Interesting. Basically, if Darius Miles plays in two more games this season, then the $18 million he's owed over the next two years goes back onto the Blazers' salary cap number. This would push them over the cap and into the luxury tax. So, any team could sign Miles, play him two games and then eliminate Portland as an offseason free agent destination while also making a cool $250,000.
Consequently, Portland is threatening to sue any team that signs Miles for the purpose of hurting their salary cap position. I don't see how this could hold up. Plus, as mentioned in the article, the Blazers received cap relief because it was thought Miles had a career-ending injury. If his career can continue, then they shouldn't get cap relief.
Memphis had previously released Miles because keeping him past the 1st 10 day contract meant signing him to a full year guaranteed contract and they don't seem sure if they want that yet. They probably would've picked him up to another 10 day contract ASAP regardless of anything else going on.
There's no way Portland realistically thought this would work (no players union is going to allow this) and they had to know this would look bad to the rest of the league, so why would they even try it? I think they got a little bit desperate after the 6 preseason games Miles played with Boston were ruled to count and it became a much more realistic possibility to get to ten.
But more so, I think they're more interesting in showing due diligence to the boss. If you just found out your business is going to lose $7 mil (in the luxury tax), you're going to try whatever you can to stop it from happening in hopes you don't take the fall for it. Better to be a disliked GM than a liked unemployed guy.
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Is there any interest in a Fantasy Basketball League this year? Usually the interest is pretty low here, but if we can get at least ten teams together I'll put something together. *and how about a Fantasy Basketball Icon, Zed?* { Uh, we have one...