That was the dumbest thing I ever heard. An NBA team can sign any FA that they can fit under the cap. What rule says you cannot sign a player because they will miss up another team. That is the whole point of signing players, to help your team beat another team and if that means helping you put another team out of the FA market, then so be it. Miles obviously wants to play and is trying to play and in fact has played this year. It is not like Miles is sitting in a bed somewhere unable to play and I go and sign him. Miles is probably going to sue Portland for making this threat.

Posted by Andrew:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3820794

The actual content of the email:

" 'Team Presidents and General Managers,
'The Portland Trail Blazers are aware that certain teams may be contemplating signing Darius Miles to a contract for the purpose of adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers Salary Cap and tax positions. Such conduct from a team would violate its fiduciary duty as an NBA joint venturer. In addition, persons or entities involved in such conduct may be individually liable to the Portland Trail Blazers for tortuously interfering with the Portland Trail Blazers' contract rights and perspective economic opportunities.
'Please be aware that if a team engages in such conduct, the Portland Trail Blazers will take all necessary steps to safeguard its rights, including, without limitation, litigation.' "

I understood that is why they were threatening to sue but IMO, if I want Darius Miles on my team because it screws up Portland's cap, that is just too bad for Portland. I can sign who I want to sign. It is the NBA rules that are going to make Portland have to pay Miles. I doubt any team actually was going to sign Miles because he is probably done and most teams don't screw each other over like that because it usually comes back to bite you in the long run. However, if I am an NBA team, I would be pretty offended by the threat.

i would assume that dmiles can sue the blazers, no?

Looking at this from a different perspective - maybe the Knicks grab Miles and Donnie comes out looking like a hero. Say there is some truth to the Knicks and Portland working on a Lee trade. Now if Donnie grabs Miles with the intention of not playing him, that's huge for Portland and that only gives us some leverage here. I wouldn't do this to screw Portland and hold them hostage on a deal, no, I'd do this to secure and cement a fair deal with them where maybe they might owe us one down the road. We'd really be protecting Portland here - they'd be on the hook for at least $25 mil. if some team decides to grab Miles and play him some games just to stick it to Portland (I've read recently that their owner, Paul Allen, isn't really respected around the league by his peers). Part of me thinks maybe Portland has even asked Donnie to grab him quick before another team does all while they continue working on the Lee deal. Again, Donnie should do this not to jack up the price but to secure a fair deal. I could see this being kind of an unwritten/under-the-table part of a David Lee trade. Think about it - if someone grabs Miles and plays him how does Portland make room for Lee long-term then? This could help us secure a fair deal (saving Portland $25 mil. and all-important cap room, maybe now we secure that 1st rounder as well) as well as building relations with Portland for the future (that team has a ton of young talent - maybe we decide to deal with them again sometime down the road). Not to mention, if I were another owner/GM looking at this from afar, I couldn't help but feel a certain degree of admiration for Donnie/Dolan for helping Portland out like that. The only thing is Miles himself - but hey, whatever. Maybe the Knicks come up with a smoke-screen here, something like Donnie wanted him but MDA didn't and now Mike refuses to play him. Donnie comes out and says it's Mike's team, he's the coach....yada, yada yada. Similar to the Marbury situation. I'm a little curious now to find out how much it'd be worth to Portland if Donnie opened up a quick roster spot and grabbed Miles with the intention of protecting the Blazers' interests here.


[Edited by - finestrg on 01-09-2009 10:45 AM]

Any team thinking about this blackmail scheme would then wind up condemned by the league and other franchises, lose 5 first round picks, never be able to deal with Portland and other teams ever again, etc.

Any team that tries that is going down the ****ter. Any team that would try that needs to be heavily fined. The blackmail would be recorded and reported. No trade would happen and your team would get ruined by the league.

The guy can't play that's obvious. If he were healthy it's a different story.

So, no, don't even think about touching that.

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.

Posted by TheGame:

Posted by Finestrg:

Looking at this from a different perspective - maybe the Knicks grab Miles and Donnie comes out looking like a hero. Say there is some truth to the Knicks and Portland working on a Lee trade. Now if Donnie grabs Miles with the intention of not playing him, that's huge for Portland and that only gives us some leverage here. I wouldn't do this to screw Portland and hold them hostage on a deal, no, I'd do this to secure and cement a fair deal with them where maybe they might owe us one down the road. We'd really be protecting Portland here - they'd be on the hook for at least $25 mil. if some team decides to screw them and grab Miles and play him some games (I've read recently that their owner Allen isn't really respected around the league by his peers). Part of me thinks maybe Portland has even asked Donnie to grab him quick before another team does all while they continue working on the Lee deal. Again, Donnie should do this not to jack up the price but to secure a fair deal. I could see this being kind of an unwritten/under-the-table part of a David Lee trade. Think about it - if someone grabs Miles and plays him how does Portland make room for Lee long-term then? This could help us secure a fair deal (saving Portland $25 mil. and all-important cap room, maybe now we secure that 1st rounder as well) as well as building relations with Portland for the future (that team has a ton of young talent - maybe we decide to deal with them again sometime down the road). Not to mention, if I were another owner/GM looking at this from a far, I couldn't help but feel a certain degree of admiration for Donnie/Dolan for helping Portland out like that. The only thing is Miles himself - but hey, whatever. Maybe the Knicks come up with a smoke-screen here, something like Donnie wanted him but MDA didn't and now Mike refuses to play him. Donnie comes out and says it's Mike's team, he's the coach....yada, yada yada. Similar to the Marbury situation. I'm a little curious now to find out how much it'd be worth to Portland if Donnie opened up a quick roster spot and grabbed Miles with the intention of protecting the Blazers' interests here.

