Blazers had tried to claim Miles off waiver?!?

It looks to me the Blazers were trying to do what they could to protect their cap space. If someone can find me in the rules where it says that a team can't sign a player that retired from their team and then they can re-sign the following year, that would be great. But since I don't think that rule is out there, it looks like the Blazers were then frustrated with the league. They then sent out the email letting teams know that, if a team signed Miles solely for the purpose of taking away Portland's cap space, the Blazers would seek damages.

Do I think the Blazers really think they can prove that teams are only signing Miles to mess with the Blazers' cap space? No, but I do think the Blazers are frustrated with the league coming up with one rule and then allowing teams to do something that isn't addressed in the CBA. I also think they believe it is unfair (and I agree with them) to the team that they should take a cap hit due to a independent doctor making the diagnosis that Miles' career was done, even though the player believes he can still play.

 

I think the rule should be changed so that if a player declared to have a career ending injury plays the requisite 10 games, the contract goes against the cap -- but does not count towards the luxury tax. It is one thing to screw with the Blazer's cap room, but to actually create a monetary incentive for a cash strapped team to sign a player so they get luxury tax money from the Blazers is unfair IMO.

 

ben davis?

 

kp?

 

I also think instead of 10 games, there should be a minimum number of minutes required before putting the player's salary back on the books against his previous team. Something like 200 minutes. That could be either 20 MPG over 10 games, or 2 MPG for 100 games.

In order to prove the player has indeed recovered from his "career ending" injury, either he should be able to play major minutes for a short period, or should be able to stick with a team long enough to collect a significant amount of garbage time minutes. Playing a guy the last 1:46 of a blowout does nothing to prove he still has a viable NBA career.

Also, preseason games should not count. They don't count for anything else. They don't in the standings, the stats don't count for the players' season or career averages. Why should they count in this case? Since the games are meaningless, teams would be more likely to give a medically retired player PT to screw over another team.

BNM

 

Too obvious. I'm thinking KP is Batumkaboom.

 

Definitely, KP.

LOL!

My thoughts exactly.

I also agree w/ BNM about a minute requirement.

Edit - But I think Preseason games are fine. The game requirement is just showing that he CAN play... so I don't think it really matters when as long as its preseason/season/playoffs.

 

I'm with you on the preseason games, but I think 200 minutes is too high. There are plenty of players that have a career that don't get very many minutes at all. Personally, I would keep the 10 games as a measuring stick, just don't count the preseason games.

 

Well.. the Miles watch is on tonight when Cleveland visits them. I'm thinking he gets his obligatory 2-3 minutes at the end in a blowout.

 

So the NBA is saying that if you waive a player because their independent doctor says he will never play again, and then he makes a comeback, you can't re-sign him!?!? That is crazy.

The other thing that sucks is that at this point, it would have been more advantageous to keep Miles stashed in the D-league so we could keep his contract as a trading piece when it becomes expiring. Instead, his contract will likely go back on our books, but we don't have the rights to trade it to a team needing cap space.

In short, if you take the NBA's independent doctor's advice and cut a player whose career is over, and then the player makes a comeback...you can't get the player back, nor the rights to his contract, but you will still lose cap space??? They need to re-think those rules.

 

200 was just a number I picked out of the air, but over the course of an NBA season, 200 minutes isn't much. Raef LaFrentz played 291 minutes for the Blazers last season. The point is using number of games as the deciding factor in whether or not a player is physically able to resume his career leaves open the very real possibility that a team will pick up a player on a couple 10 day contracts and play them 1 or 2 meaningless minutes for 10 games just to screw another team. And, that goes against the intent of the rule - to show that the player is physically able to resume his NBA career.

BNM

 

Does anyone really think Miles would have accepted a contract from the Blazers and come back to sit on the bench like he did the last time he was here? He obviously wants to play so there is no way he'd do that. The Blazers would know that which is a good reason to think this is bogus.

 

I don't think he would have a choice in the matter - if the Blazers has successfully claimed him off waivers.

A player does not become a free agent until they clear waivers. When you pick a player up off waivers you, and they, are bound by the terms of their previous contract.

BNM

 

What he said.

 

So they could have tied him up for 10 days? They couldn't force him to play the whole season for them could they without Miles agreeing to a longer contract, right?

 

Totally my thoughts. Lost in all this discussion of how the Blazers may appear to look desperate & perhaps hypocritical, is just how much these rules are hypocritical and how much the Blazers are getting shafted in all this.

I really don't think the backlash has been that bad, and I don't think it will get any worse with this little story. They were simply trying to do all they could to keep Miles from playing & save capspace -- which I don't really have a problem with. If the league doesn't like it, they need to take a closer look at some of their rules. And if any other team claims they wouldn't do the same then they are either lying, or not good at their jobs.

 

Nope. His current 10-day contract came after he cleared waivers and became a free agent.

The contract Miles was on when he was waived was a non-guaranteed contract that would have automatically become guaranteed if someone had picked him up - which is why the Grizz waived him in the first place and why no one else tried to claim him off waivers. If any team had claimed him off waivers they would have had him under guaranteed contract at the veteran's minimum salary for the remainder of the season.

BNM

 

Not only that, but the team is still required to pay him the money owed the player under contract the that he signed before he was injured. AND, now they are forced to sit back and watch some other team play him minimal minutes at a low-ball salary that will eventually be more than offset by the luxury tax dispersal that the Blazers will get nailed with because Miles is no longer retired.

The Blazers did the responsible thing and accepted the doctor's opinion that it isn't in Miles' best interests from a health standpoint to continue to play NBA basketball. They're paying him his money without any complaint and now they're getting hosed by a crappily written CBA clause that the rest of the league is only too happy to abuse in order to screw the Blazers' cap situation.

I hope the Blazers follow through on a legal challenge of this whole stinking mess.

 

the players union was proabaly responsible for this. they understand what the blazers were trying to do by picking him up, and its obvious they wouldn't play him, so the league had to protect their employee.