Posted by SupremeCommander:

Posted by nyk4ever:

From the NBA:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3821503&campaign=rss&source=NBAHeadlines


"Under league rules, teams are free to sign Darius Miles to a Uniform Player Contract if they wish to secure his services as a player, and any such contract would be approved by the NBA,"

I think that commenting about this was stupid on Portland's part... now Miles is on each teams' radar.

Posted by Cosmic:

Posted by alexs:

What the Blazers are doing here is blocking Darius Miles from "economic opportunities" as they p[ut it so nicely, he should be the one to sue them like now. He's crazy if he doesn't do that. Blazers don't know what they got themselves into, could be bad for them. I wouldn't hire their legal advisor

He was medically retired. Insurance is paying roughly 15M of the 18M owed to him, the Blazers owe him 3M. Miles isn't on their cap.

If he gets signed and plays 2 games even 1 minute in each the Blazers have to cough up 18M and lose cap space for two more years.

Miles CLEARLY is not healthy is CLEARLY unable to play because of the injury that forced him to retire and any team looking to just screw the Blazers and play the equal employment card needs to get a foot rammed right up it's ass for trying such a thing.

If Miles did end up signed the league needs to intervene. I would say they could just take the blazers off the hook but the insurance company will demand it's money back so the blazers would still have to pay the 18M to Miles. The league could waive him off their cap like they did for us with LJ's final year of his 10 year deal, but the league can't force insurance to keep paying a contract that is once again active.

So, well, Miles just needs to go home and teams need to not consider picking him up. Again he can't play he's not healthy. It'd be a move done with the intent to screw the blazers cap for 2 years and force them to pony back up 15M in pay that insurance is covering.

Cosmic, how do you know Miles isn't healthy enough to play? The last cut, they said it had nothing to do with his play. He actually had two blocks in a few minutes of work, Eddy can't do that in a few games

So what do you mean when you say "clearly"?

EMS

Posted by EwingsGlass:

Portland is creating a ruse here, but it is a good bit of puffery that will scare a lot of teams off.

Take the Knicks for instance... assume the Knicks need a stop gap SF/PF and consider signing either Miles or some other free agent. We could offer a 10 day contract to Miles or any other Free Agent. But, assuming that we need a player (not just a body on the bench) are the Knicks more or less likely to sign Miles or some other player knowing that Portland will file a lawsuit to stop you from playing Miles. I.e. is it worth the effort to put Miles in a uniform knowing there will be some legal cost to it? Even if Portland can't win a lawsuit, fighting a lawsuit will cost the Knicks both time and money. During a lawsuit, they may not be able to play Miles for days maybe weeks. But the worst case scenario, for the Knicks even if it is a low-percentage of happening, would be that the Knicks lose the case and some jury awards Portland (1) $15M of Miles salary, (2) whatever Portland's increased luxury cap payment is, and (3)some calculation of Portland's economic harm (i.e. lost ticket sales, marketing $$$, etc...). Compare this with the best case scenario for the Knicks, which is that you have Miles for 10 days and Portland doesn't have the ability to make an offer to David Lee over the MLE.

There is not enough upside to signing Miles for the Knicks considering I'd rather trade Lee for prospects + draft picks anyway.

I think Portland loses any lawsuit assuming that the Knicks actually want Miles to play and not the sole purpose of screwing Portland. But Portland doesn't lose anything by scaring some smaller, less financially secure teams.

The Blazers sent a memo to the NBA's other 29 teams threatening legal action against anyone who signs Darius Miles for the purpose of increasing Portland's cap number, and the league is getting involved.

The issue has reportedly been added to Friday afternoon's agenda at a previously scheduled meeting between NBA and players' union attorneys.

The NBA issued a statement that seemed to indicate that it would support any club wishing to sign Miles.

If Miles plays two more games, then his Blazers contract, worth $18 million total for this season and next, would count against the team's salary cap and force the team to pay luxury tax next summer.

Posted by earthmansurfer:



I was really going to bed but that last black tea is keeping me up...

I'm with Portland too, IF he only plays 1 or 2 minutes, but that isn't really gonna happen (not now anyway).

I asked you before (if you missed it): How do you know he can't play? Really, I haven't seen him but I haven't seen it posted that he can't (Has anyone out there seen him?). Didn't the team that just cut him say it was due to salary cap issues and NOT his play? Why would they say that? Didn't he have two blocks?

I'm not into doing malicious things as a general practice of being a human being but what if someone really wants to sign him in a non malicious way? Boston did and so did another team. Obviously they practiced him first and must have saw something. I don't think Boston did it to hurt Portland.

It's not fair at all to bring Mobley into it. First, It was Mobleys decision in the end (even if we wanted that too). Second he could die on the court in front of tens of thousands of fans and millions at home. That is a fact of his condition. He might play the rest of the year and make it, but it's a fact by experts in the field that he is risking his life. Miles is risking his knee and if it doesn't perform he doesn't work (Not quite like a heart).

EMS

I'm pretty sure he can't play otherwise he wouldn't have been cut by the Celtics and then the Grizzlies so quickly. Was there also a third team? Or was that just speculation that he was about to be signed by someone.... Nope just the two Miles Recent History

I bring up Mobley, because even though the causes are different, the fact is they could both end up being retired due to health. Their contracts both get picked up largely by insurance and their teams get them off their caps and lux tax.

So, what if it wasn't the heart for Mobley? A year later a team picks him up and plays him 10 games forcing Dolan to pay insurance back and putting him back on our cap? Then that team cuts him after those 10 games? That's the same thing. I chose Mobley because he's ours to give perspective into "what if this was to happen to us". I think that ALWAYS changes people's minds when you do that.

Anyways, enjoy your tea, I was big into drinking tea...just can't anymore, coffee neither, the stomach won't allow it.

The Grizzlies signed Darius Miles to a 10-day contract on Friday night, essentially guaranteeing that the Blazers are going to get hit with a luxury tax penalty and salary cap problems.
If Miles plays in two games for the Grizzlies, the Blazers are on the hook for $9 million this year and next. The Blazers have come under heavy fire for an email they sent out threatening anyone who would dare sign Miles. Obviously Memphis isn't scared and the league is not happy with the Blazers. As for D-Miles having fantasy value this season? No way.

I haven't followed Miles since he came back but prior to his injury he would have fit the D' system.