'Somebody cried. It was bad': C.J. Miles on what happens in players-only meetings

On the latest episode of "Strictly Hoops", C.J. Miles reveals how players-only meetings work and his personal experiences with them. Listen to the full podcast on the "Raptors Over Everything" feed or watch on our YouTube.

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AMIT MANN: The Raptors had a players only meeting a few weeks back. And it got me thinking about the nature of players only meetings. You hear of them happening every-- there's, like, five, six teams. Each season, you have a players only meeting. And they take on different meetings with each team.

So I'm curious, is like, how many have you been a part of? And are they worthwhile? Do they accomplish anything?

CJ MILES: Yeah, I think they do. I think too many of them won't. But I think there's times that they are called for. Because without the staff, anybody in there, nobody has to hold their tongue or feel like-- that's a sign that we want to-- what's up? Like, tell me.

Like, if it's a problem with another player, it's a problem with the coaches, maybe, or something-- the way it's going on, or you maybe your playing time, shots, whatever. Like, sometimes, you want to be able to let that steam off without it being taken too far.

Or now, we used to have a conversation with-- I have a conversation with our captain. So I have a conversation-- this conversation with Fred and Pascal, the guys that have the most communication with coach, and then have the heaviest weight.

Now, they can kind of relay this, too. Like, hey, can we get such and such a couple more shots off of this, or this, that, and the third? It might help us. Like, get a pulse of your team.

Get a feel of your team. I think that's why leaders like to do it, so they can get a real feel of what's happening with the whole team, how they feel.

AMIT MANN: So how many have you been a part of, would you say?

CJ MILES: That's a good question. I don't know. I mean, I've probably--

AMIT MANN: So it's a lot?

CJ MILES: --been in-- yeah, there's probably been at least one every year. Like, on the good teams, especially, there's always one.

AMIT MANN: Huh.

CJ MILES: Because we've got to be able to hold each other accountable, too. We've got to be able to talk to each other. Like, yo, get your ass over there. Like, figure it out, what you're supposed to be doing.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: It's not personal. And sometimes, things can get personal when it's other-- it's like when Jordan Poole, when this incident happened with Draymond Green.

AMIT MANN: Ooh, I still think about that punch. Jesus.

CJ MILES: That situation, that situation is so much bigger because everybody saw it.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: You know what I mean, with all the eyes on it. So think about in a locker room, we trying to-- we make this intimate setting, and me and you going at each other crazy. Just in the heat of the moment, it wouldn't mean as much if it wasn't the coach is standing behind us like, OK, hey, calm down. Like, I'm not trying to be disrespectful. We're just letting off the steam.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: And I think having just the guys in there changes it. It changes-- it takes the weight off. It's like, no, I'm talking to you, only you. It's out of love, out of what we trying to accomplish. It has nothing to do with me trying to embarrass you, stand you up in any type of way, put you in any type of bad lighting. I'm just-- let's figure this out.

AMIT MANN: Do you recall one that was very productive, and it actually led to success down the road?

CJ MILES: A couple of teams I was on, we had one in Cleveland, actually, that ended up being really productive for the rest of that year. We weren't the best team. We didn't go on to do, like, a crazy-- but we were better after it.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: After we got to have that conversation.

AMIT MANN: What did you guys talk about?

CJ MILES: Just sorting out, like, feelings. Like, people-- like, what it was, why guys felt certain ways about certain things. Like, you'd see guys kind of getting down about a play call, or this, or that. Like, let me-- what's up?

Like, what you feel like we're not doing, like you feel like you're not being heard? That's the biggest thing. A lot of times, some guys feel like they're just not being heard. But they play a role on this team.

AMIT MANN: Hmm.

CJ MILES: Or some guys are taking advantage of their role and not doing the things they should be doing. There's a lot of situations like that. And then sometimes, it's just the whole unit. Everybody's slacking, so somebody's got to point it out so then we can all start to admit it.

