C.J. Miles was expected to be a huge piece for the Indiana Pacers this season, but instead he is the most disappointing player at the halfway point of the 2015-16 NBA season.
Throughout the entire offseason this past year, Miles was the talk surrounding the Pacers' offseason workouts. He had been in the gym almost all season long getting ready to take on a bigger role. That has not turned out to be the case outside of a few games early on in the season.
Miles has averaged 13.2 points, 3.1 rebounds and just 1.1 assists per game in 27.0 minutes per game. He has played some time at power forward, small forward and shooting guard and will continue to be moved around throughout the season. While the numbers may not look awful, they have not been good to say the least.
He has shot 40.4 percent from the field overall and has knocked down 36.3 percent of his three-point shots. Once again, looking at his recent numbers show why he is being listed as the most disappointing player on the roster throughout the first half of the season.
In the 11 games that Miles has played for the Pacers in the month of January, his numbers have been dipping to a very low point. He has averaged 9.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. His shooting percentages have plummeted as well to a dismal 32.6 percent from the field overall and 24.6 percent from behind the three-point arc.
At 28 years old, this is the first time that Miles has had such high expectations to live up to in his career.
That could be part of the issue, but he has to figure out a way to right the ship. He cannot afford to continue struggling and leave his team in a situation where putting him on the floor is almost worse than not playing him at all.
Frank Vogel has already been toying with other players in the rotation and it wouldn't be shocking to see Miles continue losing minutes. Unless he is able to turn his season around soon, he is risking dropping out the rotation completely. Having him come in and miss all but a couple of his shots just isn't going to get the job done.
Looking ahead at the coming months, there is no question that Miles can get back on track. That being said, he is still very deserving of the most disappointing player title.
