Say It Ain’t So, CJ

Posted by Trevor Fuchs on October 06, 2009

Not even a week after hushing the critics and giving hope to his supporters in a spectacular showing against Denver, CJ Miles has suffered an injury that will require surgery.  The injury is a ruptured ligament in his thumb on his shooting hand.  While the timeline for recovery is still unknown, this may be a huge blow to CJ’s expected (again) break out season.  More than likely, Miles will be back to playing early in the regular season, but there is always the chance of long term effects to his game.

In all of my personal experience with hand injuries, they have healed rather quickly or been easy to rehabilitate, due to the fact that the hands are used so frequently.  On the flip side, these injuries are often easy to aggravate for the same reason.  These types of injuries are always a gray area because they affect all athletes differently.

Brevin Knight had a sprained thumb in his shooting hand last preseason, but wasn’t out for long.  Boozer had knee surgery and was out for months.  AK had ankle surgery and was only out for a few weeks.  Last season, CJ dislocated the index finger on his shooting hand and only missed a few games.

Deron Williams and Kyle Korver both mentioned that their injuries continued to bother them and affect their play throughout the 08-09 season.   Will this affect CJ long term?  Who knows.  I am betting that he will return to play within a month of the surgery, and be shooting like normal within a couple weeks of his return.  Hopefully the injury is not aggravated at that point.  Of course, this is the positive outlook from a fan that is looking forward to CJ winning that MIP award he is shooting for.  I can’t wait for the day when his name pops up more frequently than a bikini model of the same name on a Google search.

I don’t think the Jazz will be greatly affected in CJ’s absence, but I’m sure we were all really hoping for an injury-free preseason.  What will be more interesting, however, is to see who the Jazz will use to fill the 12^th required active roster spot if CJ misses part of the regular season.  Dupree?  Matthews?

4 Comments

Joey Parker on October 06, 2009 said:

Like Jerry always says- injuries give other players an opportunity to emerge. So we’ll see who wants it more out of Matthews, Dupree, or whoever. This, along with Korver already having injury issues, might also mean that Ronnie Price will get more time at the SG position.

tman11 on October 06, 2009 said:

Wow i was surprise by mathews the kid tor it up today. I lovedhow physical he was to taking that ball to the hoop. Who needs Cj when he is playing like that haha. No like I said before CJ had his chance last year and, didn’t not step up get rid of him already. That’s just my opion though, it sucks he got hurt when we don’t hav emuch dept at small forward but, CJ isn’t the amswer for are future small forward

J R Stewart on October 07, 2009 said:

I think it will affect the Jazz.

Remember he was shooting 71% and 100% on threes, when he went down.

Jazzaholic

canadajazz on October 08, 2009 said:

CJ Miles is a talented, young-but-experienced player who is due for a breakout season. Apparently he’d put on muscle during the off-season, and seemed prime for showing some stuff. He excelled in the Denver game.
His injury is a setback, but let’s hope it’s just a temporary one.
Miles is not a household name in the NBA, but he can be an X-factor kind of guy for the Jazz. Let’s hope he recovers well, and picks up where he left off. The Jazz will need him over before the season’s over.

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