Reports: Blazers send e-mail about Miles

kennadog said:
I think it would be darn hard to prove another team signed him with the intent of hurting the Blazers. Seems like Miles would have a better chance of suing the Blazers for hurting his ability to play for any team he coould get signed to. Especially since the Blazers put it in writing. :rolleyes:
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my thoughts exactly.

Its also going take us a while to catch up with Portland, so i say we sign him. Hell, if can slow them down a bit lets do it.
 
Superman said:
Both Hill and Big Z were in and out of the lineup with their injuries, and neither one was, at any point, declared career ending by the doctors and the teams. The league did not grant either the Cavs or the Magic benefits after conducting an investigation. Completely different circumstances.

Portland wants out from this contract because they have no rights to the guy and he hasn't played for them for three seasons, due to what was determined to be a career-ending injury. Miles' desire to revive his career, three years later, is going to cost the Blazers close to $20 million.

Imagine you get in a car accident, the insurance adjuster declares it a total loss, and the insurance company cuts you a check. Then, some random person buys the car off the junk lot and rebuilds it. Would you want to have to give that check back?

You're right about the possibility of teams keeping guys from playing, but if you simply make it clear that when you claim benefits, you're waiving your right to that player - you have no contract with him any longer - that would take care of that. If said player wants to try to come back within that limited time period (say, two years,) you have no right to keep him from signing with another team. He's a free agent. And if he sticks to a regular season roster for a certain period of time within that time period, you lose your benefits.

I just think it's ridiculous that a team would have to continue paying on a contract for a player they were granted benefits on, especially when it's been as long as it's been for Darius Miles. Like I said, more power to him if he want to be a He-Man and come back, and I wish him the best. But it's unfair for the Blazers to have to pay on a contract that was deemed a total loss by the league.
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I think this is one of the consequences, for better or worse, in a league with guaranteed contracts. In the NFL he would just be gone, adios. But introduce a lot of exceptions and they're going to be abused.

I think the only acceptable scenario where the NBA should grant this cap relief is if it's mutually agreed between the player and team that the injury is career ending and the guy doesn't come back. Otherwise the team has an incentive to just Marbury the guy and lock him out of the gym where he might otherwise be able to play, simply to get out from his contract. Then, end of statute of limitations, voila, the guy can play again.

I actually don't know the circumstances surrounding Portland releasing him and declaring it career ending, and it might change my opinion of the situation. If he went along with it and they were just trying to do right by him by releasing him, it's a little fishier to me.

But ultimately, Portland gave him the contract. Their problem.
 
It was widely reported that Miles accepted the end of his career at the time and really did nothing to rehabilitate himself but was content to just pick up his check. What is his sudden motivation to play? Did he blow through all his money? You have to believe that Portland acted in good faith when they cut him loose that he was never going to play again, because otherwise the chance of something like this happening would probably be too much to face.
 
nbrans said:
I think this is one of the consequences, for better or worse, in a league with guaranteed contracts. In the NFL he would just be gone, adios. But introduce a lot of exceptions and they're going to be abused.
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Have you seen the CBA? It might as well be one big exception. Like any other contract of that magnitude, it is full of loopholes and footnotes. No getting around that.

I think the only acceptable scenario where the NBA should grant this cap relief is if it's mutually agreed between the player and team that the injury is career ending and the guy doesn't come back. Otherwise the team has an incentive to just Marbury the guy and lock him out of the gym where he might otherwise be able to play, simply to get out from his contract. Then, end of statute of limitations, voila, the guy can play again.
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How do you figure? The team cannot Marbury him because they lose their rights to control his movement. If the league issues benefits due to a career-ending injury, the team effectively waives him. If he sits out more than two full seasons due to that injury, then the team carries no more liability. IF he comes back within two years, he stays on their payroll and the benefits are rescinded. They would not able to lock him out. If he wants to come back, and sticks on a roster within those two years, they have to pay.

I just think it is a bit much to tax a team for a contract that they were relieved of. The league is as much to blame as the team is for awarding the relief in the first place.

I actually don't know the circumstances surrounding Portland releasing him and declaring it career ending, and it might change my opinion of the situation. If he went along with it and they were just trying to do right by him by releasing him, it's a little fishier to me.
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The guy missed two plus seasons before they even filed for benefits. He got shut down in the beginning of the '05 season, they filed in April '08, and he tried to come back in August '08. That's almost three full years they waited for him to get right, and then four months after the league declared his injury career-ending, he tries to come back. I would be upset if I were the Blazers also. It's like someone buying your junker that you got insurance money for, and then the insurance company -- the same one that declared it a total loss -- sues you for the benefits. I'd have a huge problem with that.
 
Haha Portland, Miles is back with the Grizzlies.

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http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ys-milesgrizzlies010909&prov=yhoo&type=lgns


Miles re-signs with Grizzlies

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports 1 hour, 55 minutes ago

Darius Miles is headed back to the Memphis Grizzlies, one day after the Portland Trail Blazers threatened to possibly sue any team that signed him.

Miles agreed to a 10-day contract with the Grizzlies, an NBA source said Friday night. If he plays in two games, the remaining $18 million of his previous contract with Portland goes back on the Trail Blazers’ salary cap.

