Age: 32
NBA experience: Eleven seasons (three with Pelicans)
Games played/games started: 66/66
Key stats: 20.0 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 4.6 apg, 42.9 three-point percentage, 82.7 FT percentage
Pelicans guard CJ McCollum's 2023-24 NBA season overview
Only future Hall of Famers Stephen Curry and Luka Doncic averaged more three-pointers made per game during the regular season than McCollum (3.6), whose perimeter gunning helped lift New Orleans up to a middle-of-the-pack 18th in that category (12.6). For many years, the Pelicans were a low-volume, low-output three-point squad, but McCollum has been the club’s most prolific threat since his arrival in a February 2022 trade with Portland. His shooting again yielded major dividends during a 4-0 April road trip, which nearly pushed New Orleans into the playoffs, as the 11-year NBA veteran lit up Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento and Golden State by going an absurd 29/47 from beyond the arc (62 percent). Unfortunately for McCollum – as well as for several teammates – a cold-shooting playoff series vs. Oklahoma City meant a sour close to the season. McCollum will replicate his 2023 offseason, when he arrived at training camp in elite condition. “For me it’s about, what does the team need?” he said. “You need me to catch-and-shoot threes? I can shoot (42) percent. I just did that. Shooting is something that translates. (Improving) assist-to-turnover ratio. Defensively, I’ll do more conditioning, more lower-body lifting, more lateral quickness (work).”
CJ McCollum's Pelicans Podcast recap
The Athletic's Will Guillory recaps New Orleans Pelicans forward CJ McCollum's 2023-24 NBA season.
CJ McCollum's per-game stats from the 2023-24 NBA season
| GP | GS | MIN | FG% | 3P% | FT% | REB | AST | STL | BLK | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CJ McCollum | 66 | 66 | 32.7 | 45.9% | 42.9% | 82.7% | 4.3 | 4.6 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 20 |
Photos: CJ McCollum 2023‑24 Season in Review
1 / 25NEW ORLEANS, LA - APRIL 16: CJ McCollum #3 of the New Orleans Pelicans dribbles the ball during the game against the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2024 Play-In Tournament on April 16, 2024 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2024 NBAE (Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images)
CJ McCollum by the numbers
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McCollum all-time rank in NBA history in career three-pointers made (1,818). Early next season, he should pass No. 25 Kobe Bryant (1,827) and No. 24 Chauncey Billups (1,830), who coincidentally was McCollum’s head coach in Portland during the first half of the 2021-22 campaign.
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McCollum all-time rank in NBA history in career three-point percentage (39.9). This season was the fourth time in his career that he finished at over 40 percent from distance. He’s never shot below 37.5 percent in any season.
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Times he’s played on a team that won 50-plus regular season games. He came within a whisker of adding to that this season, after New Orleans went 49-33. Portland registered 54 and 50 wins during McCollum’s first two NBA seasons, then went 53-29 in 2018-19 (reaching the West finals).
CJ McCollum's three most notable games
#1, April 12, New Orleans 114, Golden State 109
A left-wing three-pointer by McCollum with 1:03 remaining doubled the Pelicans’ lead and felt like the biggest bucket of the season (particularly with Sacramento seemingly about to seal NOLA’s playoff berth, leading Phoenix the same night). McCollum scored 15 second-quarter points during his team’s 45-point stanza. He totaled 28 points and was 8/13 from deep.
Pelicans 114, Warriors 109: CJ McCollum 28 points | Postgame wrap
The Pelicans moved to the verge of clinching a playoff berth. After New Orleans built a lead and held it for much of the evening, Golden State rallied back to within a possession, but McCollum sank a stepback three-pointer with 1:02 left, giving the visitors a 112-106 edge.
#2, April 11, New Orleans 135, Sacramento 123
The tormenting of the Kings by McCollum and the Pelicans never relented. In a fifth straight victory over Sacramento of 2023-24, he tied his season high by sinking nine three-pointers (in 12 attempts). A 31-point outing was his second straight of 30-plus in Golden 1 Center.
#3, Jan. 23, New Orleans 153, Utah 124
The Pelicans established a franchise record for points in a game, pummeling the Jazz in the Blender. McCollum shot 9/13 from three-point range among his 33 points. New Orleans finished 23/46 on treys as a team.
Player participation report
A collapsed lung injury in November was the only thing that prevented McCollum from playing in 70-plus games, something he’d done in five of the first eight 82-game seasons of his pro career. After being forced to the sideline for 12 early-season games, he ended up appearing in 66 of the Pelicans’ final 70 contests (counting the postseason). Among his four DNPs after Dec. 1, two were on the second night of a back-to-back.