atlien Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=ArnB...o&type=lgns The Portland Trail Blazers sent an email to rival team executives late Thursday threatening possible litigation to any franchise that signs free-agent forward Darius Miles for the “purpose of adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers’ salary cap and tax positions.” The email cites Wednesday’s Yahoo! Sports report that if Miles plays in two more games this season, the remaining $18 million on his contract goes back on the Blazers’ payroll. “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,” Blazers president Larry Miller wrote in the email to representatives of every NBA team. “Such conduct by 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.” Teams had been under the impression the collective bargaining agreement demanded that Miles play 10 regular-season or postseason games for the $18 million – which is split evenly between this and next season – to return to the Blazers’ payroll. But the league office confirmed to Yahoo! Sports that the six preseason games that Miles played for the Boston Celtics counts toward the 10. Before the Memphis Grizzlies waived him on Tuesday night to avoid guaranteeing his contract for the rest of the season, Miles played two regular-season games that pushed him to eight total. “They’re daring someone to sign him now,” said one Western Conference GM who had seen the email from the Blazers. Any team in the NBA can sign Miles to a 10-day contract, play him twice and punch out one of the summer’s top free-agent destinations. The Blazers are a prime destination for free agents, and the cap space also made them a fierce competitor for sign-and-trade deals. If Miles returns to the salary cap, he also will push Portland into the luxury tax. That means every team under the tax would benefit with about $250,000 of revenue sharing from Portland. “The point that everybody is missing is that this isn’t about Portland’s salary cap. It’s about whether this guy [Miles] is healthy enough to play or not,” said an Eastern Conference executive. “He obviously is healthy enough to play. It doesn’t matter how good he plays. He can still play, and they said he couldn’t. “Portland received benefits when [Miles’] injury was ruled career-ending. If he can play, they don’t deserve to have those benefits.” I completely agree with the EC Exec. Portland should only get the benefit if Miles´injury was actually career-ending. It obviously isnt, so they shouldnt get that benefit (which is a big one for them). Cant see them winning a litigation either. How can they prove that a team signed Miles with the sole intent of damaging them? That team will just respond that, "no, it was simply a basketball decision." Seems impossible to prove the intent to harm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators AHF Posted January 9, 2009 Moderators Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 Someone will sign him for sure. They net themselves $250,000 minus a 10 day contract. It is a no-brainer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Traceman Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 Someone will sign him for sure. They net themselves $250,000 minus a 10 day contract. It is a no-brainer. I wish we would sign him to a 10-day contract. We could use a long guy like him in certain situations where the opposing swingman is too tall for Mo to guard effectively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crimedog Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 I wish we would sign him to a 10-day contract. We could use a long guy like him in certain situations where the opposing swingman is too tall for Mo to guard effectively. The problem is that he's been pretty worthless so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member mrhonline Posted January 9, 2009 Premium Member Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 For selfish reasons, we should hope that someone plays him those two games. Putting $9M back on the Blazers' cap for next season would make it a little more difficult for them to maneuver in an offseason when the Hawks have three of the top FA's on the market - Bibby, Marvin, and Zaza. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlpin Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 I dont know how all the anti-trust exceptions work and if they would cover this, but this lobbying to avoid having teams sign Miles could certainly be construed as an anti-trust violation in other industries. I think its beyond classless what the blazers are doing. "Dont sign a guy who is trying really hard to make a come back after devastating injuries and who has matured significantly because then the league might see through our ploy." I mean, career ending=/=career debilitating. Playing worse because of injury is completely different from not being able to play at all. I was pretty surprised when the league granted this to portland. When Reggie Lewis died, the celtics were denied a similar deal and had his salary still counting towards the cap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Traceman Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 The problem is that he's been pretty worthless so far. He's obviously not anywhere near where he was and I'm sure he's rusty but he did have a couple of blocked shots and a couple of rebounds the other night in less than 8 minutes. I don't know if he'd help or not but I would like a longer guy who can come in and defend bigger SFs when Marv is out and Smoove is at PF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators AHF Posted January 9, 2009 Moderators Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 The league has now stated that they will endorse any contract another team chooses to sign with Miles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AtLaS Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 This is just crap. Portland was the team that signed him to that contract in the first place. If not for his injury, they'd be paying his salary anyway. Just because his "career ending" injury happened to not be career ending doesn't mean you have a right to sue someone who signs him. Any chance they had to get out of his contract scout free in the first place should have been a blessing. It turns out that it wasn't career ending so they should have to pay it. Portland is basically threatening to sue a team to protect PORTLAND's LUCK. I hope a rival signs him and plays him for 1 minute in back to back games just because of this crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonegully Posted January 9, 2009 Report Share Posted January 9, 2009 This is just crap. Portland was the team that signed him to that contract in the first place. If not for his injury, they'd be paying his salary anyway. Just because his "career ending" injury happened to not be career ending doesn't mean you have a right to sue someone who signs him. Any chance they had to get out of his contract scout free in the first place should have been a blessing. It turns out that it wasn't career ending so they should have to pay it. Portland is basically threatening to sue a team to protect PORTLAND's LUCK. I hope a rival signs him and plays him for 1 minute in back to back games just because of this crap. that would be funny as hell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member mrhonline Posted January 10, 2009 Premium Member Report Share Posted January 10, 2009 The Grizz have re-signed him. It looks like that $9M is going back on Portland's cap next season, and I think that helps the Hawks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrReality Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 I guess the email worked. I haven't heard of anyone picking him up. But then there wasn't a whole of lot of upside to anyone who did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlpin Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 I guess the email worked. I haven't heard of anyone picking him up. But then there wasn't a whole of lot of upside to anyone who did. he signed a new 10 day deal with the grizzlies Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators AHF Posted January 13, 2009 Moderators Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 he signed a new 10 day deal with the grizzlies He signed the new deal with Memphis the same day as the email. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlpin Posted January 14, 2009 Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 one more game down, just one more to go before the blazers are screwed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlpin Posted January 14, 2009 Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 and Miles is actually looking good today. 5 points in 4 minutes so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlpin Posted January 14, 2009 Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 total for the night: 13 points in 12 minutes. Rudy gay scored less shooting 3 times more and playing 3 times more. And he actually looked good today. Granted, it was mostly against Szerbiak (dont know how to spell this one), but still... Now, is the punishment retroactive? If/when that money goes back to the Blazers books, will they have to pay extra luxury taxes for last season as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member mrhonline Posted January 14, 2009 Premium Member Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 Not for last season, no. The next most interesting domino is the insurance...He was being covered at 80%, but now that he's proven he can play... One more game to go... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefloydian Posted January 15, 2009 Report Share Posted January 15, 2009 Not for last season, no. The next most interesting domino is the insurance...He was being covered at 80%, but now that he's proven he can play... One more game to go... That's funny. Portland fans must be pissed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlpin Posted January 17, 2009 Report Share Posted January 17, 2009 http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3840234 10 games. And he is looking good too. I dont know how they convinced anyone that the injury was career ending. 10 points 7 rebounds yesterday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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