The Grizzlies waived Miles on Tuesday to avoid having his contract become guaranteed.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
 
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I think thats bull that the Blazers would send that email. I don't care if it impacts them. Sure its a bad situation, but life isn't fair. They have no right to prohibit ANY team from signing him for ANY reason. It may be unsportsmanlike to sign him for the sole reason of hurting the Blazers, but hey, thats the name of the game...you don't see players admitting they fouled someone or saying "that wasn't a foul i actually flopped".
 
Merdiesel said:
Haha Portland, Miles is back with the Grizzlies.

________________________________________________________________________________________________
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ys-milesgrizzlies010909&prov=yhoo&type=lgns


Miles re-signs with Grizzlies

By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports 1 hour, 55 minutes ago

Darius Miles is headed back to the Memphis Grizzlies, one day after the Portland Trail Blazers threatened to possibly sue any team that signed him.

Miles agreed to a 10-day contract with the Grizzlies, an NBA source said Friday night. If he plays in two games, the remaining $18 million of his previous contract with Portland goes back on the Trail Blazers’ salary cap.

The Grizzlies waived Miles on Tuesday to avoid having his contract become guaranteed.
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Well, now the fun begins.

:p
 
The local news tonight just reported:
a) The players union has filed a grievance against the Blazers
b) Team president Larry Miller believes that there was at least one team in the NBA that planned on signing Miles for the sole purpose of affecting the Blazers. This was not about trying to stop any team that actually has a legitimate use for Miles.
 
It's hard to find articles from a year or two ago now with this situation destroying search engines. I remember reading Portland didn't want to activate Miles even though he wanted to play, and in his words "ready". Portland's goal has been to remove all the bad apples from their lineup, and that definitely meant not having Miles around their young core. They removed everyone that was tradeable, and Miles was the only one left because no one wanted to take his contract. There was never a good faith attempt to see if he could still play. There is a difference between being the same player, and still playing.

Portland shouldn't get away with what it's trying to do. Teams around the league end up paying players even when injured and are no longer the same. We traded Webber because he wasn't the same player and is still stuck with Kenny's contract. Why shouldn't Portland have to deal with the issue of keeping a contract or biting on a deal of flexible pieces when a player gets injured? This is part of the game. They signed on to it.
 
Superman said:
What makes the claim wrong? The guy hasn't played in three years. He can't stick with a team. He's played a total of 72 minutes in eight games; only 9 minutes since preseason. I mean, the guy's career is pretty much over at this point.
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to me, "career-ending injury" means that the guy cannot physically play basketball anymore; it's clear miles can play. he doesn't have to be good, he can be a scrub or whatever, but the fact remains that he is physically capable of playing.

i have a hard time believing that the blazers were anything but overjoyed that miles had an injury that they can push as "career-ending" so they could get him off their books and off their team. miles was a part of that whole jailblazers image that they've worked so hard to shed. think about it: he had an injury that the league and such deemed to be "career-ending" and somehow three years later he's able to run and play the game again? how hard did either miles or the blazers try to rehab from the injury three years ago???

i'm with nbrans (and apparently the league GMs): a guaranteed contract is guaranteed.
 
est.1999 said:
so what if SAR signs with another team in a year or two? Granted he stops coaching.
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We're bound to pay Shareef for the 1.5 years left on his contract. I actually don't know if we've been granted a medical waiver for him as far as the salary cap goes.

The long and the short of it is that if he were to suit up and play next year (or this year!) then his salary would count against our cap and tax calculations. I can't believe that there would be any retroactive effects - that is, if he started playing next year I don't think this year's tax calculations would be changed. But I'm not sure if he's even been granted the waiver. If not, there would be no effect at all.

It would make a big difference this year as without a SAR waiver we're pushing the luxury tax limit and would have to be very careful as far as salary matching goes when making any deals if we want to avoid the tax. With a waiver, we'd be able to absorb plenty of salary in a deal if necessary.

A quick check suggests that right now there are about 10 teams over the luxury tax for a total of about $100M - this is assuming that Portland gets nailed for the Miles contract. That would mean that unless something changes, that $100M will be spread across the remaining 20 teams - every team under the luxury tax threshold would get on the order of a $5M payment. So crossing the tax threshold by a dollar costs $5M on top of the dollar-for-dollar tax on each dollar over the threshold.
 
Not the 1st time Portland's come under scrutiny about Miles

http://www.portlandtribune.com/sports/print_story.php?story_id=121693653261551200

Blazers could come under scrutiny for statements on Miles' condition

Forward looks to play elsewhere, despite suggestion that knee replacement surgery may be in his future


From Pritchard:
“Two doctors said Darius had the worst microfracture injury they had ever seen,” Pritchard said on an Oregonlive.com blog this week. “They would never have him play basketball and the odds of having knee replacement surgery is high. I hear that, and as a general manager, I didn’t want it on my conscience – that I had a kid have to go through a knee replacement surgery. That’s a pretty major surgery. They saw (two bones) and replace (the knee). It’s a bad deal.”

