Utah Jazz notebook: C.J. Miles knows how to stay on court

SALT LAKE CITY — Stop picking up bad fouls.

That's the solution to C.J. Miles' personal early season woes the Jazz's sixth man readily acknowledges, and it's really no simpler than that.

"If I stop hacking people," said Miles, who was limited by foul trouble to 14 minutes in Wednesday's season-opening loss at Denver and to 15 in Thursday's home-opening loss to Phoenix, "it will give me a chance to be in the game more than three, four minutes without having to go sit back down."

Jerry Sloan couldn't have said it better, but he reiterated the point Friday anyway.

"You get in foul trouble with ticky-tack fouls," the Jazz coach said. "That's your last resort to bail you out — when you start grabbing people and making silly fouls.

"The first objective is to get there with your body, and the second objective is to use your hands when you get there. If you don't get there with your body and let the guy beat you, usually you get in trouble."

With Miles being counted on for scoring with the Jazz's second unit, his limited availability so far this season seems to have thrown off Sloan's would-be regular rotation and Miles' own ability to succeed on the offensive end of the floor.

"That's pretty much the first thing I've got to change, is the defensive end — just being in the right spots quicker, so I don't get those fouls," said Miles, who scored just two points in each game and is a combined 1-for-8 from the field.

"Offensively it will come, from me being in the game, doing all the other things," he added. "I've never been a person that's been thrown the ball, and they say, 'Go score.' I've always done everything in the offense, and within the (flow) of the game. So offensively, that's not my worry right now. Because that's gonna come."

Partly because of Miles' foul issues, the Jazz played rookie reserve Gordon Hayward — who still is learning the offense — 21 minutes against the Nuggets and 25 against the Suns.

They need their sixth-year swingman, and Sloan doesn't shy from admitting it.

"He (Miles) knows what he has to do. I'm not gonna belabor the point," the Jazz coach said. "But I'm sure everybody else will, because he's struggling a little bit.

"But we're not gonna throw dirt on him. We need him to play, need him to perform, just like we need everybody to perform."