Trail Blazers' C.J. McCollum hates idea of 44-minute games
Portland Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum said he hates the idea of shortening games from 48 minutes to 44.
The NBA announced earlier this week that it would use the Oct. 19 preseason game between the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets to test the shortened game length, with each quarter being reduced from 12 minutes to 11.
McCollum averaged 5.3 points 12.5 minutes per game over 38 games last season after being selected in the first round of the 2013 draft.
"As of right now I hate it," he said. "I'm a guy who comes off the bench. That's just diminishing our role even more. Teams look to play their starters as much as possible. The shorter the game, obviously, it's more the starters play, which means it's less that the reserves play, which means we're less valuable, which means we get paid less, pretty soon we'll be out of the league. So I'm not in favor of it."
"When you're a starter, you play "x" amount of minutes, so you're going to get paid regardless."
• Northwest preview: Will Thunder still reign with Kevin Durant sidelined?
Since the 44-minute test run was announced, several players have given their opinions on game and schedule length.
Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzkisaid he believes the number of regular season games should be reduced from 82 to "mid 60s," while Cleveland Cavaliers forward James said "82 games is a lot."
Charlotte Hornets owner and Bulls Hall of Famer Michael Jordan said he never thought 82 games was an "issue" during his playing career.
- Chris Johnson
