Miles to remain with Albuquerque

The Jazz have decided to keep rookie shooting guard C.J. Miles in the NBA Development League at least through the coming weekend, basketball operations senior vice president Kevin O'Connor said Monday.

Miles was assigned to Albuquerque of the D-League on Jan. 4, and has played in seven games for the Thunderbirds, averaging 13.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists.

He had 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field in Albuquerque's most-recent game, including a game-tying basket with 25 seconds to go before the Thunderbirds eventually lost Saturday to Austin.

"His statistics look good," said O'Connor, who plans to soon review film of that outing, "but sometimes (stats) can fib a little bit."

Albuquerque does not play again until Saturday and Sunday at home vs. Fort Worth, but O'Connor hopes Miles will benefit from practicing all week and playing a couple more games.

Exactly how long after that Miles stays down remains to be seen, but O'Connor said the 18-year-old will be back sometime before the NBA's mid-February All-Star Game break.

Miles, a second-round selection, played just 93 minutes over 10 games for the Jazz before being sent to Utah's D-League affiliate. Because he is staying down for now, the Dallas Skyline High product will miss a would-be visit to his hometown when the Jazz face the Mavericks on Saturday in Dallas.

HARPRING OUT: The Jazz beat New Jersey on Monday night without forward Matt Harpring, who was bothered by inflammation of his surgically repaired right knee.

Harpring, who had microfracture surgery on the joint shortly after last season ended, has missed seven games because of the knee this season.

He said Monday he did not know how long he would be out.

"We're just going to let it calm down a bit," he said, "and monitor it."

DEVIN DO-OVER: San Antonio Express-News NBA writer Mike Monroe last Sunday ranked current Jazz and ex-Spurs guard Devin Brown fifth on his list of "five summer free-agent signings teams wish they could do over," behind No. 1 Damon Jones of Cleveland, No. 2 Jeff McInnis of New Jersey, No. 3 Stromile Swift of Houston and No. 4 Arvydas Macijauskas of New Orleans/Oklahoma City.

Wrote Monroe: "Jazz signed him off championship Spurs' roster intending to start him. But he has started only six games . . . What's worse, Jerry Sloan got in his face last week and accused him of loafing."