Im gonna disagree, I dont think CJ sucks, but I think he’s got a problem here that he wouldnt have in other places. Its a bit similar to other teams that have two ball dominant players. CJ has shown at times that when he’s the PG he’s successful at running the team. He’s got a similar skillset to a lot of scoring guards. I think as the 2G though he thinks his job is to score every time he touches it. I think especially when he and Dame are playing together he gets tunnel vision, watch when they stagger him and he gets to play “point” he looks quite a bit different. Edit: So what Im saying is its kind of a complex fit for CJ offensively. He isnt a bad player but its something where I think he believes when he’s the 2 his job is to score, so he shoots a lot and makes some inefficient plays.
Sure there are some, but they are few and far between and to throw out that kind of accusation to someone that he doesn't know is pretty shitty. Some of the shit being said is being very disrespectful towards a player from a team they allegedly love. If they want to question if McCollum cares, then I should have the right to question what kind of fan they truly are. I'm outa hear as this is getting real old.
I couldnt tell you one way or another what CJ’s priorities are. Honestly if I had to guess it would be that he wants to win, as I dont think Dame would have gotten so close to him as a teammate if that werent the case.
If you read my post again, I simply asked the question. I'm not assuming anything so you just "bitched" for no reason. I am super competitive and only care about winning and doing whatever my team needs for me to win a game. In basketball I couldn't care less if I score 40 points or don't take a single shot as long as we get the win. I'll tell you what though if I was struggling I wouldn't jack up 19 shots, even if I'm the best player on the court. I always have people tell me I'm too unselfish though.
The "blame game" seems to be a "requirement" of any scenario involving the Blazers losing, or falling behind 7-2 in the first minutes. Not only is it disrespectful to the Blazers, but it disrespects the players on the other teams, by failing to recognize their abilities. I enjoy reading, but I no longer really participate in here. And quite frankly, the GAMES ( cos...its an entertainment game, after all) are more enjoyable.. The "blame game"......ugh..
When Dame waves good bye to OKC we're all excited and "blaming" him for it, or when CJ made the Block on Murray in Game 7 we all gave him the Blame / credit of making great plays. If we can talk about the exciting and "positive" things about the Blazers when they're winning. What is wrong with assigning the Blame / Credit when it comes to losing? This is, after all, a Blazer forum, NONE of us want the team to lose so we can talk about our disappointments, in whoever, Dame, CJ, Neil Olshey, Stotts, we want them to win. I get that we can cross over to being totally disrespectful at times but it's not very often on here you see someone saying oh I want this guy to go get hit by a bus because he's not doing basketball well... That's like twitter type nonsense. At least for the most part it's oh I want a guy traded or not on the team, or a new coach, it's relevant to basketball, and to how the Blazers are performing.
It always amazes me how some folks expect the fans to show more loyalty to the players than the vast majority of players show to the team, the fans, or the community. And yes, I know many people see Dame as an exception. You can respect a mercenary when they do a good job, but loyalty? Sorry, but my loyalty is to the team. If an individual player is hurting the team, they are fair game for honest criticism.
what I mean by “system” is that CJ is an iso or pick and roll player. He desperately needs good spacing. Our spacing has been bad, one salient example is Whiteside has no idea where to go and he’s constantly clogging the lane with 2+ defenders. CJ was the best mid range shooter in the league last year, he should have a green light to some extent. But yeah I see the forced shots. I get what you’re saying. But sometimes when you’re in a slump you can try to shoot your way out of it and make bad decisions. He doesn’t deserve to be called a “ball hog.”
this is completely revisionist history. It was Dame that largely disappeared in the Denver series, CJ was on fire the entire series, which is why you didn’t drop a billion stats about him. youre blaming CJ bc he couldn’t beat the warriors, arguably the best franchise in history? CJ was still a developing player for most of those years and the blazers weren’t in the same universe and golden state. Also you’re using regular season stats, CJ thrives in the playoffs. He’s averaged ~25 ppg in the last 8 playoff series. Your expectations are ridiculously high.
it’s the lack of loyalty. It would be one thing if he had been slumping for a couple years and you’re talking about trading him, but when he has a franchise record level playoff performance and people are calling him a bum and demanding he gets traded for a bad 9-game opening season stretch... it makes you wonder where this stuff comes from. imo it’s not just unjustified, I agree with the other people who say this is toxic. I think it hurts our chances of winning if our fan base is this extremely negative and makes mountains outta molehills over every little slump.
Serious question Cup: does it just not bother you when CJ ignores open team-mates or slacks off on defense? How often do you see him fight for a rebound or dive for a loose ball? Aminu is an unselfish player. CJ is the anti-chief. Even when he is playing well and is helping the team win, there is no way you can describe his game as "team first." It's more a matter of team goals and his personal goals overlapping. And no, I don't know him personally - I am judging him solely based on what we all see on the court every bloody game!
Was it Mark Twain who said "Loyalty to country always - to the president when he deserves it?" IMHO the same logic applies to the team vs individuals. I will always be the guy who roots for someone like Aminu while holding the door for someone like Harkless to leave. If you see that as "toxic", we will just have to disagree.
Not trying to argue with you but the numbers prove he is indeed a ball hog. Hood is too but that goes mostly unnoticed since he rarely shoots a high volume of shots. This is actually the reason why I'm so hard on CJ. He has the ability to be a playmaker. Every time he goes into his fancy dribbling he sucks the defense in. As his ball-handling has improved over the last few years his assist percentages have gone down. It should be the opposite. The most ironic part about it is if he did become a good passer it would get him so much more space when he does pull up in the mid range because teams wouldn't know if he's going to shoot or if he's going to find the open man. That alone would also improve his efficiency. Right now the defense doesn't even have to think about whether they should leave their man or not. Whiteside is easy to blame for this but he wasn't on the team the previous 3 seasons when CJ's passing numbers deteriorated. Plus the game in which I gave numerous examples was the game Whiteside didn't even play. If Nurk is important to CJ playing better then why has his 3pt shooting gone down each year Nurk has been on the team?
By the way, I do appreciate that you are discussing back and forth. You're certainly entitled to feel however you want about CJ and I'm not trying to change your mind, just showing why I feel the way I do. I just think in order to win a championship it's tough to have an inefficient high volume shooter with a low assist percentage as your 2nd option. Yes, that guy can get hot and win you games and even a series but it's not sustainable over 4 series.
total bullshit in that Denver series, CJ's had a .530 TS%; Dame was at .528 (when the league average is around .550). CJ averaged 1.12 points/shot; Dame averaged 1.21. CJ averaged 3 assists; Dame averaged 6. LOL....that's what you're calling "Dame disappeared" and "CJ on fire". Just ridiculous, but then that's what happens when Dame is held to a standard about 3 tiers higher than CJ's. I remember that same false narrative right after the Denver series coming from fans...."Dame played like shit and CJ was on fire!". CJ did average 1.3 points more than Dame, but he needed 3 more shots a game to do so....yeah man, on fire!! https://www.basketball-reference.co...ence-semifinals-trail-blazers-vs-nuggets.html I'm not "blaming" CJ for the losses to the Warriors. I've seen you talk up game-7-CJ in about a half dozen different posts today. I'm saying that CJ is not nearly as good as that game 7. Certainly, he's not as bad as the 9-game-CJ this season. But mainly, I was tired of you trying to frame things as people having turned on CJ just because of this season. People here aren't that stupid and shallow, and their memories are longer
