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On the wiretap, it says the Blazers are threatening to sue anyone who picks up Darius Miles. Are they freakin' serious???? That's ridiculous. If I was an NBA GM, I'd pick up Miles immediately after reading that bullcrap.

You know what, **** the Blazers. It's their own stupidity that got them into this **** mess in the first place...if I was an NBA GM I'd sign him in an instant JUST to **** them over...**** THEM!

It is not making any sense. That is manipulation. NBA should look into it.

This is going to come back and bite Portland a number of different ways. Pretty stupid.

Sounds like this could be a violation of the CBA...

On the surface this seems like and empty threat and it seems unusual that a team would publically issue such a statement. If a team signs Miles, how do the Blazer's possibly prove it was done only to damage the Blazers? So one of two things must be happening:

1. First, and most likely imo, is that a they are concerned that a team under the luxury tax threshhold will sign him putting him back on the books, pushing Portland into the luxury tax and increasing the value of the monies distributed among non-tax paying teams. This gives a motive for a claim that a team did this for reasons beyond the basketball court.

2. A team has hinted that they would sign him if the Blazers don't do a particular trade. For example, "we are looking for a long 3, and have it down to signing Miles or trading /lesser valued players/ for Travis Outlaw. This gives the Blazers a cohersion defense.

Outside of those scenerios, I can't figure out what possible claim the Blazer's could have?

Also, to make another public comment about not signing Miles, the Blazer's seem to have opened themselves up to a claim from Miles' camp...

I think this is hilarious. What a mess for the league and the Blazers!

Portland claimed that Miles injury was going to force his career to be over just so they could get salary cap relief which wasn't true. Portland has no right to get salary cap relief so quit complaining about it. They want a free pass for their mistake (longterm deal for Miles). Too bad.

Portland is just asking for someone to pick him up for 2 games. This would put a big dent in their ability to land a big free agent this summer. I hope someone does it too, because this "warning" is just ridiculous. If someone wants Darius on their team and think he can contribute in some way, they have every right to sign him. Maybe they should've thought twice before declaring his injury "career ending" and receiving benefits from it. Now that it's coming back to bite them in the @ss, they've got no one to blame but themselves.

Celts17Pride wrote:Portland claimed that Miles injury was going to force his career to be over just so they could get salary cap relief which wasn't true. Portland has no right to get salary cap relief so quit complaining about it. They want a free pass for their mistake (longterm deal for Miles). Too bad.

Agreed

underneathtoDJ wrote:Portland is just asking for someone to pick him up for 2 games. This would put a big dent in their ability to land a big free agent this summer. I hope someone does it too, because this "warning" is just ridiculous. If someone wants Darius on their team and think he can contribute in some way, they have every right to sign him. Maybe they should've thought twice before declaring his injury "career ending" and receiving benefits from it. Now that it's coming back to bite them in the @ss, they've got no one to blame but themselves.

Agreed...


Oh this is going to get good...can't wait to see Portland **** over...

They have NO cachet in issuing this warning...who the hell do they think they are??

I kind of like the Blazers, but hot damn I hope someone signs him now.

So lets just say Miles made our team, which very well could have happened. What would Portland say, don't play him or we will sue you.

Crybaby management over there in portland.

This is absolutely outrageous. If anyone should be facing disciplinary action it is the Blazers for putting this stigma on Darius Miles. The NBA and the Player's Association need to act swiftly to deal with this warning.
Suddenly the Blazers are the judge and jury as to who people can sign? Leon Powe had over 20 DNP's last year - teams use players when and where they see fit. Teams routinely sign players to 10 day contracts where those players are used for little else than being practice players when there are many injuries or trades. They sometimes don't even play. Now everyone is going to have to explain to the Blazers what their intentions are in signing Miles?
I'm now really wondering how above board this so called independent medical opinion on Miles was in the first place. The Blazers kept quiet knowledge that the 6 pre-season games counted toward towards the 10 games. Now this attempt to bully everybody on a player who clearly should never have been put into this medical category. Because of this "warning" the NBA should send out an announcement stating there will be no legal action taken against teams signing Miles (The Player's Association should demand it) and the Blazer's organization should at the least be fined.

