Portland Trail Blazers: 3 goals for CJ McCollum in 2018-19
2. Shoot 53 percent from within 8 feet of the rim
There is no denying that CJ McCollum is a sharpshooter. He has shot 40.8 percent from 3-point range throughout his career, knocking down over 41.0 percent of his treys during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons.
However, McCollum struggles when he is shooting closer to the rim. In 2017-18, McCollum shot 49.2 percent from within eight feet of the rim. That number only slightly improves to 53.2 percent for shots exclusively inside the restricted area. However, both numbers are well below the league averages.
It should be noted, though, that McCollum isn’t alone in this issue. Damian Lillard shoots 52.9 percent within eight feet and 53.8 percent at the restricted area. To have the starting backcourt struggle to score when attacking the basket makes the Blazers offense that much more predictable.
Asking McCollum to suddenly shoot league-average from close range would be too much to ask, considering the gap between where he and the rest of NBA is in 2018. At the very least, you want him to start working toward getting to where Dame was last year. That amount of improvement should be just enough to get opponents to think a little harder about how they attack him defensively.