but Memphis can use him for 2 or 3 games, then get a gigantic check from us the next couple of years. Ya… way to go NBA. Really looking out for your own.

absolutely 100% incredible.

it was best explained by Eben Calder in another thread:

The LoopHole

The underlying issue is that there is a problem with the rules – not necessarily with the Blazers nor Miles. In the first place, the Blazers retired Miles based on the recommendation of a Doctor selected by the NBA and the Players association. In sum, they could not have continued to play Miles given that doctors decision that continued playing was likely to result in a permanent disability.

This has, from the beginning, put the Blazers at a disadvantage. They could not encourage Miles to continue playing for them – given the ruling. However, Miles could continue to try to play basketball – but only if it was for some other team. He is, after all, the ultimate decider as to whether or not he wants to ignore the advice of the doctors and risk permanent injury.

So, the Blazers were left with a player that they could not play – but someone else could.

Think about how absurd this is. They had three options. None good. If they kept him on the team, paid his salary, but refused to play him – Darius would have been angry and disruptive. Darius – after all, want’s to play. Or at least try to play. So this wasn’t a good option.

Secondly, they could have tried to trade him. Now you know this was an option. Not a team in the leaque was willing to engage in any "kind" of trade for a player that had been determined by the NBA to be unable to continue playing. So this one’s a joke.

Thirdly, they could release him – as they did. In fact, this was the only option. The Blazers could not trade him, and because of the Doctors ruling, could not play him – which he wanted to do.

So now, they’re left with the results of the simple fact that if the NBA and the Players Association determines a player to be unfit to continue playing – that they don’t enforce that ruling on the player. Instead, they leave a loop hole, and leave it up to the player. And there’s the rub.

The Blazers lose no matter what they do. Miles, after all, has already publicly admitted that he no longer has the same skills, nor the leaping ability that he once had. He already has been affected by his injury. He is, in sum, damaged goods. However, the NBA and the Players Association do not want to tell Miles what is already obvious. And that should be their job.

After all, what’s the point of having a procedure to medically determine whether or not a player is medically unfit to continue playing, if you don’t enforce it on the player?

by Eben Calder on Jan 12, 2009 6:17 AM PST

I’m suprised we even gave it a shot. If the NBA had of bought our premise that we wanted Miles to play for us, then no one in the league office has seen this little franchise out in the northwest wilderness has seen us play, or even pretended to look at the roster. I can’t believe that we gave it a shot. No, actually, it makes sense we gave it a shot, just in the whole throw something up the flagpole and see who salutes it mentality. Unfortunately, that probably is not the best way to run an NBA team. I can just imagine that conversation at the league office

“Hey, Gary, check this out! Portland is trying to claim Miles off of waivers!”

(Gary snorts into his coffee) “Really?”

“Really Really. Let me check and see who they have at Small Forward. They start a Rookie from France, have Bo Outlaw off the bench-”

“Are you sure its Bo Outlaw?”

“Sorry, Travis Outlaw. And last year’s starter is still on IR. And they expect us to believe they legitmately want to give him some playing time? While they are well above .500?”

“Even Boston didn’t want him, and they could use anything else off their bench right now, except from what they got. How long should we let them hope?”

“Not long. I’m gonna call Larry Miller and tell him we can’t let that happen.”

(Calls Larry, and he looks like this)

“How’d it go?”

“Less than well. Hey look, a new e-mail!”

John Canzano: Larry Miller, Blazers president joining us. Is there any chance that you guys would claim Darius Miles, and not play him in a game just to keep him from playing those ten games?

Larry Miller: Uhh, no, we we we uh we we wouldn’t do that.

http://www.nba.com/media/blazers/Larry_Miller_on_BFT_1-9-09.mp3

or is Dick Cheney?

him it seems unfair Portland gets blocked by the league from trying to get around paying the luxury tax. I knew it wouldn’t work, surprised Portland even tried.

Call me crazy but I still think this Miles thing is going to work out ok for us

Portland had damaged goods, a bad influence on teammates, and a potentially rehab-able player who woudn’t put in the effort to rehab. Wouldn’t that drive you nuts if you were holding his contract? It was the team management who ASKED for the medical evaluation for medical retirement. They wanted it badly for this very purpose, so that at least the CAPSPACE would come off the books. Miles signed off on an EVALUATION, but not a RETIREMENT. He has always maintained that he wanted to play, or was on the cusp of a comeback. I would have done the same thing as Portland, if I knew about the rule, but it was certainly a small risk they were aware of.

The 10 game comeback rule is completely lame. CAPSPACE is meant to keep teams from spending unlimited and UNFAIR amounts of dollars on players to MAKE THE TEAM UNFAIRLY COMPETITIVE…To get and UNFAIR ADVANTAGE over smaller market, less wealthy teams.
The capspace in Miles situation is counting against Portland, while giving OTHER teams an “advantage” of using the player who is on Portlands books.
Loopholed, stymied, impotent, against an inherently bad rule, Portland is trying to fight back… but alas, no one feels sorry for Portland.
This is an instance the league should allow Portland to let the CAPSPACE off the books in a special ruling. It is the right thing to do.
If the CAPSPACE

I’ll admit I’m far from an expert on all this. It’s such unique and new legal contractual territory I don’t think anyone is an expert. So what if The Blazers had picked up Miles off waivers. Let’s say we sign him and he does appear in two games for us. Would we become responsible for his “new” contract he just signed with us AND then have his old contract also count against our cap? Of course it’s much much more likely we sign Miles only to ensure he doesn’t play. Inwhich case I’d have to agree with the league, we were trying to circumvent the cap rules, or at the very least the “spirit” of the cap rules. And clearly manipulating to keep Miles off the court, even if that meant by us employing him. Which in my opinion does make us look bad when we are stopped and then immediately send a threatening e-mail to the rest of the league warning them that we know some of them might want to sign Miles for ulterior motives. So don’t sign Miles with intent to hurt us, don’t sign Miles with sole intent of letting him reach 10 games, but The Blazers can sign him with sole intent to prevent him from reaching 10 games? Hey, I am a Blazer fan but that stinks to high heaven.

