Last season C.J. McCollum averaged 6.8 points per game for the Portland Trail Blazers. People thought of him as an interesting prospect, but maybe more of a role player than a star. One year later and C.J. is averaging 20.7 points per game and, along with Damian Lillard, likely leading the Portland Trailblazers back to the playoffs despite losing Lamarcus Aldridge, Arron Afflalo, Robin Lopez, and Wes Matthews to free agency. It's been a monster season and a huge coming out party for one of the league's funniest and smartest guys. We sat down and talked to C.J. about his huge season, his epic burns on Doc and Austin Rivers as well as Dwight Howard, and his love of journalism.

You and Dame have made names for yourselves as something of a dynamic duo. How are you feeling about that partnership now and what do you feel you guys still need to improve?

I feel like we're in a really good spot. Especially for this being our first full year playing together for 70+ games, I'd say we've performed extremely well. Been efficient. Offensively we've been very dominant, and I think the sky's the limit. And as we get more comfortable with our surrounding players, I think we'll get better defensively too.

You and Dame also seem to have a good relationship outside the game. How important is that? How much does chemistry on the court have to do with chemistry off it? Does friendship help?

Oh, yeah. I think the friendship really helps. Being able to go to someone's house and have dinner with them and their family, being able to go see a movie with them, or go shopping, it makes you really care for someone and hope that they succeed. That means a lot in an on-court relationship. It creates trust. It creates the ability to sacrifice, to make the extra pass, to give the guy with the hot hand the ball. There are no egos involved. I think that's the difference between us and a lot of teams. We actually really are friends. We don't just pretend to be friends for the cameras.

What type of stuff do you guys do for fun together?

We do the same stuff normal friends do. We eat. We go to the movies. We go to events. Fly to LA for something. Fly to Vegas for a couple days. Normal stuff. Play video games. Play Topgolf. Anything.

Being in the West has historically been a bloodbath, but this year it seems like the conferences are balancing out a little bit. Do you feel that from night to night? Does it feel like the league is evening out?

Uh... I don't know if I'd say "evening out," but I feel like when you look at what Golden State's doing and you look at what San Antonio's doing, it's something the league's never seen. Two teams this dominant. Both over 60 wins. I mean San Antonio is at eleven or twelve losses right now and that's with resting guys randomly throughout the season. So if you look at the top of the West versus the top of the East, I'd still the say the West is better. Two teams in a position to make history. That said, at the bottom the East has definitely improved.

On the court, does this year feel different from last year? Like does your game feel different to you? Or does it just feel like you're getting the minutes finally?

The game slows down each day. As you get more experience out there, as you get more comfortable with the NBA system, the offense, the schemes, you begin to understand where you're going to get your looks from. And I think a big part of playing well is not having to look over your shoulder and just understanding that you're consistently be counted on. When that happens, it's easier to play. You're not as tense. You're not as stressed out when you know your minutes are going to be there every night. You're going to be able to shoot through misses. You're going to be able to play through mistakes. And that opportunity is really there when you have four out of five starters leaving in free agency.