By Stefan Djordjevic/ info@eurohoops.net
CJ McCollum was among the first players to decide on not joining Team USA for the 2019 FIBA World Cup in China. As he told Adrian Wojnarowski, he has wanted to focus on resting from a long season and injuries and participating would make his training schedule move things up too fast for his liking.
His decision wasn’t affected by Team USA roster as he was among the first to pull out but McCollum brought up an interesting point on what might have been on other players’ minds since the big number of absences raised questions on whether the squad will end up victorious in China:
“I think other guys looked at it like: ‘Why would I go and potentially be the face of a losing roster?’ Or the workload part. If we all play, the workload is less — 20-25 minutes, you get blowouts, you’re moving on. A lot of guys don’t play, your minutes might go up, your usage might go up, and that affects your summer as you go into March when that crash comes. January is where that crash comes before the All-Star break and then after the All-Star break, guys start to break down in March and April. Those extra miles and summertime hours… I’ve led the league in miles or close to it every year, I don’t want to run around in Australia or China and then come back and have to get ready for the season when I can be strategically planning my workload”, McCollum explained.
Take a look at everything CJ had to say about the World Cup as well as the Blazers and the next season: