C.J. Miles is averaging 10.3 points and 2.1 rebounds per game off the bench for Toronto.
C.J. Miles strolled into Bankers Life Fieldhouse Thursday morning as the Toronto Raptors arrived for shootaround. He wasn’t with them in November. He had more important business to attend to – the birth of his first child. Ava Reneé Miles was born one day after the Pacers edged the East-leading Raptors by three points.
Miles was a free agent in the summer, after declining his player option, and decided to sign a three-year deal with the Raptors.
“It’s always fun to come back to a place where you had a good time in,” he said seated courtside at Bankers Life Fieldhouse before shootaround. “I enjoyed my three years here. The city was great to me, the organization was great to me, so I expect it to be love. But, at the same time, we’re trying to do the same thing they’re trying to do over here.”
Tonight will be extra special with his wife, Lauren, and baby Ava in the building. Lauren arrived a few days early and has family that lives less than 10 minutes from the arena.
“It’ll be great, especially being that she (arrived) at the same time I was supposed to be here last time,” he said. “Everybody here was just as excited hearing that we were going to have a kid because we made so many relationships here in the organization and around the city. Them being able to meet her will be great also just to have her around.
“Also, my wife’s side of the family is here so she got to meet her great-grandmother and a lot of aunts and uncles and things like that, so it’s been a great couple of days.”
The Raptors are well on their way to the best record in Eastern Conference. They’ve won 50 games, including nine in a row, and have a 4.5-game lead on second-place Boston.
The Pacers, meanwhile, have surprised everyone. Already 40 wins earned with 14 games to play, they’re all the way up to third in the standings. And now they’re back in the national conversation.
“You don’t have a choice, they’re third in the East,” Miles said with a big grin. “I guess you just got to go and pretty much take respect. They’re doing a great job.
“Victor [Oladipo] has come here and been absolutely great. Myles [Turner] had injuries and things at the beginning of the year, but he’s figured it out. And Lance is still Lance and he’s going to be Lance. And everybody has filled in and found their roles.”
Miles still follows the Blue & Gold and his former Pacers teammates, guys like Myles, Thad Young, Glenn Robinson III, and even Georges Niang, who currently is on a 10-day contract with the Utah Jazz.
“From the outside looking in, they just look a lot more relaxed. Like they’re enjoying it, like they’re not putting too much pressure on each other or the whole thing. They’re just playing basketball and letting it come to them.”