[Edited by - finestrg on 01-09-2009 10:39 AM]

We cannot sign Miles as a way to force Portland to make a Lee deal. If you sign a guy, you sign him to play him, whether you have other reasons for signing him in addition to having him play for your team. Now maybe you end up not playing him because he is not good enough, but if you sign him and then agree not to play him to work out of deal with Portland, then Stern is going to bring the hammer down on you.

Go back and re-read my post my man. I'm not talking about forcing the Blazers into doing anything. I'm talking about protecting their monetary interests which will enable them to execute hopefully a fair (out of appreciation) trade for David Lee, a player they want anyway. I even explained how we might be able to get away with not playing Miles. It's a rather unique situation really that deserves some thought on our part. As I stated before, I could even see the Blazers taking some inititive by asking us for some help here, maybe while a Lee deal is getting hammered out in the background. All the people who think it's best for the team in the long run to deal Lee, think about this for a sec. - Portland's probably one of our best options here. Portland wants/needs David Lee and they have an abundance of assets. Now if some team picks up Miles, Portland's out. I don't know about you guys but I want Portland to stick around here in the Lee talks.

[Edited by - finestrg on 01-09-2009 11:10 AM]

You know what would be whack? POR re-signing Miles, play him up to the 9 game mark and then taunt the insurance company.

Posted by TheGame:

Posted by Finestrg:

Posted by TheGame:

Posted by Finestrg:

Looking at this from a different perspective - maybe the Knicks grab Miles and Donnie comes out looking like a hero. Say there is some truth to the Knicks and Portland working on a Lee trade. Now if Donnie grabs Miles with the intention of not playing him, that's huge for Portland and that only gives us some leverage here. I wouldn't do this to screw Portland and hold them hostage on a deal, no, I'd do this to secure and cement a fair deal with them where maybe they might owe us one down the road. We'd really be protecting Portland here - they'd be on the hook for at least $25 mil. if some team decides to screw them and grab Miles and play him some games (I've read recently that their owner Allen isn't really respected around the league by his peers). Part of me thinks maybe Portland has even asked Donnie to grab him quick before another team does all while they continue working on the Lee deal. Again, Donnie should do this not to jack up the price but to secure a fair deal. I could see this being kind of an unwritten/under-the-table part of a David Lee trade. Think about it - if someone grabs Miles and plays him how does Portland make room for Lee long-term then? This could help us secure a fair deal (saving Portland $25 mil. and all-important cap room, maybe now we secure that 1st rounder as well) as well as building relations with Portland for the future (that team has a ton of young talent - maybe we decide to deal with them again sometime down the road). Not to mention, if I were another owner/GM looking at this from a far, I couldn't help but feel a certain degree of admiration for Donnie/Dolan for helping Portland out like that. The only thing is Miles himself - but hey, whatever. Maybe the Knicks come up with a smoke-screen here, something like Donnie wanted him but MDA didn't and now Mike refuses to play him. Donnie comes out and says it's Mike's team, he's the coach....yada, yada yada. Similar to the Marbury situation. I'm a little curious now to find out how much it'd be worth to Portland if Donnie opened up a quick roster spot and grabbed Miles with the intention of protecting the Blazers' interests here.

[Edited by - finestrg on 01-09-2009 10:39 AM]

We cannot sign Miles as a way to force Portland to make a Lee deal. If you sign a guy, you sign him to play him, whether you have other reasons for signing him in addition to having him play for your team. Now maybe you end up not playing him because he is not good enough, but if you sign him and then agree not to play him to work out of deal with Portland, then Stern is going to bring the hammer down on you.

Go back and re-read my post my man. I'm not talking about forcing the Blazers into doing anything. I'm talking about protecting their monetary interests which will enable them to execute hopefully a fair (out of appreciation) trade for David Lee, a player they want anyway. I even explained how we might be able to get away with not playing Miles. It's a rather unique situation really that deserves some thought on our part. All the people who think it's best for the team in the long run to deal Lee, think about this for a sec. - Portland's probably one of our best options here. Portland wants/needs David Lee and they have an abundance of assets. Now if some team picks up Miles, we can forget Jerryd Bayless+.

The problem is if you sign Miles and don't play him and then work out a deal with Portland, then the NBA Players Union is going to be screaming bloody murder. At the very least, it is going to give the appearance that you signed Miles to keep him from playing for the rest of the year. The only way this works smoothly is if Miles is on board with not playing, which does not seem to be the case.

[Edited by - thegame on 09-01-2009 11:10]

Well you could be right. But a couple of things - (1) The players assoc. isn't exactly screaming bloody murder over the Marbury thing right? (2) As I said, there's gotta be way around not playing him - Donnie grabs him but MDA refuses to play him OR say we grab him and he fails his physical but we elect to keep him on board anyway (like Cuttino) or he retires. Then Portland's in the clear. There's probably other scenarios that I can't even think of.... Bottom line is, for the good of this team, I'm all for trading Lee to restock on some young talent for the future AND to preserve optimum cap room for 2010. That's the way to go IMO. I want Portland to hang around in these trade talks - they remain one of our better trading partners...