Training camp is crash course on everything Raptor for C.J. Miles

“The most important thing is the pass. On-time, on-target, zip passes, and how you do that is by working on that every day,” said coach Dwane Casey. “I know it sounds like elementary-school practice. . . even warmup drills, we want zip passes. Like everything else in basketball, it’s habit. And sometimes habits are boring to work on, but that’s what the game is about.

“I have a saying ‘the passer makes the shooter.’ If you give a bullcrap pass down at his ankles, there’s no way he’s going to be a good shooter. You put it in the shot pocket, now I’m talking to the shooter.”

The six-foot-six, 255-pound Miles, who signed a three-year deal worth US$25 million, is coming off a career-best 41.3 per cent shooting from three-point range last season with Indiana. That’s slightly better than team leader Kyle Lowry (41.2), and 12th in the league among players who attempted at least 200 threes last season.

With the game’s evolution, a long-range shooter is a coveted gift. Miles credited a conversation with Mike Brown, who was Cleveland’s head coach at the time, for turning him into one.

“He told me straight up ‘You can shoot the basketball but I don’t think you work enough on that particular part of your game. The situations you are put in in the game for are mostly shooting situations, so why not really buckle down on that and try and become as great a shooter as you can?’” Miles said. “And that’s when I changed my workouts a lot after that and just built my game more around that.”

Then along came the Warriors, who shot the lights out.

“Golden State really put that pressure on the league and went on a tear and now it’s become the major part of my game,” Miles said.

Miles, whose name prompted Canadian jokes when he was acquired — “Will he have to change his name to kilometres?” — had the chance to speak to his new teammates a couple of times before opening camp. He met several of them for dinner on a summer trip to Los Angeles. He arrived in Toronto a few days early and worked out with some of the younger players.

“But I’m looking forward to camp mostly for that part so I can get to know personalities and be around guys,” he said.

And so they can get to know him, and his tendencies, in particular.

Casey said Miles has the rare knack for finding the seams.

“No question,” Casey said. “Some guys have that knack. . . always floating to that dead spot, that dead three-point spot behind the defence. CJ has that. A lot of that comes from his days in Utah with Jerry Sloan, coming off screens, getting set quickly, getting his feet set, hands ready quickly, floating to the opening. . . he does that naturally.”

It remains to be seen whether Miles starts or not, with Norman Powell pushing for that spot, but Miles said he’s comfortable in either situation.

“It’s going to be a fit, chemistry. . .,” Casey said. “But right now we’ve got all the teams mixed up, there’s no first unit, second unit, third unit, and we’re just going to see how it plays out.”

Casey called camp’s opening practice “very intense.”

“We’re picking up the mentality of moving the ball, passing the ball, which is what we’re trying to get, but now we’re trying to complete it. When the ball kicks out to three-point shooters, you’ve got to make that shot. And that’s the challenge, is to continue to do that, even on misses, because those are our efficient shots,” Casey said. “But good first day, guys getting after it, diving on the floor. When you have your best player — Lowry — diving on the floor for loose balls, giving himself up, you know you’ve got something good.”

The Raptors will practice in Victoria through Friday before travelling to Honolulu for two pre-season games against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Training camp is crash course on everything Raptor for C.J. Miles

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