Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
C.J. Miles was signed by the Indiana Pacers in free agency last season, and was given a four-year, $16 million contract. It seemed like the Pacers overpaid when the deal was originally signed, and he was a major disappointment during the early part of the season. Injuries held him down, and he simply didn’t seem to be the perimeter shooter and all-around scorer that he was made out to be.
Fast forward to after the All-Star break, and the Pacers finally saw him break out of his slump and begin scoring the ball at an extremely high level. Now, he is viewed as a budding star scorer for the Pacers looking ahead to the 2015-16 NBA season.
Throughout the 70 regular season games that Miles played with the Pacers, he averaged 13.5 points and 3.1 rebounds per game. He shot 39.8 percent from the field overall and 34.5 percent from behind the 3-point arc. Those numbers may not look too impressive, but he battled nagging injuries for over half of the season.
During the month of April, Miles began showing the true scoring and shooting potential that he has. He averaged 19.9 points and 4.9 rebounds in the eight games that he played. Miles also shot 45.6 percent from the field overall and 43.1 percent from behind the 3-point arc.
Those are the type of numbers that the Pacers and their fans were expecting when they originally signed Miles. Perhaps they didn’t expect him to be a 20-point threat every single night, but his ability to space the floor was the main reason that Larry Bird went out and signed him. Having Paul George back on the court was very beneficial for Miles as well, and it will be interesting to see how he does next year when George is back at full health.
Miles is just 28 years old, and has plenty of basketball left to play in his prime. Indiana is expecting him to be one of their main building blocks for the next few seasons, and are hoping that he can be the extra scoring threat that they desperately needed in each of their Eastern Conference Finals runs.
Simply seeing how successful the Pacers’ season was despite all of the injury problems throughout the year is an encouraging sign. George missed all but six games of the season, and only played in about 15 minutes per game in those appearances. Indiana saw Miles, George Hill, David West, C.J. Watson and Rodney Stuckey miss some time due to injuries as well.
All of that being said, Miles is a key for the Pacers looking ahead to next season. He is going to be asked to continue shooting the ball at the clip that he had in April, and will be asked to take pressure off of George and Hill.
After seeing his full potential late in the season, the Pacers are confident that he can fill that role nicely. He is going to be working hard this season as he always does, and will likely be an even better player next year. Indiana should get very excited about the future of their Pacers, and 2015-16 has the potential to be a very special season for them.
Evan Massey is the Green Bay Packers beat writer for www.RantSports.com, and also contributes across the NFL, MLB and NBA portions of the site. Follow him on Twitter at @Massey_Evan and like him on Facebook.
