I didn't have time this morning to address one of Dwight Jaynes' assertions that has now shown up on TrueHoop as well. Dwight said that if the Blazers were willing to buy out Steve Francis' contract they should buy out Darius Miles' as well. They're two different situations.
Steve Francis, despite his flaws, is an NBA player with NBA offers. The rumor is he'd accept a buyout at $25 million which means with a new Clippers contract he'd make his entire current contract money and maybe then some. That makes sense for the Blazers because they save about $8 million on his contract over two years...a small amount but every little bit helps. Obviously it makes sense for Francis and his agent too.
Darius Miles, on the other hand, is not an NBA player right now. He's a 6'8" ice cream inhaling machine. He will have no NBA offers waiting for him if he's bought out. That means the team would have to pay his full contract price because there's no advantage to him to take less and he'd never do it. As soon as we sign that paper his full salary is stuck on our cap for the next three years and it's unalterable.
Now, is his salary going to be there anyway? Probably. But a lot of things could happen. He could have a miraculous recovery and change of heart. He could voluntarily take medical retirement. He could trip on the steps to the Country Buffet and wrench both of his knees out, forcing him to take medical retirement. Or he could be force-fed to another team as an extremely unpleasant trade throw-in. You never know. The point is there's no advantage to the team to etch his contract in stone at this point. You have more flexibility just leaving him on the roster. There's no extra cost. He doesn't have to practice. He doesn't have to be around the team. He can keep doing whatever it is he's been doing and everyone will be happy.
I'm not saying the Blazers would never buy him out, but if they don't there's a reason for it. This isn't the same as the Francis situation.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)