The Indiana Pacers made their first move of the off season, and it doesn’t involve pending free agents Lance Stephenson or Evan Turner. The Pacers and former Cleveland Cavalier and Utah Jazz Guard C.J. Miles reached an agreement on a 4 year $18 million dollar deal on Wednesday. Miles has played for Cleveland for the past two seasons for some pretty bad Cavaliers teams, and it was no surprise Miles left due to Cleveland’s lack of interest. Miles shot 39% from beyond the arc last season and hit some cold spells during the season which Miles can be a streaky shooter at times, but when he is going to have a big night you’ll know early on if it was going to be a long night or a good one for him which was the case in Cleveland. Miles is a good locker room guy and should fit into Indiana nicely as a role player, but this could spell the end of Lance Stephenson in Indiana who reportedly turned down a contract offer of $9 million per year which blew my mind I don’t see Stephenson getting much more then that on the market.
This is a nice move for Indiana, but for their sake I hope it isn’t the only one they’ll make. Indiana needs to fill out their bench a little more and possibly add a starting Point Guard which is their biggest need. The real problem they may run into is cap space, and that’s what could possibly hold them back. It’s still very early, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some sort of trade nothing blockbuster worthy but that will add a few key role players for them.
Here’s a small sample size of what CJ might be able to bring to take the scoring load off Paul George this upcoming season:
https://youtu.be/jvM5KWXhwQI
