While it's common for players to get together at the Trail Blazers' practice facility for workouts throughout the offseason, with the start of training camp roughly three weeks away, there are an increasing number of players returning to Portland to begin preparations for the 2018-19 season. But some players choose to get their workouts in at various locations across the globe before hunkering down for the eight-month NBA season.
Such is the case for Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum, who has spent time in Portland during the 2018 offseason but is currently in New York participating in workouts put on by Chris Brickley, one of the foremost trainers of NBA players. One of the reason's Brickley's runs are so sought after are because of the caliber of players who attend said runs, as you can see from a video he posted today featuring McCollum going toe-to-toe versus Oklahoma City guard and 2017 MVP Russell Westbrook...
Credit: @Chris Brickley
While it's a five-on-five run, McCollum (in black) and Westbrook (in blue) end up checking each other on multiple occasions. You can't really tell who got the better of the other -- as with most workout videos, nobody misses a shot -- but that's not really the point anyway. The goal is to get better, and playing against some of the best players on the planet, win or lose, is a good way to achieve that goal.
This isn't the only time this summer that McCollum has linked up with some of the top names in the NBA, as he participated in the Dwyane Wade Invitational with the likes of Chris Paul, Jimmy Butler and Carmelo Anthony.