Portland Crossed the Line!!!

[PacerGuy]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns

I think Portland just crossed the line & is in a world of hurt!
This will definately result in D.Miles filing suit against them, & likely the NBAPA too. David Stern should be all over this & crush them over this "threat" to his leagues owners & a players right to work.
For those who are not up to speed: seems the games Miles played in the preseason count against his 10 game provision that would activate his cost against Portlands cap #, so now he only needs to play 2 more games t/y to wreck havic on the Blazers cap - 9 mill worth n/i Lux Tax. This will also count him against them n/y, hurting (killing) their last chance to sign a top FA before all their current rookie scale contracts start coming due for extentions. This is BIG!

[JarrettJackSG]

I think they crossed the line too. =/

[cdash]

If I were an opposing GM, I'd sign Miles and play him two games out of spite for that **** move by Portland.

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

Document not found. :-\

[Boneman2]

The NBA & players union need to agree on some type of buyout system, or atleast a clause in regards to complacent players only around to collect a check, w/o regard to improving. Miles hasn't earned a dime.

[MillerTime101]

The NBA & players union need to agree on some type of buyout system, or atleast a clause in regards to complacent players only around to collect a check, w/o regard to improving. Miles hasn't earned a dime.

I doubt the players union would go for that, that clause only exists in one major sport (NFL) and I dont see it happening here.

This letter was a bad move by Portland IMO, not only will they likely get sued by Darius Miles but they are bringing even more attention to a situation that they should be trying to sweep under the rug.

The only reason why I wouldnt sign Miles as a GM is because I wouldnt want to piss off a GM of a team with a very young talented team that is likely to come across some major cap problems in the near future. I hope a GM does sign him, but not Larry Bird.

This is not Miles' fault, they signed him to that ridiculous contract based on his potential when he was very young.

[PDXKnight]

The issue isn't Miles playing, it's teams signing Miles just to screw Portland's salary cap plan and put Portland in the luxury tax threshold. If he stays on Portland's cap, not only does Portland miss out on the payout, but they have to pay around 9 million for being over the cap if Miles's salary counts. I'd say unless Pritchard flat out said that he'd sue anyone who signed miles period, then it would be an issue, but the only restriction he laid out is an attempt to sabotage Portland's salary situation. Teams can obviously take the risk and sign him for 2 games, but the holdback is that they may be involved in a long legal battle that would cost more than they would gain from the lux tax, so they may be discouraged to sign Miles.

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

The issue isn't Miles playing, it's teams signing Miles just to screw Portland's salary cap plan and put Portland in the luxury tax threshold. If he stays on Portland's cap, not only does Portland miss out on the payout, but they have to pay around 9 million for being over the cap if Miles's salary counts. I'd say unless Pritchard flat out said that he'd sue anyone who signed miles period, then it would be an issue, but the only restriction he laid out is an attempt to sabotage Portland's salary situation. Teams can obviously take the risk and sign him for 2 games, but the holdback is that they may be involved in a long legal battle that would cost more than they would gain from the lux tax, so they may be discouraged to sign Miles.

Teams sign players to 10 day contracts all the time, no way to prove it. Portland did absolutely nothing but screw themselves with this email.

[granger05]

I think Portland screwed up as well. They threatened that anyone who refused to collude with them to keep this guy out of the NBA would get sued. They put it in writing which is incredible to me. Surely they have a legal department that would advise against something like that. Not only should the player's union have an issue with this, but I wonder if it will blow up into a Joe Smith type of affair with a team pretty clearly trying to circumvent the salary cap with an unspoken agreement, but like the Joe Smith business these guys wrote it down. In this case, they also emailed it to everyone.

[PDXKnight]

I think Portland screwed up as well. They threatened that anyone who refused to collude with them to keep this guy out of the NBA would get sued. They put it in writing which is incredible to me. Surely they have a legal department that would advise against something like that. Not only should the player's union have an issue with this, but I wonder if it will blow up into a Joe Smith type of affair with a team pretty clearly trying to circumvent the salary cap with an unspoken agreement, but like the Joe Smith business these guys wrote it down. In this case, they also emailed it to everyone.

The thing is, the Smith signing was an under the table signing while the message that the Blazers organization issued was a warning that they'd take action if teams intentionally try to sabatoge Portland's plans. I'm not necessarily saying it was the best course of action, and I'm sure the NBA FO will do all they can to prevent a small market team from becoming successful in the NBA, but this whole topic is really being pretty blown out of proportion IMO. If Stern takes away Portland's picks as was done in the Minnesota situation, it would just confirm my current beliefs that the NBA is inconsistent with their decisions.

