As has been pointed out in the sidebar a couple of times, Adrian "Spell THIS, Sucka!" Wojnarowski over at Yahoo Sports is reporting that pre-season games actually count towards Darius' total when determining if he's played 10 games this season. He played 6 for Boston, plus 2 regular-season games, leaving just 2 left for him to qualify. Adrian says he has confirmation from the league office but doesn't cite a source by name. Chances are this will take a little bit to confirm and sort out.
Even if true and even if somebody signs Darius and plays him a token 2 games, refer to the Darius Miles Revisited post below. The thing that amazes me about this is that everybody who reports on this, even people who should understand more of the nuances of this situation, either states or implies that this destroys our cap space and flexibility this summer. A-Woj even goes so far as to cross the Blazers off of the list of destinations in 2009-10. If that were true, it would mean that we only had Miles' original slot to play with in the first place, right? That wouldn't have made us that great of a player anyway.
We'll almost certainly still have space. We WILL certainly have options to create space if we need it. This is not a "Golden State can't sign Gilbert Arenas" situation, nor anything close to it.
Should Miles play those last 2 games I will happily offer a bet to the first serious person who will accept. My end of it will be a unique, specially-designed site t-shirt just for you. We can negotiate the other end depending on who takes me up on it. I will pay off, both with the shirt and public penance, if the Blazers make it through the whole summer without making whatever moves they want to. If they're stymied, still, constipated on the trade or free agent market I will publicly eat my hat. Personally I think you'd be silly to bet the other side, Miles or no Miles.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)