Portland Trail Blazers: 3 goals for CJ McCollum in 2018-19

3. Average at least 5 assists per game

The Portland Trail Blazers averaged the 19.5 assists per game in 2017-18, the fewest in the NBA. Damian Lillard led the team with 6.6 assists per game, McCollum was second with 3.4 per game.

While those assist numbers show that McCollum utilizes his playmaking ability well enough, the team may benefit from him dishing to the open man an extra time or two every outing. McCollum only finished with five or more assists 18 times in 2017-18. Portland went 14-4 in those games.

Facilitating more ball movement will give Portland fewer instances of stagnant offense. There were multiple times throughout the season where McCollum and Lillard felt they needed to handle things in isolation. However, trusting a teammate to score on an extra possession can take some of that pressure off.

Portland’s offseason consisted of the front office acquiring more reliable offensive talent while also banking on returning players to step up their game. We will see if CJ McCollum and the rest of the team can connect on offense a little more this year, allowing the Blazers to spread the scoring wealth.