[granger05]

Portland's cap space that they're worried about was granted because Miles received a medical retirement, but that seems to be pretty bogus at this point. Whether or not Miles deserves a contract or not doesn't change the fact that he's capable of playing in the NBA. I wish we could get Tinsley medically retired as well. So in my mind, this cap-space business is fleeting because it seems fraudulent that Portland got out of this contract in the first place.

Regarding this emailed threat business, I can't decide how big a deal it is. Imagine if a team emailed every other team and said that if they offered such-and-such free agent a contract larger than X then they'd sue because that's what they want to pay that guy and you're adversely affecting our team's status by doing so. That's outrageous right, but isn't this similar. Portland is telling teams that they can't sign this guy and that they have to help them keep him out of the league. Whether or not they could enforce that legally I think that teams would take it seriously just because Paul Allen has such resources that he probably could make another owner's life miserable in court. That's where I think the league comes in though. The Joe Smith contract was an arrangement that allowed Minnesota to keep Joe Smith even though their cap situation didn't allow them to at that time. I though the league's response was way too much, and I would in this case as well. However, hasn't the precedent been set that if you try to duck the salary cap you'll lose picks?

Portland can probably dodge that by the wording of their email that says something along the lines of "if you sign him expressly to hurt the Portland Trailblazers." They could probably argue that doesn't include a regular contract offer I suppose. There's always a chess match between teams when it comes to player offers. I don't see why this one should be any different, and it comes back again to whether or not Miles should be medically retired. I think Pritchard overstepped here and made what might be his first screw-up. I suspect that they'll get slapped by the league in some fashion.

[FreeRon]

The NBA does screw small market teams. I will agree with that. It is to the point where I sometimes have trouble calling whatever it is that goes on in the NBA a sport. That being said, this was about as boneheaded thing as I've ever seen. You got out of paying a guy by saying he wasn't physically capable of playing. Another team proves you wrong and you're going to sue them for doing it just to mess with your cap space? Everybody else in the league pays for their bad decisions. If Bender came back and played in 10 games I wouldn't be threatening to sue the guys who signed him, I'd think to myself that maybe we should think harder about making a player take a medical retirement in the future. Give me an example of when a similar situation happened to a big market team and the NBA treated them differently and we'll talk.

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

The thing is, the Smith signing was an under the table signing while the message that the Blazers organization issued was a warning that they'd take action if teams intentionally try to sabatoge Portland's plans. I'm not necessarily saying it was the best course of action, and I'm sure the NBA FO will do all they can to prevent a small market team from becoming successful in the NBA, but this whole topic is really being pretty blown out of proportion IMO. If Stern takes away Portland's picks as was done in the Minnesota situation, it would just confirm my current beliefs that the NBA is inconsistent with their decisions.

Take off the homer goggles man. Your team just blackmailed the rest of the NBA and you act as if they are in the right.

[granger05]

I don't understand how a player can be "medically retired" if he still wants to play in the NBA. That's the main point that this all brings up for me. Shouldn't that be a decision between the team AND the player. A doctor proclaimed that he wasn't medically cleared to play anymore and the league accepted this, but clearly Darius Miles has not. Why can't we get this doctor to declare that Tinsley can't play anymore either? Then we'll email the league and tell them not to sign him, or we'll sue!

[granger05]

Well, it's starting: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3822392. I'm going to go on record that I think Portland loses a pick over this. I don't think the NBA will stand for owners threatening other owners over player movement. The upside for Portland is that they've positioned themselves well enough that they'd probably be using their pick on an overseas guy anyway for the next couple seasons.

[PDXKnight]

The thing is, the Smith signing was an under the table signing while the message that the Blazers organization issued was a warning that they'd take action if teams intentionally try to sabatoge Portland's plans. I'm not necessarily saying it was the best course of action, and I'm sure the NBA FO will do all they can to prevent a small market team from becoming successful in the NBA, but this whole topic is really being pretty blown out of proportion IMO. If Stern takes away Portland's picks as was done in the Minnesota situation, it would just confirm my current beliefs that the NBA is inconsistent with their decisions.

Take off the homer goggles man. Your team just blackmailed the rest of the NBA and you act as if they are in the right.

I'm sorry if you think I'm being a homer here but there's a big difference between telling teams not to sign a player and telling teams not to sign a player with ill intent. The Blazers organization didn't say that teams can't sign Miles, it said that if they were obviously trying to sabotage our cap plans, they would face trial. If a team signs Miles just to sign him, there's no problem, but signing him and playing him for 2 minutes for 2 games then releasing him is a pretty obvious violation of the CBA which Portland should technically be able to take up with the league, but in this case, it looks like David Stern is unwilling to observe both sides of the argument just as he refused to give any say to Supersonics fans in regards to their move to OKC.

