Please....there have been much shadier practices in the NBA, and those are just the ones that we know of. The league does an amazing job of hiding 99.9% of its politics and immoral practices from the fans. A couple years back Minny lost their draft pick for illegal scouting procedures, teams will do whatever it takes to win. Individual players also do a lot of dirty shit. I heard a rumor that the real reason MJ retired the first time is because he was gambling on games. The league told him to get his shit together before he could play again. THAT may be a conspiracy theory, but there are a lot of other things that happen too.
I think the big picture that people are missing here is, the best way to stop a team from winning a championship if they are a rival of yours, is to build a better team. Not to try to hamstring their salary cap situation when you know that they have the richest owner in sports and can choose to go over if they wish. You might just piss off their owner enough, that he chooses to go over as far as he wants in order to win it all.
Let's look at this way people. If it looks like Darius has a good to excellent chance of taking the floor the ten required times this season, isn't it possible that KP will instead just get proactive about his "cap room" and trade the very lucrative Lafrentz contract, along with a player or two, to go out and get one of the players he covets? In the meantime I suggest the following: http://zapatopi.net/afdb/
Look, I guess the "tin-hat hypothetical" was mine to begin with, so I should consolidate the explanations. 1) I think that finding a way to screw Portland out of 9M of cap space is definitely a consideration for anyone with a high-level free agent in 2009. 2) I think that it is unlikely that Miles will be paid guaranteed money to take the 12th spot on a roster for 20 games (10 suspension, 10 "gametime" games) 3) It would take someone shady to do something shady, but if you're not thinking about how to screw Portland's cap space to ensure they don't get a "max-level" player added to this team in YOUR conference/division, you're not anything close to a competent GM. 4) KP's already waiting to appeal, and I think Stern realizes this is one fight he doesn't want management getting into.
Wait, which is it? Aluminum foil or tin foil???? Don't tell me my brain's being confiscated b/c of a measly 37 numbers on the periodic table!
Exactly, so why is this idea so hard for people to understand? Someone could offer Miles a crappy contract and tell him that it is an opportunity for him to show the league's what he can do. They could bring him in letting him know ahead of time that they won't be keeping him. Think I'm crazy? It happened before with a man by the name of Vin Baker. He was having a crappy year, in a slump as a former allstar. So they started playing him with the 2nd unit, and during garbage time. The intent being to increase his stats. It resurrected his career.
If we were the only team with cap room at the end of the upcoming season that might be a legitimate strategy, but we're not. There's only two ways to do this, two consecutive ten day contracts (which isn't enough time for 20 games to be played) or a contract for the veteran's minimum and then cutting him before sometime in January when all contracts become guaranteed, team's don't get to makeup the rules for contracts, that's covered by the CBA. I strongly believe that KP has almost zero intention of getting a max contract guy when he's likely going to have to pay the same for Brandon, LaMarcus and Oden in the next year or two. I have no idea what KP is planning to do and what Stern thinks about this situation. But let's say that some team really does go to all of the trouble to trot Darius out there for 10 games and cuts him before contracts become guaranteed in January, I'd say the Blazers would have a pretty solid argument to file a grievance. As for me I don't plan on losing a wink of sleep over Darius, whether he gets picked up or not. I'm just going to enjoy watching the the big three grow together and seeing what kind of team takes shape this year instead of worrying about what happens next off-season.
I'm not sure this is a concern. There's definitely no cap space issue forcing a choice. KP can theoretically sign a max level player this off-season and then max out any or all of Roy, Oden, Aldridge, Fernandez, Bayless, due to the Bird exception. The only thing that could force a choice is Allen being unwilling to pay that many max level contracts. Which is possible, but not the likeliest outcome, in my opinion. I think Allen is willing to spend for a team that has the talent to be a top contender.
I'm confused. I thought Darius had to actually play in 10 games, not just be on the active roster for 10 games.
He does have to play in 10 games, and due to his suspension, he would also have to be on the active roster for an additional 10 games. So that is 20 games of a guy who clearly can't play on a teams' active roster. I just don't see that happening.
You're right....he has to a) be on the active roster 10 games so he can be suspended. Then he has to play in 10 games. But you can't play in a game if you're wearing a suit as the 13th man. Only 12 can dress.
A team that signs him will just look bitter and jealous of the Pritch. If they do sign him, its a sign of mad respect to KP- tha bigga figga!
OK, gotcha. But even if he had to be a 12th man, the team doesn't have to pay him for those 10 games. So they would only be cheating themselves out of that 12th player for 10 games. Which wouldn't seem likely unless Darius can actually play ball. I just don't see that happening. We've been talking about Greg shaking off the rust after not playing B-ball for such a long time, but Darius hasn't played even longer. Plus when Darius was good, he relied on his athleticism. I'm sure all of his explosiveness is gone. He didn't have enough basketball skills to be good without his hops.
Next year counts as well, but the guy basically has a degenerative knee condition that is only going to get worse with time. Of course, this is what the Blazer/NBA conspiracy doctors found, so perhaps Darius has the bees knees and cutting cut from the Celtics is just a curveball.
They don't have to pay him, but his contract doesn't reflect him not being paid. In other words, the contract is still for 82 games, but Darius only gets paid for 72 of them. The team isn't getting a 10-game relief in cap because they sign a suspended player.
