Errick McCollum attempted to argue in favor of his brother’s defensive impact this week. But he accidentally wound up doing the exact opposite.
The older brother of Portland Trail Blazers star CJ McCollum tweeted a response on Wednesday to the suggestion that the Blazers should bench CJ for teammate Norman Powell. Errick pointed to his brother’s numbers and called CJ a top-five shooting guard in the NBA.
Hell no, you don’t demote a player who is top 5 in the entire NBA at their position… he averaging 24/4/5 and shooting 40% from 3…. proven and has elevated his game every year in playoffs https://t.co/5ckPmNNTqL
— Errick McCollum (@ErrickM3) April 14, 2021
A user then commented about CJ’s supposedly poor defense. Errick replied by pointing out that CJ’s defensive rating this year is higher than that of the average NBA player. The only problem? A higher defensive rating, which measures the number of points allowed per 100 possessions, is a bad thing.
I speak facts not opinion/bias. So besides my experience & knowledge of game here’s a fact for you. The avg. defensive rating for an NBA player is 110.6. CJs defensive rating is 113.5. He’s above average by every defensive metric used to evaluate players. What liability? Carry on https://t.co/hJzD9OSS4D
— Errick McCollum (@ErrickM3) April 14, 2021
Errick then promptly got ratio’d for the funny error.
— JTA fanclub (@BayAreaPB) April 14, 2021
Sorry big dawg but the higher the number means the worse the defensive rating.
— MVPain DAME (@KindredSwerv) April 14, 2021
— Max (@mbetsey97) April 14, 2021
Eventually, Errick seemed to realize his mistake. Two hours later, he replied to his own tweet and correctly stated that CJ had a better defensive rating than the Blazers as a whole this season.
Portland’s team avg defensive rating is 116.1…. Team is better with him on court defensively. He’s an above avg defender on this team.
— Errick McCollum (@ErrickM3) April 14, 2021
Errick, a pro basketball player himself in the EuroLeague, was clearly just trying to be a good big brother. But Portland’s subpar performance on the defensive end is often a topic of contention. Errick probably didn’t help matters any either.
Photo: Frenchieinportland/Wikimedia via CC-BY-SA 4.0