I think the issue is that POR just like everyone else thought that he still had to play in 10 games and apparently the preseason games with Boston counted. So instead of someone having to sign him and pay him for the rest of the season, he will simply go on their cap on a 10 day contract. It may no be worth $800,000 to jerk around the Blazers but it is certainly worth $20,000 their screwed.

I think the situation is much worse than that. My guess is that the reason Miles hasn't done anything in response to the Blazers is that he wants to re-establish than he can play. No team is going to sign him if he is making all kinds of threats against the Blazers. Once it is done then the flamethrower will come out.

I'm no Barry Feinstein, but this seems like it could backfire on the Blazers. They don't even have to actually sue anybody, just these threats being out there is doing damage to Miles chances of signing with somebody.

celtxman wrote:This is absolutely outrageous. If anyone should be facing disciplinary action it is the Blazers for putting this stigma on Darius Miles. The NBA and the Player's Association need to act swiftly to deal with this warning.
Suddenly the Blazers are the judge and jury as to who people can sign? Leon Powe had over 20 DNP's last year - teams use players when and where they see fit. Teams routinely sign players to 10 day contracts where those players are used for little else than being practice players when there are many injuries or trades. They sometimes don't even play. Now everyone is going to have to explain to the Blazers what their intentions are in signing Miles?
I'm now really wondering how above board this so called independent medical opinion on Miles was in the first place. The Blazers kept quiet knowledge that the 6 pre-season games counted toward towards the 10 games. Now this attempt to bully everybody on a player who clearly should never have been put into this medical category. Because of this "warning" the NBA should send out an announcement stating there will be no legal action taken against teams signing Miles (The Player's Association should demand it) and the Blazer's organization should at the least be fined.

I agree, good post.

I've got to say, after reading the memo, I don't think the Blazers were wrong about what they put out. They pretty much said "If your sole intention is to screw us over by picking him up, we will screw you over." Let's be real, he can't help an NBA team. He was cut by us and couldn't get off the bench in Memphis, where they are pretty weak for SF/PF depth. The only legit reason for a team to sign him is to intentionally screw over the Blazers and that's not really right to them.

Zin5 wrote:I've got to say, after reading the memo, I don't think the Blazers were wrong about what they put out. They pretty much said "If your sole intention is to screw us over by picking him up, we will screw you over." Let's be real, he can't help an NBA team. He was cut by us and couldn't get off the bench in Memphis, where they are pretty weak for SF/PF depth. The only legit reason for a team to sign him is to intentionally screw over the Blazers and that's not really right to them.

No. What is not right is denying Darius Miles his chance to play in the NBA. He hasn't gotten into trouble for awhile now. He has kept it clean, worked hard and has done everything right trying to get back into the NBA. And portland is saying no.

The fact that he was a late cut for the DEFENDING NBA CHAMPIONS shows that he has every right to play in this league. The Trail Blazers are out of their tree here.

Celtics_Champs wrote:

Zin5 wrote:I've got to say, after reading the memo, I don't think the Blazers were wrong about what they put out. They pretty much said "If your sole intention is to screw us over by picking him up, we will screw you over." Let's be real, he can't help an NBA team. He was cut by us and couldn't get off the bench in Memphis, where they are pretty weak for SF/PF depth. The only legit reason for a team to sign him is to intentionally screw over the Blazers and that's not really right to them.

No. What is not right is denying Darius Miles his chance to play in the NBA. He hasn't gotten into trouble for awhile now. He has kept it clean, worked hard and has done everything right trying to get back into the NBA. And portland is saying no.

And only saying no to save their own asses from what a terrible decision they made in the first place...in the real world you have to deal with the consequences of **** decisions...

HighAboveCourtside wrote:The fact that he was a late cut for the DEFENDING NBA CHAMPIONS shows that he has every right to play in this league. The Trail Blazers are out of their tree here.

Exactly. **** them.

D Miles should sue portland for threatening teams