C.J. Miles says don’t be fooled by the light mood at Raptors training camp

BURNABY, B.C. — The soundtrack of the Toronto Raptors’ training camp might include some Earth, Wind & Fire. But C.J. Miles said the upbeat tunes merely complement what’s been an intense three days so far. The bouncing of balls and hollering of players rises above the stereo on any given session.

New coach Nick Nurse is putting his personal stamp on this year’s camp, including the music — each practice opens to Earth Wind & Fire’s popular song “September.”

“It has a little significance,” Nurse said.

The closure of each practice includes the awarding of two plastic Toys R Us wrestling belts to the best players on the day.

It might sound like fun and games, but Miles was quick to point out Thursday that “there’s no lax approach to what we’re doing, there’s just music in the background.

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“There’s still yelling, there’s still us going hard, diving on the floor, you just might hear Stevie Wonder playing. We’re still in here going hard, still guys mad at fouls not being called, still guys trying to win every possession, every drill. I don’t want people to think when they hear that we’re winning belts and all this stuff that it’s changing. There’s still elbows, busted lips, stitches.”

Miles is happy to be back at full strength at this camp. Acquired in the 2017 off-season for his three-point shooting, the 31-year-old didn’t arrive at camp at this time last year in the shape he wanted to be in. Part of it was because of a personal situation that took him away from his training schedule. He also became a dad.

“I take pride in being able to do whatever I’m asked to do as a basketball player. That’s who I’ve been. Last year I didn’t feel I was able to do that,” Miles said. “That hurt me more than anything. I went into the summer like ‘I’m not going to be that person again.’

“When I came back, two weeks or so before camp started, it was apparent. I wanted to walk in the gym and people would say ‘Is that C.J.?”

Miles averaged 10 points in 19.1 minutes a game last season, and was a veteran voice on the Raptors young second unit fondly dubbed the “bench mob” that was the best in the league.

But he wanted to contribute more.

Miles, who chronicled this summer’s gruelling off-season training regimen on Instagram, hopes arriving at camp healthier and more confident and “playing great basketball” will boost his all-around game. On a team that could boast amongst the best defence in the league this season, Miles wants to contribute.

“I wanted to be back to myself. I wanted to be a threat all the time, and I get it, shooters shoot, all that stuff. That’s good stuff but I’ve been able to mix it up, I’ve been able to guard multiple positions before I came, I’ve been able to come out and take charges, be vocal, be around,” Miles said. “I had to focus so much on myself, I couldn’t be the teammate that I am, that I’ve been.”

Miles talked about the enviable surplus of multi-dimensional players the Raptors have this season, particularly with the addition of Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green from San Antonio.

“The biggest thing we talk about, especially as players, is we see everything that we are capable of. We see that we can play any type of way, whether it’s small and fast, whether it’s (two traditional) bigs, whether we need (to be) long,” Miles said. “Whatever it is, we have a lot of tools that can be mixed and matched there. Nick has even talked about it: We can try some things. We should.

“We’ve got all these pieces and all these guys that can do all of this stuff, we should see (different looks) because you don’t ever want to be surprised by something. It’s exciting.”

Nurse’s coaching stamp will also be obvious during games. Rather than designate coaching duties as offence and defence, he plans to rotate the three front-of-the-bench assistants.

“One of them will be working with the defensive side of the ball, one of them will be working with the offensive side of the ball and one of them will be doing what we call ‘special teams’ — timeout plays, out-of-bounds plays, etc. — and about 10 games in they’re all going to rotate.”

Did Nurse reach back in to a previous playoff for the idea of rotating coaches? Perhaps from his days coaching Birmingham of the British Basketball League, someone joked.

“In Birmingham it was me and the other guy,” Nurse laughed. “No, it’s something that would be new.”

Lori Ewing, The Canadian Press

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