Since reaching stardom, Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum has been subject to media-driven trade rumors. Here’s why that has never made much sense.
In some form or another, this isolation has planted the seed for growth in every one of us. For many it came through knowledge and expertise, others through facial hair growth. For some, it’s produced an increase in controversial ideas and overthinking, two things that, as they relate to the Portland Trail Blazers, have never been positive things.
Through idle time, the scab has been repeeled: the question as to if the Blazers should trade CJ McCollum has once again come about.
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Perhaps more disappointing than anything is the fact that McCollum’s seldom been given a fair shake; even during his Most Improved Player award season — a time in which his $2.1 million cap hit was value heaven for the Blazers — experts around the league called for Portland’s front office to pick up the phone and talk business.
One would’ve thought that after CJ McCollum’s Robin, pseudo-Batman-type run during Portland’s Western Conference Finals trip, that we could’ve shut those talks down and flipped that phone like an old Nokia. After all, the Blazers went to grant their star a $100 million extension that locked him up for a five-year, $157 million contract, all told.
But once more, we find ourselves belabored with the same talk.
Don’t mistake this for me suggesting that the Blazers are prepared to ride a championship parade down Willamette if they keep No. 3 in town. But here are three reasons why trading him isn’t necessarily ideal for Portland’s long-term situation.