn't seem like he is very interested in teammates much more efficient than he is. Seems overall selfish to me.
I get it. I brought up a play that countered the narrative you like to post about in every game thread. I'm not going to go and bump those threads because it's not worth the effort. Just like reading and responding to you once my point was proven was far from worth the effort. I'm not going to continue to bring up. 'Oh sometimes this happens' Because frankly. Those like you who think CJ is selfish and hurting the team will never change their opinion. Even when he does this. CJ is a flawed player. But you could do a lot worse. Like Simons. I'm glad you, and others are not in charge of the Blazers basketball decisions. Team would be even more in the shitter.
I agree with the play....nothing wrong with that. The issue is bigger picture. It was a few plays in a game. But the overall game is not much hustle on defense (to me, that is selfish) and a lot of Iso or ignoring of teammates on offense when he is not that efficient. (again, that seems selfish) He does do somethings unselfishly, but I'm looking at a much bigger picture than a few plays a game. A season, several seasons, a career?
Chicken and the egg my friend. I'm saying WHY he doesn't drive to the rim more, you're showing me the numbers which indicates he doesn't do it.
Here is CJ percentages of shots taken at the rim each season since he became a starter: 2015-16: 16.9% 2016-17: 17.6% 2017-18: 18.7% 2018-19: 17.6% 2019-20: 16.9% The mirror effect is uncanny, but aside from that, can you point to me when CJ realized that he should stop driving to the rim because he doesn't get calls ?
It's speculation of course, but i watch how he and Lillard get smacked when they go to the rim and i see their frustration when they dont get any calls. Lillard is able to both mentally and physically overcome this and his "layup package" is more complete thanks to his athleticism, CJ seems to go around that problem since statistically he was one of the best midrange shooters in a league which mostly allow open shots from that range.
Actually you're not looking at the bigger picture at all. You're looking at the easy stuff. Stuff that someone whos watching basketball for the very first time could see. Simply because it's glaring. I'm not defending CJ in the fact that he's a flawed player. Stuff like this is easy to see. All you have to do is watch the ball. CJ has made plays like I pointed out this throughout his entire career. He continues to make them every game he plays in. However you don't see those because it's easier to watch the ball and go. ''Hm cj is selfish because when he has the ball he misses teammates, over dribbles, doesn't hustle on defense etc.'' It's hard to see plays like I pointed out here. Why? It's certainly not because CJ isn't attempting to make them all game long. These plays however show he's not selfish. They do prove he's flawed.
This thread could have saved a page of Honkie's posts, if someone a page ago, instead of using the word "selfish" had just said, "Stotts trained McCollum to think only of shooting." The same as Trent now.
I think CJ developed a style of play when he was very young and very undersized compared to those he played against. This style avoided contact as much as possible because who wants to get knocked down every day by a lot bigger guy. I also think it required a tremendous amount of focus for CJ to score over an entire team that was much bigger than him. He still has that tunnel vision focus. To me, it's his early times as a "midget" that shaped his style. Later he grew a lot but has never been able to outgrow those early habits. So it's hard for me to be angry at him; I just would prefer that he was on another team.
Can we just trade the half dozen posters who want to turn every thread into a "CJ sucks" thread? It takes too long for the playoffs to arrive -- where CJ is always our best player -- to shut them up temporarily.
2018-19 playoffs: PER: CJ 17.9....Dame 20.6 TS%: CJ .527....Dame .566 points/shot: CJ 1.13....Dame 1.30 FT rate: CJ .160....Dame .345 winshares: CJ 1.0....Dame 1.6 winshares/48: CJ .079...Dame .119 off rating: CJ 108....Dame 111 def rating: CJ 115....Dame 113 OBPM: CJ 2.4....Dame 5.4 DBPM: CJ -1.2....Dame -0.6 BPM: CJ 1.2....Dame 4.9 VORP: CJ 0.5....Dame 1.1 that "CJ is always the best player" is bullshit. Check it out if you don't believe it. It's been the Dame/CJ team for 4 playoffs now, and Dame has been better in 3 of 4 playoffs. The only playoffs CJ has been better is the 2017-18 playoffs when the Pelicans doubled, tripled and trapped Dame all over the floor. The one playoffs when CJ was better Portland won 0 games; when Dame was better Portland won 13 games. Pretty clear who has an impact on winning
Run the same numbers ignoring the OKC series, if you dare. That's the only series going back to Houston that Dame has been above mediocre, and we all knew going in that it was his chance to shine if OKC/Russ were dumb and proud enough to guard him straight up. Denver and GS ... he was back to not knowing how to handle a trap.
