Why not? The Hornets have an extra roster spot. The pundits say that we still lack a reliable big. Darius Miles is a lanky 6′9″, 235 lbs. that we could use. You say he’s already 27 and injury-prone; he’s barely played in the last two-three years. Does he still have anything left after what was declared a career-ending injury? (Which by the way, was a way bigger deal than most people give credit for…I mean what were Jamal Mashburn’s injuries? How long did he sit on our cap space after he couldn’t play and was talking in a TV studio?) I say it’s worth it to find out.
The NBA, like all big business, is a risk-reward equation. For the Hornets, there is almost no risk in signing Miles. Sign him to a 10-day contract at the League minimum. I’m sure he’d be dying to be here (plus the Trailblazers are paying him $9 mil any way each for this year and next). Keep res-signing him to those 10-day contracts up until just before March 1st, when the playoff roster must be set. If you like what you see by then, sign him to a contract through the rest of the year. If not, you can cut him at any time.
Listen, we had issues behind the scenes with Birdman. Then, he looked horrible last year when he played. But now he’s doing well in Denver. Too bad those issues kept us from re-signing him. Let’s not make the same mistake here. First of all, as aforementioned, there’s so little risk. Second, it puts $9 mil back on the salary cap of the Blazers for the next two years. How can we not want to stick it to a rival like that, especially when we got screwed on the abovementioned Mashburn deal? I’m sure George Shinn is a good ole boy who doesn’t like to play dirty, but this is, again, a big business; that’s how it’s played.
So, we stick it to a rival who has way too much cap space and too many players to trade, hamstringing their ability to make moves, and, who incidentally, is directly threatening to our positioning in the conference. Worst case scenario, give him two minutes of play in eight straight games and cut him. You fuck the Blazers (who I do like and respect, but come on, this isn’t about being nice, it’s about winning), and you get an almost free look at Miles. Best case scenario, you find another big who can play. That sounds like a good risk-reward equation.
I say pull the trigger on it while you can, Jeff Bower.
Monitoring the situation carefully
Sounds reasonable, but Abbot posted yesterday that players who are on an NBA roster as of Saturday, January 10, get their contracts guaranteed for the rest of the season. If that’s the case, the risk is certainly increased.
I believe you can only sign a player to 2 ten day contracts. After that if you want to keep him around it has to be for the rest of the year.
Also Boston and Memphis don’t have the most stacked benches and they took a pass on the guy. Also doing it to just fuck the Blazers has bad karma written all over it and plus whichever GM decides to screw over the Blazers can probably kiss any deal involving them in the future good bye. No more selling them your unwanted first round picks for $3 million bucks. Come to think of it that might be a good thing though.
Oh yea and he only needs to play in two games, those preseason games with the Celtics counted toward those 10 games.
Darius Miles would be tough to get through Byron IMO , as I don’t think he is Byrons’ type of player , but it might be worth a try. A better help to us would be to try and grab Kyrylo Fesenko from the Utah NBADL team Utah just sent him to. at 7′1″ and 300 Lbs , he would help us more than Miles would IMO and liekly wouldn’t cost that much. I watched him check Yao 1 on 1 and he held his own…even blocked Yaos shot. Fesenko is 22 or 23 and IMO has tremendous upside and it seems whenever he gets minutes he delivers.
Eh, not feeling this one. For starters, Miles has never, ever played like a big in his career. Since he’s come into the league, he’s always played like a 6′9″ guard, something that has driven every one of his teams crazy. Despite his athleticism, he’s been a liability defensively, even before he got hurt. Third, all the locker room “poisoning” arguments about Stephon Marbury/Steve Francis/etc/etc. are applicable to Miles. Signing a guy that’s been arrested/suspended multiple times has to be considered an unnecessary risk. Fourth and probably biggest… the Memphis Grizzlies just cut him! If that isn’t the biggest indictment of him, I don’t know what is. The Grizz are a team that could certainly use him, hell, he could be starting for them. To me, that’s the last straw as far as buying his full recovery from his injuries. I’d much rather pick up somebody like Rod Benson or Richard Hendrix from the D-League- much higher potential for success and lower risk.
@Al: That refers to non-guaranteed contracts (an example would be Jamaal Magloire on the Heat this season. Miami could just cut him whenever they want and not have to pay him out.) A 10 day contract is “guaranteed”, I believe, if only for those 10 days.
How about giving Courtney Sims another try?? Anyone? He’s beasting to the tune of 20-20 in the D-League and we desperately need rebounding off someone. OK, really more to the tune of 23-13, but he’s HAD 20-20 games.
Posey’s eye is following me…..
“I’d much rather pick up somebody like Rod Benson”
Please God let that happen just for the material that Rod would get for his blog living in New Orleans for a few months.
I would stalk Rod Benson until he agreed to party with me! And we could ALL BLOG!
I’m with atthehive. There’s a reason players get cut, and it’s almost always due to detrimental behaviour. While adding 9 mil to the Blazers is a huge asset for the whole Western Conference, you have to look at our team more closely, and I don’t see D Miles putting up beneficial numbers. At most, we need to re-up JuJu. I’m not sure what’s going on with him, but he has more upside than D Miles and his head-butting trademark.
