Miles: Some NBA players don't know the fundamentals of basketball

On the latest episode of Strictly Hoops, Amit Mann and C.J. Miles discuss cases in the NBA where Miles has played alongside teammates who didn't know the fundamentals of basketball and why it's an ongoing trend. Listen to the full episode on the 'Raptors Over Everything' podcast feed.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: It also makes me think of a funny thing that LeBron James and Draymond Green talked about on "The Shop" once, and they were saying that you'd be surprised how many times we've talked-- we've played with players in the NBA who don't know how to play basketball. And I was like, word. Huh! So I ask you-- and you don't need to-- no names or anything like that, but do you understand where they're coming from with that?

CJ MILES: Yes.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Yes. Because you've got to think-- you've got to look at this like-- especially now. So we live in highlight culture. Like highlight culture, like everybody has a highlight tape. Dudes that's not good--

AMIT MANN: Everybody.

CJ MILES: --coming up, that's not even like top-- everybody gets a highlight tape. So--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: They're highlights. They can make anybody good. I can make any-- you can take my worst game of my career and make it look good if you just only take the highlights of the game. Like you know what I mean? It might not be that many, but if we slice it up and put a song on it--

AMIT MANN: Some hip hop music.

CJ MILES: --bassline. Man. Everybody's like, oh man, that guy's good! Like you know what I mean? So--

AMIT MANN: Slow mo? Slow mo intro, a little slow mo intro with him doing the faces?

CJ MILES: Yeah. I know, but like-- so-- but back to the point, guys that are super talented early, right, and obviously have a knack for scoring the ball, or are super athletic or do these things, they get thrown in there and they just let that-- they lead with it. They don't teach the game. They just let those guys run, score a bunch, do whatever they want, do all these things--

AMIT MANN: Who are they, though? Who are they? Who are they?

CJ MILES: Like, there's coaches and there's programs. There's like AAU programs, whatever you want to call it. Or even some high school coaches get caught up in it. They don't kind of-- they kind of let the guy-- like his talent supersedes the game. You know what I mean? So like yeah, he's talented, but he's got to learn how to play the game, to play on a team, because he's not going to have this role when he gets to another space where everybody's as talented as him.

And then he gets to another space like the NBA, where there's already a 10-time All-Star on that team, and he don't get to be the guy. And if he can't understand how to play the game, he can never grow himself into being the guy at that level. So there's these egos and attitudes that these kids develop from this, and they don't understand the game and they can't figure out why they can't get on the floor. And then it's everybody else's fault, it's not the kid's fault, it's this, it's that.

So my thing is, teaching the game is just important. That's not saying there's something wrong with those kids that's scoring 30 and 40 and 50s and 60s in high school and doing the things they do. If you're that good, go dominate the game. Go win the game. But I'm just saying, a lot of times, they're not being taught how to play basketball.

You'd be surprised how many kids don't watch basketball, too.

AMIT MANN: Really?

CJ MILES: No, do not watch basketball. There's a lot of these kids, they don't, like-- they don't watch it. They know their favorite players and they watch the highlights and they catch them on whenever, but they don't watch basketball.

AMIT MANN: And then there's watching basketball, then there's watching basketball.

CJ MILES: Exactly. Watching the game.

AMIT MANN: Understanding. Understanding it.

CJ MILES: And understanding the game. Like yeah, he scores 30 a night. Do you know why he scores 30 a night? But the other thing that makes that hard now is that the style of play in the NBA is not like that, when these kids-- the kids that do watch it. You know what I mean? It's a bunch of iso pick and roll multi-talented guys that just take advantage of space the whole time. But this is also why you see guys coming in at the grassroot-- like these players now in the league that are having these success stories because that style of basketball is being taught all the way down to, like, fourth grade now.

Like, everybody's got a trainer. Everybody's got a-- and it's not a bad thing to an extent, depending on who the trainer is. But like, speaking of Tyler Relph. I can speak on Tyler Relph because I've been in the gym with him. I've been in that gym. And these kids got access to pros. These kids got access to the way we work, and they work out with us. They do the same type of things. We breaking the game down.

Like, my workouts is not me just going in there and picking shots. Like we having conversation on the floor and we got this stuff on tape. We could go find film with these workouts of us having the conversations, and they taping it so these conversations can be broke down to how to teach the game even more. We having conversations on the way plays happen in the game and why shots present themselves and how shots will present themselves, and then we drill that. That's what we make the workout based off of.

Like, they let-- y'all like to write this type of play for you, but the defense been guarding it this way, so we gonna drill every situation and how defenses guard and how defenses learn to attack it so you can be ready to attack it yourself. That's how we work out. That's the way the game should be broken down and taught, like not just come in here, I'm going to teach you 10 moves, you do them as hard as you can, then you go dunk it.