In a story posted April 14 on the Portland Tribune’s Web site, Pritchard said, “The doctors had actually said, ‘If you were my son, I’d never have you pick up a basketball again.’ I’m the kind of GM (that) I wouldn’t want that on my head that he ever had to have knee replacement.”
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Local news reporting that the NBA will not sanction the Blazers for sending the letter, they even had an update that thus far Miles has not gotten into tonight's game. lol
 
Never read all of this thread, but the Blazers tried to sign Miles and the NBA blocked the move. I can only assume that this happened BEFORE the email, and word just leaked now. Because if they tried to sign him AFTER sending the email, then that is just stupid
 
SacKings7 said:
Never read all of this thread, but the Blazers tried to sign Miles and the NBA blocked the move. I can only assume that this happened BEFORE the email, and word just leaked now. Because if they tried to sign him AFTER sending the email, then that is just stupid
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The local news report said they tried to claim him off waivers but couldn't, I just assumed that meant a lesser ranked team claimed him first. Do NBA waiver claims work the same way they do in other sports like that?
 
pdxKingsFan said:
The local news report said they tried to claim him off waivers but couldn't, I just assumed that meant a lesser ranked team claimed him first. Do NBA waiver claims work the same way they do in other sports like that?
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I would think, but I'm guessing the league had their eye on this situation before word got out about it.
 
I just finished up school at Oregon State, so I still listen to portland's 1080 the fan sports radio on the internet here in sac, and last week they had larry miller (i beleive president of bball operations for the blazers) on the show, right after the news of the e-mail being sent to the league. He came on the show and was adament that the blazers werent trying to make sure darius never plays again, he said they simply wanted to make sure teams werent trying to sign darius with malice towards the blazers. Funny thing is, is right after he said that they werent trying to make sure darius didnt play again, the blazers tried to pull him off waivers so they could throw him on the bench and not let him play, but the nba didnt allow them to. Blazers president caught blatantly lying on radio about the situation! The radio hosts were even calling him out on it. Might not be good for the blazers in future trades and deals, as their upper management might have brought a bit of a cloud over their heads with this all.

Good thing for the rest of the league, because normally paul allen being the billionaire he is isnt too concerned with 18 million dollars. so the fact that they were going to such extremes to save that 18 mil probably means they were saving to make a big signing, which would be scary for the western conference given all the young talent they already have.
 
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Looks like Miles is playing tonight so the Blazers are going to take a cap hit and not be able to have the $$ to sign a high profile FA.
 
IT'S NOW OFFICIAL! Darius Miles played in his 10th game of the season last night (including the preseason) to put the Portland Trailblazers over the luxury tax threshold. They are now responsible for the $18 million remaining on his salary over the next 2 seasons. Glad somebody did it, and glad it wasn't us (maybe the Blazers will have to trade us some young talent for expirings now:)).
 
haha screw the blazers. They used an independent doctor to determine he wasn't able to perform any more.

If they wouldve never sent out that email threat then I may have felt a little bad but not no more.
 
est.1999 said:
haha screw the blazers. They used an independent doctor to determine he wasn't able to perform any more.
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The independent doctor is part of the NBA guidelines, as opposed to a team doctor who would just say whatever they wanted them to. The very fact that it was an independent doctor in conjunction with the NBA is why this is such a crappy situation - it could happen to anyone. I don't know why everyone is gloating about this.

The email they sent was totally inappropriate, but that's a different matter entirely.
 
pdxKingsFan said:
The independent doctor is part of the NBA guidelines, as opposed to a team doctor who would just say whatever they wanted them to. The very fact that it was an independent doctor in conjunction with the NBA is why this is such a crappy situation - it could happen to anyone. I don't know why everyone is gloating about this.
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My personal kneejerk reaction is it's sour grapes because they want what the Blazers have.

 
The Blazers are up and coming. By the time the Kings finally rebuild, the Spurs, Pistons, Celtics, and Cavs will all be very different teams. If Portland had cap space to add a max free agent and resign their kids, they are a future dynasty possibly. This brings them back a bit, and helps the Kings compete in a couple years. So that's why it is good news for the rest of the league (especially any teams in the Western Conference).
 
“Two doctors said Darius had the worst microfracture injury they had ever seen,” Pritchard said on an Oregonlive.com blog this week. “They would never have him play basketball and the odds of having knee replacement surgery is high. I hear that, and as a general manager, I didn’t want it on my conscience – that I had a kid have to go through a knee replacement surgery. That’s a pretty major surgery. They saw (two bones) and replace (the knee). It’s a bad deal.”

In a story posted April 14 on the Portland Tribune’s Web site, Pritchard said, “The doctors had actually said, ‘If you were my son, I’d never have you pick up a basketball again.’ I’m the kind of GM (that) I wouldn’t want that on my head that he ever had to have knee replacement.”
Click to expand...

More like you didn't want it on your payroll. The memo they sent threatening teams was proof of their intentions.

Darius will never be the same player again, and he wasn't that good to begin with. But I find it hard to believe he couldn't play a few minutes these last few years especially when they were stinking it up.

It's tasteless how they openly discuss a players medical records.
 
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