| 30 June 2011
On Friday morning @12:01 Est time AK's contract will expire and with Memo Okur being out for the past year, the role of veteran falls on C.J. Miles. 
I am not trying to add any more pressure of course.
He is the second longest tenured player on the current Utah Jazz roster. Yes, the sometimes immature 24 year old kid out of Skyline H.S. is on the verge of becoming our veteran. For the past six years he has played under one of the greatest coaches ever, played with one of the best point guards in the league, learned responsibility from one of the best owners in the league, and been cheered on by the best fans in the N.B.A.
It is time for him to give some of his best back...
At 3.7 million it was a no brainer to renew the contract which has probably been mentioned a few times over the past few months. Here is C.J.compared to his competitors.
We should probably take Caron Butler of the list because he only played 29 games this past year.
CJ is approaching 7,000 total minutes played including playoffs 6,777, to be exact. He is not even in his minute prime yet. Durant, has put in 12,000 minutes in two less years and yes started off with more minutes and is more talented, however I am just using his minute comparison as a reference point. I personally think that this was the year that CJ would/could have made leaps and bounds, but was undercut by the addition of Raja Bell.
Raja Bell went from playing 180 minutes total in 09-10 at age 33, to 2100 minutes in 10-11 at age 34. Raja basically took, or was given, by Sloan CJ's minutes. Not only did the team suffer for it, but C.J. suffered for it as well, both on and off the court. I don't know if we will ever know the reason, but Sloan decided to start a 34 year old over a 24 year old. You can make the argument about Raja being a veteran, or Cj coming of the bench is better, or Cj was not being consistent, or Raja was a vocal leader. However, you can't make the argument that Raja was a better or more efficient player.
Cj statistically is by far the better/more efficient player out of the two.
Raja Bell played more minutes but scored 1/2 the points... 
Here is the rest of the comparisons of .. LINK
The addition and emergence of Hayward is actually a good, positive, motivation for CJ.
Assuming that this lock out thing gets figured out; all of the players on the team should be looking to one of our veteran leaders, Cj Miles. He has been trained, and learned from some of the best. It is his turn to show how a veteran (at the age of 24) can lead the Jazz back to the playoffs. I don't think he needs to do it by himself. However, I think he needs to be a vocal leader on and off the court. He needs to be consistent in his play and in his leadership. Welcome back C.J. we are glad to have you.
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