A lot of people get that. They think that's the way to go at it-- just go in there and have a bunch of stuff in your bag. And it's fine to have it. Like, it's stuff that I had in my bag that I never had to use. I just had it for the confidence that I had it. Not for me to get out in the game and start dancing with the ball. Like, that's not my role. And everybody's role is not gonna be that.

AMIT MANN: You were a student of the game from the get go, right?

CJ MILES: Yeah. So everybody's role is not going to be that in the game. So this is why it's dangerous to teach everybody how to be the guy. You know what I'm saying? Like, if I'm only teaching you how to be the guy and you never get to be the guy, what am I preparing you for?

AMIT MANN: Yep. Yep. Yep. For failure, actually.

CJ MILES: Exactly what I'm preparing you for! Like I said.

AMIT MANN: Well, sorry, but you can make a-- you can make an NBA-- you can make a basketball career in a different country. Like, that's something you can do.

CJ MILES: No, no, and I'm not--

AMIT MANN: But it may not-- yeah.

CJ MILES: But even there--

AMIT MANN: I wanted to correct myself there.

CJ MILES: But even there, you get there and there's a guy already on that team.

AMIT MANN: True.

CJ MILES: That's the guy. You're not going to just take it from him, unless your timing is perfect and he's older and he's on his way out, or the team believes that they want to trade him for you or whatever it is, then it works out. There's divine timing. But a lot of times, that's not the case. And a lot of times, if we're being honest, guys just aren't good enough to be the guy. No matter if you're working on it or not, when you get to a certain level, you just can't be the guy. Like, you got to understand that. It's not-- it's OK. It's OK that you're not Michael Jordan. But--

AMIT MANN: There's few guys.

CJ MILES: --those guys don't-- they're so few-- and that's what people don't understand. I know we all got the dream of being the guy but at some point, it's got to be a knowledge of self and understanding where you at and who you with and what team you on, or who is the guy and who is going to make us win and how are we going to win, and add yourself to the equation. What do I have that adds to the equation? That's how you stay on the team. That's how I stay in the league 17 years. I understand what I add to the equation.

AMIT MANN: Yep.

CJ MILES: Or what I could add to the equation. So if I'm going to go play with Kyrie Irving, I'm probably not going to have the ball in my hands. What do I add to the equation?

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: Is it a small strength right now? Well, let's make it a big strength. Then I end up playing with Paul George. Then I end up coming to Toronto. Then I end up playing-- you know what I mean? All these things, because I recognized that, that's what took my career the length and the numbers it did.

AMIT MANN: Mm. So to clarify, you have played with players in the NBA that did not--

CJ MILES: 1,000%.

AMIT MANN: --know how to play basketball. Yes, yes.

CJ MILES: Plenty of them.

AMIT MANN: Unequivocally. Unequivocally. Yeah, yes, many.

CJ MILES: Plenty of them.

AMIT MANN: Many, many, many.

CJ MILES: Like--

AMIT MANN: Damn.

CJ MILES: Dudes that-- like, I played with dudes that didn't know the flex offense, which is a basic thing that's taught. That's like the first offense you're taught as a kid.

AMIT MANN: Yo, I ran that in high school.

CJ MILES: That's what I'm saying! That's what I'm saying! College-- players that went to college for multiple years, got drafted into the NBA, and did not know the flex offense.

AMIT MANN: That's crazy, man.

CJ MILES: To the point where we was running the play, it was part of one of our out-of-bounds plays in practice one day, and we didn't teach it because when you say the flex, that's basketball language. So it's like, we're going to do this and then get into the flex offense once it gets in bounds. We in practice one day, we running the play, and everybody is like, yo, what are you doing? And the guy is looking at us like, what? It was like, yo, you don't know the flex? And he just stared at us like we was talking Spanish.

AMIT MANN: [LAUGHS] Or Japanese.

CJ MILES: No idea. Or Japanese, yeah. I [INAUDIBLE] my Japanese speaking. I was just [INAUDIBLE]. But yeah, he was staring at us like we were speaking a different language. And everybody's minds was blown. Could not understand how you made it that far in basketball and did not know the flex offense.

AMIT MANN: That's wild, man.

CJ MILES: But this guy was a hell of a scorer. So.

AMIT MANN: Yep.

CJ MILES: And got in the league--

AMIT MANN: We'll leave it at that.

CJ MILES: --and was not given the opportunity to be that scorer.

AMIT MANN: And the rest was history, I suppose.

CJ MILES: Now he's not in the league. No offense to him. If you recognize who I'm talking about, I'm not going to say his name. He's still my guy and is having a career somewhere else and is playing well, has had some other opportunities and done well. But that was part of the case that didn't help him.

AMIT MANN: Yeah. Well, I got you.