An August free agent signee, C.J. Miles could be on the market again a year from now, considering the two-year deal he signed with the Cavaliers isn't guaranteed for the second season. For now though, Miles is focusing on the 2012/13 campaign, and making the transition to Cleveland from Utah, where he'd spent his entire NBA career. Miles spoke to Yannis Koutroupis of HoopsWorld about his decision to sign with the Cavs, his issues in Utah with head coach Tyrone Corbin, and his expectations for the upcoming year. Here are a few of the notable quotes from Miles:
On being an unrestricted free agent for the first time:
"It was different. Seven years in the same place, I pretty much knew where I was going to be every summer coming out. This was the first summer I wasn’t restricted so I kind of had more power as far as going into the decision where I was going to be at. With Cleveland it was just about making the right basketball decision for myself. I felt it wasn’t about money; it wasn’t about anything but basketball. I felt like being able to grow more as a player and being able to find a place where they’re building a young core, to step in, help, and grow myself was a complete deal."
On the similarities between the present-day Cavs and the Thunder circa 2008, when Miles signed an offer sheet with OKC:
"It’s a lot like that, I feel. Honestly, I’m a couple years older, but other than that it’s a similar situation. They have similar types of pieces with Kyrie [Irving] there, drafting Dion [Waiters] this year, and drafting Tyler Zeller, Tristan Thompson, there are a lot of young guys on the team. I’m one of the older guys and I’m 25 so that just lets you know where we stand with that. I think the oldest guy is Anderson [Varejao] and he’s 29."
On his comments about poor communication in Utah under Corbin, and not knowing what was expected of him with the Jazz:
"With the coach Corbin thing the way it happened, I felt like the things I said were taken (out of context), like everything I said wasn’t said. I just felt like they asked me questions and I answered them truthfully with what I thought. I felt like where you have a situation where everyone is young from the head coach all the way down to the players at the end of the bench, there’s going to be times where people are lost and not know what’s going on. They asked me what I felt like could have been different and that’s what I said."
On his expectations for the Cavs this season:
"I feel like we’re one of those teams where obviously we’re not going to be talked about going into it but as far as players and guys in the league know coming into that gym or playing against us, it’s not going to be an easy game. We’re at that step now where we’re going to be able to take a step where we can fight for the seventh, eighth seed and that first or second team is worried about coming in to play us; worried that it could be an upset because we don’t have anything to lose."