Even if I’m totally wrong about this, the legality or the approach or the application, even if I’m totally wrong I think a point is often lost in all the wrangling over this. Doesn’t it really come down to Darius Miles? The idea of all the rules is to allow Darius the opportunity, the chance to continue his career if he is able. It’s not really suppose to be about The Blazers finding a way to keep salary off their cap space, salary they themselves put against their cap space when they signed Miles years ago. It’s not suppose to be about other teams trying to hurt The Blazers by signing Miles with sole intent of making sure he reaches 10 games. It comes down to Miles doesn’t it? Can he really play? Nowhere does it say he has to be great, play at pre-injury levels. It just says “play”. Which just means he has to find a place with some team in the league. Some team that only has to value him at the very least at the level of a 12th man. So if Miles can wrap his knees in Latex and contribute on a “Shavlik Randolph”, Ha Seung Jing level then he’s NOT retired. Sorry fellow Blazer fans but if Miles can make it on the court, then proving WHY a team is using him is almost impossible. Miles has shown that he can at least make it on the court. He’s scored a few points, made a few blocks. Almost impossible for The Blazers to argue he isn’t viable, and I’d guess even less possible if the truth was we made moves to obtain him.

I’ll admit I’m not an expert. I’ll further admit I don’t want to be an expert. This is part of the N.B.A. I don’t enjoy. So maybe I just want to keep it simple, so simply shouldn’t it come down to if Miles can play, we have to pay? Wasn’t that always the deal, even before a desperate attempt to obtain Miles off waivers, and a poorly written e-mail got sent? My guess is this whole unfortunate sorry event(s) leads the league to look closer at the whole “medical retirement” rules. They are vague and invite this type of mess. I guess I feel good that I think this will probably be the 1st and last time specifics like this get debated.

I hate to say that I care what national media and other teams think of the blazers, but if I didn’t, then it wouldn’t have mattered to me that we had the Jail Blazer rep a few years ago. And it does.

If our goal is to eventually set up an appeal with the league, is this really the right way to go about it? First by attempting collusion by trying to pick of Darius off waivers, then by threatening the league not to sign him?

We’re not making friends with the very people that have the ability to overturn the league rules.

Plus we look like scumbags in the process.

……………………………………………. It should be getting pretty hot down there for them at this point…

but who thinks that the NBA (meaning Stern) wants to see Portland’s cap room axed? I won’t claim any particular animus towards Portland, though Stern and Allen have butted heads many times over the years, and if there are to be championship parades down Broadway, I think the league would prefer it be the one in NY… but it seems that the league office has No Problem Whatsoever with the Blazers cap room getting axed. The league office has long been fighting to keep salaries down, and what better way to do so than take a major player out of the free agent market?

Even though NBAPA boss Billy Hunter was frothing at the mouth concerning the Blazers last week, I suspect the union will ultimately be on our side when this is done. Hunter is a pit bull, but a trained pit bull—he sics whoever it is his job to sic. When a team appears to be interfering with a players’ ability to find work, he goes after that team—but if the league appears to be manipulating the salary cap, expect him to go after the league.

This situation has played-out probably the worst way it could for Portland. Blazers management rolled the dice in hopes that they could job the league and other teams into not playing Miles while risking the public relations damage. They’ve lost on both counts.

Donning my hindsight goggles, I can see now that the Blazers should have accepted that if Miles was able to play again some team or teams would give him a shot and he would go back on Portland’s cap, and that fighting it every step of the way (remember the accusation that KP inappropriately revealed Miles medical info?) would result in worse PR than the cap space that they at best had a small chance of retaining.

Sometimes the smartest thing you can do is accept the inevitable and put the best spin on it. A polite public battle with the league over the unfairness of the situation and making the case to the media might have generated some sympathy and goodwill toward the Blazers. Instead, they’ve shown the world that the same nasty, bean-counting mindset that created the Jail Blazer, win-at-all-costs era is still alive and running the show in Portland. The Vulcan wolf we thought was gone for good has shed his sheep’s wool and bared his fangs.

I trust the Blazers management is doing what needs to be done to protect themselves. I also believe that whatever actions they took, they did for a legitimate reason, even if it costs them to look a little shady. Millions of dollars are on the line here, I don’t blame them for these actions.

Jake (Israel): Lovin the chats Chad. How seriously does the Darius Miles situation affect the Blazers? assuming he plays two more games.

 Chad Ford: (1:22 PM ET ) Seriously, which is why the Blazers ended up making that desperate, pathetic threat over the weekend. The plan was to be a major player in the free agent market this summer. While the Blazers will still have room this summer, their better bet, now, is to use Raef LaFrentz’s expiring contract (which is really a sweet deal since insurance picks up 80 percent of his salary) and some of his young talent to try to get another big piece or two. Ideally they’d to get a franchise point guard and they need a small forward. There’s been interest in Mike Conley and I know they love Luol Deng. All in all, expect the Blazers to be very proactive at the trade deadline. It’s the best chance of landing another impact player.

Interesting take. Could be that the Blazers were after some major free agent, maybe even something in a sign and trade (Turkoglu, Marion, Kidd, …). Now they have to be a mover and shaker before the trade deadline if they want to make something big happen.

some of our ridiculous assumptions in the Darius threads….were true.