Portland Trail Blazers: CJ McCollum is a top five shooting guard in the NBA

Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum is criminally underrated. Why does one of the best shooters in the league not get the national credit he deserves?

Each year, those that watch Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum regularly, wonder how he doesn’t get the praise that he deserves on a national level.

Whether people are trashing his defense, or saying that he’s overpaid, we’ve heard all the insults under the sun. The fact is though, CJ is a top five shooting guard in the league.

CJ is different, we all know that. He is crafty. He uses smarts over brute force. He loves the mid-range. He is a throwback to the shooters of yesteryear.

But he is damn good at all of these things. Let’s break it down.

CJ’s game is versatile. He is a great three-point shooter, he has never dropped below 38 percent from three. He is adept at hitting threes from the corner or above the break. He can hit them on stepbacks or off the dribble.

Though not on huge volume, he is in the upper tier of three-point shooters in the NBA when you combine volume and efficiency. 36 percent of his shots this year came from three, and he hit on 38 percent of them.

From the mid-range, he has had one year of 44 percent ( still in the 83rd percentile ) but this year he is at 47 percent and has had years of 48 and 49 percent in the last four seasons. From the mid-range, he hasn’t embraced the analytics movement and it has worked for him.

CJ just takes whatever shot he thinks is best, this means around 45 percent of his shots come from the mid-range. Every year bar 2017 / 18 he has been in the top ten in the league in mid-range efficiency.

Because of his size and slight frame, CJ isn’t a great finisher at the rim. But, for a guy that came into the league shooting 44 percent and then 51 percent at the rim, his percentage of 56 percent this year is pretty good. To put this into perspective, this season, CJ has finished better at the rim than Dejounte Murray, Malcolm Brogdon and Caris LeVert.

From the free throw line, CJ has had a down year at 74.8 percent, but four of the last five he has been over 82 percent.

In terms of his overall game, there are very few players who are as versatile as CJ.

James Harden is at the top of the tree when it comes to shooting guards, but CJ is firmly in the top five for a number of reasons.

He is playoff tested, at the highest levels. We know he can get you a bucket from multiple spots on the floor in the playoffs where it matters most. This takes him past Devin Booker. Consistency takes him past Bradley Beal, who has shot under league average from three the past two years.

In last year’s Western Conference semifinals against the Denver Nuggets, with Damian Lillard exhausted after his massive efforts in the first round against the Thunder, CJ had two of the biggest games of his life.

In the 4OT thriller he had 41 points in 60 minutes played. While in the do or die game seven away at Denver, he had 37 points on 58 percent shooting. Sorry Bradley Beal, you aren’t clutch like this.

CJ can get to the rim, he can step back, he can pull up. He has one of the best floaters in the league. He can shoot off the dribble after a combo move on the perimeter. Or he can shoot off the dribble in transition.

Don’t look at his regular season stats to try and quantify his value. Look at his playoff performances, watch his games and the difficult shots he takes and makes.

Consistency is the mark of a great shooter and CJ has this in spades.

His consistency, combined with his versatility and the fact that he plays better in the playoffs than in the regular season, has him firmly in the conversation when it comes to top shooters and shooting guards.

Don’t look at what CJ doesn’t do, look at what he does do at an elite level, and you will see he is a top five shooting guard in this league.