The Kia NBA Most Improved player saw an unprecedented breakout in his third season as a Trail Blazer after Portland drafted the 6-4 combo guard out of Lehigh University with the 10th overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. After two seasons of dealing with injury and waiting in the wings behind veteran shooting guard Wesley Matthews, the spotlight was McCollum’s in year three.
Following up his coming-out party in the Trail Blazers 2015 NBA Playoffs matchup with the Memphis Grizzlies, McCollum dropped a career-high 37 points on 14-of-22 shooting from the field, 6-of-9 from deep to lift Portland to an opening night victory over the New Orleans Pelicans at Moda Center on October 28. The showing was just an appetizer of what the Blazers and fans would get from McCollum throughout the season.
The combo guard played – and started – in all but two games this season, failing to score in double figures just once. McCollum recorded eight 30-plus point performances, scoring 20 or more points on 40 occasions. As his backcourt partner Damian Lillard sat to rest his plantar fasciitis, McCollum achieved perhaps his greatest feat of the season: 35 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists and five steals in a 98-94 win at Sacramento on December 27. McCollum became the first player hit those benchmarks in an NBA game since Timberwolves great Kevin Garnett did so back in 2004.
McCollum achieved career highs of 20.8 points, 4.3 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game all while shooting 44.8% from the field and 41.7% from behind the tree-point arc – also highs for his three-year career. Upping his scoring average by 14 points from 2014-15, McCollum recorded the largest points-per-game increase in 26 seasons. The crafty 24-year-old guard finished in the top ten in the NBA for three-point percentage and in the top 20 in scoring, while combing with Lillard for the third-highest scoring tandem in the league with an average of 45.9 points per game.
Off the court, McCollum put his journalism degree to work, publishing entries for The Players’ Tribune, provided analysis on SportsCenter during the postseason in addition to hosting his own weekly show “The Playlist” on JAM’N 107.5 and serving as a regular guest on “Rip City Mornings with Bunker and Danforth” on Rip City Radio 620. McCollum’s media efforts went beyond building his own brand; he also set up “CJ’s Press Pass,” a program providing local students with a chance to get their feet wet in the world of journalism.
McCollum’s third season as a Trail Blazer served as a foundation for a bright future in Rip City, joining Lillard to form one of the NBA’s most potent partnerships for years to come.