C.J. Miles Flees Utah ... For OKC

While some Midwestern NBA fans may bristle, the reality on the ground is that Oklahoma City's cultural relevance to rich, young, mostly urban-bred athletes will be a punchline forever, or at least until Jay-Z opens a 40/40 there. In fact, insofar as judging books by their covers, Utah may have just ceded its long-held status as most despised recreation city by the NBA hordes. (Milwaukee's not that bad, no matter what Gil says. And the first Sacramento joke in the comments gets a ban.)

C.J. Miles has had issues with Utah, most them surfacing by theory or conjecture. Shoals, a few days ago, wondered if Miles' new YouTube rap career was a passive-aggressive plea for a Utah exit. And hey, well what do you know? I'll be darned, Miles has signed an offer sheet with another team. Possibly the only franchise and city which will be less enthused about Miles' rap stylings than Jerry Sloan, Salt Lake City and the Jazz. Yep, those Oklahoma City Thunder*.

Miles signed a four-year, $15 million deal with OKC on Friday. The Jazz can match. But while hovering in luxury tax territory, and considering Miles played only 700 minutes in his third season in Utah, it seems like the Thunder* has got itself a new guard. The signing seems slightly odd, but not too bad. Basically, consider Miles the new-age Damien Wilkins with a slight chance to be more. Being that Wilkens is "really, really mad" at his bosses for fleeing Seattle, maybe the transition to Miles will happen sooner than we think.

Seriously, it fits the Thunder*'s modus operandi: find young, potential-ridden players who soak up little cash and can play multiple positions. OKC doesn't need to be good for a few years anyway; why sign anyone older than, say, 23?

* Not confirmed.