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Willie Green Bides Time With Big Man Rotation

CJ McCollum Still Carving Out A Role With Pelicans

CJ McCollum is still carving out a role as the primary offensive initiator for the New Orleans Pelicans.

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New Orleans Pelicans
New Orleans Pelicans

CJ McCollum is still trying to carve out a role as the primary offensive initiator for the New Orleans Pelicans. 

CJ McCollum

The plan was straightforward when the New Orleans Pelicans acquired CJ McCollum. Let the Player Union President have the keys to the offense while showing Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson how to drive a playoff contender. McCollum proved to be a great fit next to Ingram during last year's run.  Still, the incorporation of Williamson has made things a bit more complicated.

However, this season, a McCollum-Valanciunas pick-and-roll with Herb Jones, Ingram, and Williamson lurking on the wings has a low ceiling. The lack of off-ball movement has the offense stagnant and predictable. 

So head coach Willie Green made changes in the win over Houston.

It has been difficult to predict the team's performances between the road-trip flight plans and the injury-plagued game plans.

Green shared in his pregame press conference, "I think it's a combination of execution and game planning on my part. I think it's also a combination of the stretch that we've been in. When I go back and look at 8 games on the road out of our first 11, just the whole stretch, we are where we are. Our guys understand that. We know we could be better but at the same time, it just takes work and we are committed to doing it."

The Pelicans are still trying to structure better which player has the keys to the offense. Ingram is unquestionably the quiet leader of this team and is again posting All-Star numbers. Williamson is a generational talent and gets hot when fed. Hence, the points come easy and in bunches.

But where does that leave McCollum? The wise veteran must provide steady guidance but has yet to get into a groove. Besides the bout of illness, how is he handling the on-the-fly adjustments this season? 

The stat sheet might not show, but most nights, the team and McCollum are happy, although the shots have yet to be consistent.

An upward trend in the coming weeks would not be surprising. Green said before the Pelicans' home win over the Rockets, “I think he’s doing fine. CJ will continue to progress as the season goes along. He's doing a good job of being balanced and finding his teammates. There are games where he has double-digit assists, and there are games where he is scoring at a high level. He’ll continue to progress, but I think he's playing well.”

The second-year head coach admitted that all three stars would have a chance to run the offense, but he was "proud of the fact we had 28 assists and just 12 turnovers, so that's pretty good. We have room to grow. We are continuing to build, but that was a good win for us."

Of McCollum setting ball screens for Williamson, Green explained, "I think it's just us adding more layers to our offense. We recognize that from the past with Z handling the basketball and trying to take advantage of mismatches is something that we need to exploit. I thought we did a solid night and we will continue to build."

McCollum and Alvarado can expect to share more time on the floor together as the rotations get shuffled to find the best pairings.

Green commented on his "tinkering" because "We are trying to get going early in the games, and not be down 8-9 points. So, we wanted to try and adjust our substitution patterns a bit. We’ll continue to look at it. Once again, I like where our team is right now. We’ve got to work through some things and in order to be the team we think we can be, we are going to have some hard games."

"Trying to get those two guys on the floor, what it does is it relieves CJ of some of the point guard duties. Then the ball can be in Brandon's hands, it can be in Zion's hands, but also Jose can initiate the offense. We will kind of keep tinkering with it and see where it goes."

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