To be fair, CJ doesn't have his own team. CJ is, maybe, the third best player on that roster. He's clearly behind Zion and BI, so when he decides to go MeJ, nobody is thrilled because it means fewer shots for players that are clearly better than he is.
first of all...I want to make it clear I wasn't doubting what you said about the Pels coaches. I hope I didn't come across that way. New Orleans was obviously happy enough with him, based upon last season, to give him a 2-year/64M extension. Of course, Portland coaches praised CJ for a lot of years, and Portland's GM gave CJ 2 big extensions. I don't think those factors altered peoples perceptions of CJ as a Blazer though I've never said CJ is a "bad" player. He's just not an all-star level player in my view. By the way, I was not the one that coined the term MeJ, nor was I responsible for that nickname becoming ubiquitous among Blazer fans. Maybe CJ's biggest problem was how highly Olshey valued him. If Olshey would have done his job, CJ would have been a 3rd option in Portland; maybe better the 6th man...and paid at that level. CJ should have never been the 7 year starter at SG for Portland. I think that's why a big majority of Blazer fans were happy Olshey was fired and CJ was finally traded. CJ is a good scorer who has some really hot stretches of basketball like last year's regular season for the Pels and the first dozen games of 2020-21. But for CJ those stretches are never sustainable; at least they haven't been to this point in his career. He always regresses to norms. Obviously, he's been mired in the worst shooting slump of his career this season. I've said 2 or 3 times that I expect him to snap out of the slump and get back to his norms. maybe today was the start of that CJ appears to be distributing the ball decently this season. 2nd best assist rate of his career and a fine assist/turnover mark. But as a 3rd option with the ball in his hands as much as it is he really shouldn't be leading the team in shots. That should be Zion, then Ingram
It's becoming increasingly clear to me that posters on this board are a bit confused about a number of things. First off posters on here seem to think the perception about a player on here is what the majority of "Fans" think. That isn't the case at all on any level. Go to pretty much any game and talk to people walking in the doors of the Moda and they will most undoubtebly have a much different opinion perception on a number of issues. Posters on here are not casual fans. They are not even avid fans. They are almost clinical headcase fans. That's not directed at anyone in particular because here i am. It's so very obvious because who actually knows how much the 2 year extension was that the New Orleans Pelicans gave CJ McCollum over the summer without looking it up? Who would actually look that up as part of a conversation? How many actual Blazer fans know how much Nassir Little signed for last summer? I post here most every day and would have to look it up. I have never had a conversation with an "Avid" Blazer fan that i work with or spent any time around that ever said MeJ when speaking about CJ McCollum. Secondly it seems a number of posters on this board actually think they know what is happening with the team and the players/coaches. They seem to feel that every decision a GM makes could only be due to their preconcieved notion about a situation. I wonder how many times a decision is made about playing time and or a substitution due to factors that none of us as fans have any clue about. How many times is a player having an off night because his girlfriend is seeing another guy because he's been gone for 3 of the last 4 weeks. We all know new babies take time. We all know the dynamics of relationships are immune to money. Doesn't matter who you are or how much you make. Life is still life. Seems to me some of the posters on this board at times forget that the league and the team is a business and that business is run by people. Those people are fallable like all of us. They have feelings and they have frustrations as well as friendships. This is just the tip of the iceburg so to speak. I would think if we had a chance to speak on a regular basis with someone "In the know" on these issues we might hold those opinions a bit closer to reality than those of the twitterspace realm? Understand I'm genuinely speaking about myself as well as others on here. It all just seems a bit sureal at times this place they call S2.
Fwiw, the CJ skepticism is not limited to die hard posters here. The Dunc’ed On podcast just did a ranking of worst contracts in the NBA and CJ was top 5. https://open.spotify.com/episode/0wMIqn5lom4SqjCxvdhtTh?si=EEQbqbBvQUiAfBYoG5lzVA
I'm a die hard poster & yet I think CJ is both a very good perimeter threat and more or less the PG on the team with the best record in the West. Like a lot of teams today, the Pels mix the roles on offense playing position-less basketball varying who initiates the attack in part because their forwards are also good at it. Being the smallest player in their lineup he typically guards the other teams smallest player which is better then having him on a wing. His size and skillset are a much better fit in New Orleans then they were in PDX. Ingram has missed a good chunk of this season so it will be interesting to see how well they're doing following a good stretch of health. STOMP
I don't even think the "average" fan listens to post game shows. The average fan is going to bed after a 7pm start and the game being over at 10pm. Now they might catch a bit of the pregame show but even that might be hit and miss at times. So if you are calling people who simply watch and root for the team "Morons" then i don't know what to tell ya. They pay the bills.
Hey, sonny boy, I'm in AZ and I'm staying up to watch the Blazers home games that don't start until 8:00 Mountain Time.
I was just playing around with my post. Near as I can tell, all of us on this board are a little bit nuts in one way or another. Wanting to see the Blazers win is common ground…well, with maybe a couple of exceptions.