AMIT MANN: It seems like that's what the Raptors one was, more so, less about-- I'm not-- well, actually, who knows, right? Because there must be a reason why we're seeing so much inconsistency from the team game by game, and why for two quarters, they played great defense, and then the fourth quarter-- or there's, like, a 15-minute stretch where they don't. And that ends up costing them because they don't have the offense to make up for that stretch where they didn't play defense.

So our margin for error is very small with the Raptors right now. And so I wonder if that was kind of the nature of it.

And I don't think, for them, it's going to be the finger pointing kind of players only meeting.

CJ MILES: Me, neither.

AMIT MANN: Yeah, you'd know better than I do.

CJ MILES: I don't think--

AMIT MANN: I think it's more like, what's up?

CJ MILES: --those guys have it in them. Yeah, they're not those type of guys, to do it that way.

AMIT MANN: Well, it's not productive, right? It's not productive.

CJ MILES: It's not.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: It's not, it's not to have it that way, unless there's somebody blatantly trying to trash the situation, trying to tank us, or doing-- like, it's not.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: And most of the time, if there's a guy where it's that blatant, and you have to do that, you wouldn't even have to have the meeting. The team will get him out of there before you even get a chance to have a meeting about that guy, if that's the case.

But I think the first thing is, the leaders stand up. And they make sure they admit to what they're not doing, what they've got to do better jobs of. And they just ask everybody to follow suit.

That's usually how it starts. It's like, yo, I know what we got going on. I got to be better. I got to do this.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: I got to do this. I got to do that. But at the same time, I'm telling you this because I need your help to do it.

AMIT MANN: Sure.

CJ MILES: And I'm going help you do what you need to do. The better you are, the better we are. That's how this works.

I think-- I remember being in meetings, and PG always-- he was good about that. He'd made sure he never--

AMIT MANN: Paul George? Yeah.

CJ MILES: Yeah, he never said, yo, you're not doing this, and you're not doing that. Like, y'all-- y'all not helping. It was never that.

Same-- David West was big about his voice. He always spoke from what he had to fix first. Because I can't be pointing fingers at people, about guys getting baseline, when I'm supposed to be to help on the baseline, and I'm not there.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: So everybody's at fault. I can't just point fingers at one thing.

AMIT MANN: Paul George was young in Indy, too. And he was having conversations like that? That's pretty wise.

CJ MILES: But he had been around. He had been around, though. He had been on good teams.

AMIT MANN: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that's true. That's true. I think those Indy teams, man, like, those are very good teams. You think about some of the squads that fell to LeBron James, they're one of them.

CJ MILES: So that's when-- I come in right after that, like, at the end of that.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: So I come in with them being the number one team in the East the year before, or a couple of years in a row, and things like that. And it just-- certain things happened that didn't help-- somebody breaking their leg and all type of things. Like, they changed it, but still.

AMIT MANN: Make 'em dance, Lance.

[LAUGHTER]

Well, finally on the players only thing, has there been a players only meeting that you recall, without naming names, that wasn't very productive and didn't go as planned?

CJ MILES: Yeah.

AMIT MANN: Yeah?

CJ MILES: Yeah, there was almost a fight.

AMIT MANN: Mm.

CJ MILES: Yeah, somebody cried. It was bad.

AMIT MANN: Oh, no.

CJ MILES: Not, like, cry-- like, that mad cry, though, not like cry, like, sad. Like, cry like-- you know how you get so fired up, you try to get like--

AMIT MANN: Terrell Owens, Tony Romo-- that's my quarterback.

CJ MILES: But it wasn't even to that extent. It was just the tears came. You were like, are you crying? Like, OK, this is serious now. So like, you know, let's get this together.

But yeah, there's been a couple like that-- not a couple with crying, but a couple that just didn't really seem to-- the second one-- were two. The one with the crying. And the second one, you didn't know it didn't mean anything until five games later, when guys were still doing the same thing. Like--

AMIT MANN: Yeah, yeah.

CJ MILES: --nobody cares, I guess.

AMIT MANN: Huh. I won't make you say who those teams were, players. We'll leave that there.

CJ MILES: Yeah, I wouldn't do it anyway.

AMIT MANN: Yeah, I know you wouldn't.