It recently came out that the Raptors are not going to give championship rings to C.J. Miles, Delon Wright, or Jonas Valanciunas, the three dudes they traded for Marc Gasol. That seems fair to me, even if does kind of suck for Valanciunas who was with the Raptors for a seriously long time only for them to win a championship right after he departed. Miles wasn’t all that useful during his time with the Raptors last season, so I doubt there are going to be many people agitating for him getting some hardware for his hand. Still, you can argue, with varying degrees of success, that those three helped the Raptors get the playoff seeding that they did and thus contributed to the championship effort significantly, but here’s the deal: they weren’t around in the Finals. So they don’t get a ring. Simple.
At this point in his career, Miles is nothing but a three-point specialist who isn’t that good at threes. He is very willing to shoot them, though, which is the more important skill in some circumstances. It’s good to see him still doing things, with him now in his 15th season in the league. That’s a long time for a guy who has been nothing more than a role-player for that whole time. Only five other players drafted in his class still remain: Marvin Williams, Lou Williams, Ersan Ilyasova, Gerald Green (even if he hasn’t played this year), and Chris Paul. Not exactly elite company, but still.
I was wondering if this performance was better than any game he had last season, but silly me, I totally forgot about his 33-point explosion while with the Grizzlies. I rewatched that vid, and I suggest you watch it too (once you’re done with this one) because it is seriously sick. He can do more than shoot threes, people! This video may not show it (I don’t think he was ever inside the arc at any point during this entire game), but he definitely can!