Portland Trail Blazers: C.J. McCollum Hurt; Same Old Bad Luck Blazers?

Greg Oden played a total of 82 games in his 5 seasons with the Blazers, because of recurring injuries. (Flickr.com photo by Keith Allison)

Portland Trail Blazers’ fans know all too well how the injury bug can strike, and strike hard. Greg Oden, Brandon Roy and, most recently, C.J. McCollum. The issue here might not be that guys keep getting hurt — it might be that the Blazers keep using top 10 picks on guys who are prone to injury, but that’s an article for another day. Let’s focus on C.J. and the consequences here.

If you were too caught up in college football and hadn’t heard, McCollum broke his foot Saturday during practice. Not only is it a broken foot, but it’s the same bone (fifth metatarsal) on the same foot (left) that he broke last season at Lehigh — effectively ending his college career. Normal recovery time for this type of injury is eight to 10 weeks, so you might think, “Oh, that’s not all that bad.” Normally you might be correct, however McCollum broke his foot last January; 8 to 10 weeks would have had him back by early to mid-March — he didn’t resume full basketball activities until just after the NBA Draft … in June.

What’s the impact for the Blazers? Well, C.J. was expected to play about 20 to 25 minutes early on and slowly increase that workload if his play warranted. Now, the Blazers will rely even more on Wesley Matthews to provide big minutes. Yes, Mo Williams was brought in to provide scoring off the bench and he can do so at both the point guard and shooting guard spots, however C.J. was expected to be a big part of the rotation in his rookie season. Best-case scenario we will see C.J. suited up and ready to play sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas — worst case; let’s not go there yet.

This was a tough first week for Blazers’ camp with a lot of small injuries and finally culminating with this heartbreaking loss for a rookie with such hype. LaMarcus Aldridge hurt his quad (already back practicing), Mo Williams sprained an ankle (practiced Saturday), Will Barton sustained a concussion (has yet to be cleared) and Dorell Wright dislocated a finger (day-to-day) — so again this has been an injury-filled week but one that fans are all too familiar with.

Now that I’ve ruined your Sunday with this awful news — let’s find the bright side in this. One door closes and another opens. The player who stands to gain the most with this injury is none other than Will Barton; whom I wrote about here. Barton showed signs of brilliance last year once the season was a total loss and now he will have the chance to play a prominent role off the bench for this Blazers squad. Here are highlights from his best game last season where he posted 22 points, 13 rebounds and six assists.

This is bad, bad news; however, the silver lining is that general manager Neil Olshey constructed a great bench this season for this very reason. Well, maybe not this exact reason — but c’mon people, this is why any great team has depth. Hope is not lost on this columnist and I think McCollum will be back sooner rather than later and primed to fill his role as expected.

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