I’d rather get Starbury, but that’s not saying much either.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/vujacic-paul-game-2275045-lakers-bryant hahahahhahahah
@Didier: Oh, I know. I was gonna post that, but it’s not even possible to make fun of it. It makes fun of itself.
Might not work out. I’m just saying. And hey, everyone called foul on Boozer when he back-stabbed the Cavs and ran to Utah, and people called the Cavs’ GM bad names, but few people thought the Jazz did anything wrong. Plus, the fact that Miles can even make it onto a squad shows he’s less medically finished than Jamal Masburn was for us; we got screwed on that deal. So there’s your karma.
But I’m pretty sure Miles’ preseason games did not count toward the 10 games he needs to play. Regardless, just bring him in. Try him out. See if he will do what Byron wants him to. I’m a big believer in second chances, and Miles might just be grateful for any opportunity he gets, especially from a contender.
@mW Re: the preseason games: As outed yesterday by some news source, they do. Apparently the Blazers GM knew all along but was trying to keep it on the DL! I’ve read the story various places.
Who knew? I’d also add on his getting cut by the Grizzlies, that there is speculation that their recent trades and possibly forthcoming trades have necessitated that they clear roster space, and when that settles, they will re-sign him if he is available.
I’m with atthehive all the way on this one. I’d rather see us take a chance on a guy like Sims or another D-League big.
Here’s a quote from Didier’s article that reemphasizes the greatness that is Chris Paul:
“Paul drove into the lane and hyperextended Lamar Odom’s right knee…”
So great, he can hyperextend knees. That’s just ridiculous. Ridiculous great.
Look what you did, mW:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3820794
Wouldn’t the players’ association have a big problem with that? And anyway, I think the Grizzlies get a free pass on all that stuff, if they want to sign him back, because of the Pau Gasol trade. A free karmic pass for the next two years or so. The Blaze should know this.
Oh, and I forgot also about the Celtics cutting Miles. They had 16 players signed in preseason, 14 to guaranteed contracts. With only 15 allowed on their final roster, and them so far over the luxury tax that they weren’t going to cut anyone with guaranteed contracts, they either had to let Miles or Sam Cassell go. They had plenty of bigs on the roster and kept Sam. Even though Sam hasn’t played much (if at all?) this year, not a real knock on Darius.
Plus, I have to keep reiterating, who did the Blazers bribe to get this “medical release” in the first place? I’ve never heard of another team getting a similar deal, though I’ve heard of plenty of teams, like the Knicks (Allan Houston, Larry Johnson), Heat (Alonzo Mourning), and the Hornets (Jamal Mashburn), who had to eat contracts even though their players were done.
@ Niall: the Blazer are scared of me.
Pretty prescient mW… you post about this, and now it blows up all over the place. Good point on there being a lack of precedent for the medical release. Overall, this has to be one of the most unique situations in the NBA in a while.
With the new info about the 2 game thing, I’d be STUNNED if someone doesn’t pick him up. The Blazers’ strong arm tactics can only go so far- all they can do is make teams re-consider before picking him up. But once he’s actually on a team, there are so, so, so many different citeable and mostly credible reasons as to why he’s on the team. I keep reading how the Blazers have such great lawyers. There’s no way you can legally prove wrongdoing against a team though, unless they do something bone-headedly stupid… like sign him, play him 2 seconds in 2 games, then immediately cut him.
By the way, there’s an underlying situation here that nobody has mentioned. Darius Miles played exactly 9 minutes in two games. NINE. Memphis found it fit to cut him after those 9 minutes, despite having severe holes in their lineup, and despite talking him up so much a mere week ago? And no other team in the league knew about the 2 game thing but Portland. I’m not alleging that there’s something fishy here… actually, wait, yes I am.
To me, this is the second suspicious thing involving Memphis in less than a year (Gasol, Pau).
After reading Henry Abbott’s post over at True hoop I now agree with you. Portland should be stuck with his salary, screw them for trying to basically blackball Darius Miles from the league with that idiotic email.
Haha, I watched ESPN and sure enough, mW’s prayers have been answered with Niall’s link. Seriously, is this a legitimate case of sabotage where the Blazers can sue? It was the Blazers who LEGALLY signed the contract, and therefore they are responsible for all conditions stated in the contract.
I’m really hoping someone (not us, though, hehe) screws over the Blazers management by signing D Miles now. I mean, what a move to sign a terrible contract and refuse to acknowledge it. What a useless organization.
@ atthehive
lol, portland told memphis they won’t consider them as trading partners for travis outlaw, unless they cut miles.
If Memphis didn’t cut Miles, they would have had to guarntee his contract for the rest of the year under League rules. That’s why there is speculation that they will re-sign him if he clears waivers.
I’m pretty sure the co-ceo of Microsoft owns the Portland Trailblazers and the Seatle Seahawks. F&%$ em! He can afford anything you throw at em. Miles is no spring chicken and Penny penchin shinn doesn’t want to throw money away.