[xxSnEaKyPxx]

The thing is, the Smith signing was an under the table signing while the message that the Blazers organization issued was a warning that they'd take action if teams intentionally try to sabatoge Portland's plans. I'm not necessarily saying it was the best course of action, and I'm sure the NBA FO will do all they can to prevent a small market team from becoming successful in the NBA, but this whole topic is really being pretty blown out of proportion IMO. If Stern takes away Portland's picks as was done in the Minnesota situation, it would just confirm my current beliefs that the NBA is inconsistent with their decisions.

Take off the homer goggles man. Your team just blackmailed the rest of the NBA and you act as if they are in the right.

I'm sorry if you think I'm being a homer here but there's a big difference between telling teams not to sign a player and telling teams not to sign a player with ill intent. The Blazers organization didn't say that teams can't sign Miles, it said that if they were obviously trying to sabotage our cap plans, they would face trial. If a team signs Miles just to sign him, there's no problem, but signing him and playing him for 2 minutes for 2 games then releasing him is a pretty obvious violation of the CBA which Portland should technically be able to take up with the league, but in this case, it looks like David Stern is unwilling to observe both sides of the argument just as he refused to give any say to Supersonics fans in regards to their move to OKC.

What you don't understand, is if Darius Miles can infact play, then the Blazers should have it count against their cap. This would be like us saying Jamaal Tinsley can't perform, taking his cap off our books, then saying if anyteam signs him, we'll sue. If he can play, that is all on Portlands head, not the other teams fault. You can't blame another team for being strategic. If Darius Miles can in fact play, then the Blazers basically cheated, so whatever happens, is their own fault entirely. Teams should have every right to call the Blazers on this, and if you think Stern should side with the Blazers your wrong. This has nothing to do with the Blazers being a small market team, they screwed up - bad.

[cdash]

It's a little homeristic.

The Blazers wont take anyone to trial, nor should they, it is quite apparant to anyone with an IQ above 75 that Darius Miles is NOT worthy of a medical retirement. Say it did go to court (which it never would), how can they prove that someone signed him for any reason besides trying to help their basketball team win? They might have lots of circumstantial evidence ("Uhhh, they play in our division, were in last place, they signed him for two games, and cut him. It's fishy."), but nothing you could prove. Signing him for two games and playing him two minutes is not an obvious violation of the CBA. You do realize most marginal NBA journeymen-types get signed to ten day contracts and typically only will play one or two games and usually aren't logging any substantial minutes, right? Adding the thing about the Sonics was, in a word, ridiculous. He gave the fans and the community plenty of say. You think David Stern wants to lose a good NBA market like Seattle? You really think OKC is a more desirable market? No, the city wouldnt play ball with him and he flexed his muscles, making it well known that he is serious about state-of-the-art arenas for his teams.

[PDXKnight]

It's a little homeristic.

The Blazers wont take anyone to trial, nor should they, it is quite apparant to anyone with an IQ above 75 that Darius Miles is NOT worthy of a medical retirement. Say it did go to court (which it never would), how can they prove that someone signed him for any reason besides trying to help their basketball team win? They might have lots of circumstantial evidence ("Uhhh, they play in our division, were in last place, they signed him for two games, and cut him. It's fishy."), but nothing you could prove. Signing him for two games and playing him two minutes is not an obvious violation of the CBA. You do realize most marginal NBA journeymen-types get signed to ten day contracts and typically only will play one or two games and usually aren't logging any substantial minutes, right? Adding the thing about the Sonics was, in a word, ridiculous. He gave the fans and the community plenty of say. You think David Stern wants to lose a good NBA market like Seattle? You really think OKC is a more desirable market? No, the city wouldnt play ball with him and he flexed his muscles, making it well known that he is serious about state-of-the-art arenas for his teams.

Well there was obviously a reason he was initially retired medically. Doctors chosen by the NBA take a look at players when the question of medical retirement arises, so it's not as if Portland had a biased medical review when he was inspected. Sure, Miles is doing well in short stints, but if given extended minutes, his injury would show with time.

I'm not exactly sure about the CBA rules, but from what I've heard, it's against NBA rules to sign a player on medical retirement with the intent of 'sticking it' to his former team. If he's only capable of playing minimal minutes with his injury, it may not be as obvious that he's as healthy as he may seem. I'm not going to say that he's necessarily injured without knowing the absolute facts, but what according to one of the doctors who checked his injury, it was 'one of the worst injuries' the doctor had seen in his time as a doctor. That's not to say that Miles couldn't return from such an injury, but the odds are strongly against him.

[cdash]

No one is doubting that he has some very serious knee injuries and that he will never be back to where he used to be, but this isnt a case where you need to know the ins and outs of his medical records. He is physically capable of playing basketball at a high level. Period.