It's no secret that CJ McCollum is struggling. The dynamic combo guard is a sharpshooter and natural scorer, but he hasn't been scoring efficiently lately:
“I’m not happy about it,” McCollum said to Jason Quick of The Athletic. “I gotta do better. I have to figure out ways to help contribute. Nights like tonight, when the defense is loading up, you just try to make the right plays, and when the opportunity presents itself, you gotta be able to knock down the shot.”
All players go through slumps, but those struggles are more pronounced when a player is the first or second option on his team, as is the case with McCollum. As a result of his poor shooting, McCollum is searching for ways to impact the game:
“It’s hard,” McCollum said. “I try to defend better, guarding Russell [Westbrook], guarding some of those guys … but there’s not a lot of rebounds, Nurk is getting most of the rebounds, so … just try to be in the right spots, make the right plays, make the right passes when it presents itself and go from there. But when you have opportunities to be aggressive on offense, you take advantage. And when there is nothing there try to make something else happen for somebody else.”
Sometimes that's exactly what a shooter needs to break free from a slump. If CJ McCollum can distribute and facilitate for his teammates, his opportunities will open up. Everyone knows he's a dangerous scorer. He'll find his rhythm again soon, but until then, he needs to find ways to put his imprint on the game in other ways.
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