Even though teammate Deron Williams wants him back, the Jazz cannot possibly match the free-agent offer sheet Miles signed. Spending $15 million over four years is not a sound investment for a player who's slotted as their 10th man again this season, because the team is overloaded at the guard and small forward positions and will face payroll limitations in the coming years.
Having said that, you just know what's going to happen: Miles will thrive in the OKC, playing regularly and scoring in flurries for a young team that needs help, raising questions about why the Jazz did not do more to develop and keep him.
The Jazz will just have to live with such second-guessing, much as they did after not matching point guard Mo Williams' offer from Milwaukee in 2004. The team is getting by at point guard these days, wouldn't you say? The same will happen at Miles' positions, even though there will be moments of wondering how this guy got away.
Factoring in how little he played as a second-round draft pick out of high school in Dallas, Miles will depart as one of the more intriguing players in recent Jazz history. At various checkpoints, he showed just enough athletic ability and shooting skill to make everyone believe he could develop into something, only to be knocked back.
Whether he received adequate opportunity to prove himself is the $15 million question. Certainly, Oklahoma City is buying the theory that coach Jerry Sloan did not give him enough of a chance.
Miles' time in Utah could be summarized in two games this past season. With Andrei Kirilenko and Ronnie Brewer injured, Miles started at forward and scored 29 points in a blowout of Washington on March 31.
Two nights later, with Kirilenko healthy, Ronnie Price started again in Brewer's place against Minnesota and Miles did not appear until the last two minutes of the third quarter, when the Jazz led by 21. Afterward, Sloan's explanation was that not participating in the previous summer's Rocky Mountain Revue was still stunting Miles' development.
Something, or somebody, sure was. Deron Williams believes Sloan punished Miles "a little bit" for skipping the summer program as a free agent. That's where this could get mildly interesting. The Jazz's dilemma regarding Miles this week will test D-Will's growing influence in personnel issues, although he acknowledges salary-cap matters are beyond his comprehension.
Williams staged the 21st birthday party for Miles in March, featuring the rapper Lil Jon, who delivered some of his lines over the public-address system during a game against Seattle that preceded the event. That created about as much of a disconnect with the standard-issue Jazz crowd as my Google search for recent "C.J. Miles" material, which turned up photos and videos associated with a model of the same name.
C.J. Miles, the basketball player, should be allowed to move on. His absence will create more opportunity for second-year guard Morris Almond, a first-round pick who's two years older after having played four college seasons.
Almond scored 51 points in a D-League game while spending part of his rookie year with the Utah Flash, and is showing himself in the current Rocky Mountain Revue to have become "more assertive, more confident and better on the defensive end," according to Jazz assistant coach Scott Layden.
Almond should keep improving, while Miles gets his chance to star for a team building with other youngsters including Kevin Durant, Jeff Green and Russell Westbrook. Miles will be facing the Jazz four times a year, because he will remain in the NBA's Northwest Division - in Oklahoma.
Somehow, considering Miles' strange stay with the Jazz, that makes sense.
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* KURT KRAGTHORPE can be reached at kkragthorpe@sltrib.com. To write a letter about this or any sports topic, send an e-mail to sportseditor@sltrib.com.
