After missing what will be 18 games due to a collapsed lung, CJ McCollum is set to return to the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday in Orlando against the Magic, a story broken by Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum is expected to return to lineup on Monday vs. the Magic in Orlando, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium. McCollum fully recovered from a collapsed lung that he suffered on Dec. 4 against Boston.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 14, 2022
McCollum started the season playing arguably the best basketball of his career — he averaged 24.3 points a game and shot 43.3% from 3 in October — but those numbers dipped as the season went on and now stand at 20.6 points, 4.5 assists and 4.1 rebounds a game. Then in early December he suffered a collapsed lung and has been out ever since.
McCollum returns to a Trail Blazers team stumbling through this season. Portland is 16-25, good for just 10th place in the West. Damian Lillard is out — possibly for the rest of the season — following abdominal surgery. This team fired its GM Neil Olshey, and there are rumors of a major shake up swirling around the league as the trade deadline approaches.
A shake-up that could involve McCollum being traded, if he shows other teams he is healthy.