CJ McCollum Coming Off The Bench Could Be Best For The New Orleans Pelicans

The New Orleans Pelicans improved their roster this off-season, and still have decisions to make for the starting-five.

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The New Orleans Pelicans improved their roster this off-season when they traded for Dejounte Murray, who will surely be in the starting five.

That does, however, leave them crowded at the top, with seven men vying for five spots.

What could make their situation easier, and possibly even better, would be having CJ McCollum come off the bench.

McCollum, 33, was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers with the 10th pick of the 2013 NBA Draft.

After spending the first eight years of his career with the Trail Blazers, they traded the veteran to the Pelicans at the 2021-22 Trade Deadline, where he is now entering his third full season.

He has played no less than 32 minutes per game with New Orleans and scored no less than 20 points per game while serving as the starting point guard.

But with a crowded roster now, the best bet for McCollum and the Pelicans could be seeing the veteran come off the bench.

Running with the twos would give McCollum more scoring opportunities than if he were in the starting five, an aspect of his game that took a step back last season, seeing him take a career-low 16 field goal attempts per game, though he did connect at a 45.9 percent rate.

The move to the bench would lengthen New Orleans's lineup, easily giving the team one of the best backup point guards in the NBA.

This was a move that the Los Angeles Clippers made with Russell Westbrook last season, and they finished the 2023-24 season with a 51-31 record while Westbrook finished seventh in Sixth Man of the Year Award voting.

Westbrook was 35 last year.

McCollum could easily contend for the Sixth Man of the Year Award should he be in that role, entering only his age-33 season.

With McCollum coming off the bench, the Pelicans starting five could be Murray, Herb Jones, Brandon Ingram, Trey Murphy III, and Zion Williamson, giving the team a well-rounded starting five on both sides of the court.

It would be a tall task to get McCollum to agree to the role, as he is the player on the roster with the longest NBA tenure and the current president of the NBAPA.

In the end, it would go a long way to making the current lineup that much better, potentially even helping lead the team to their first 50-win season in over a decade.