Grizzlies sign Darius Miles
Grizzlies sign Darius Miles
Everyone's saying the right things, at least. And the Grizzlies do indeed need veterans, as well as just more talent. But the cynical side of me thinks they might have an ulterior motive.
The point of that whole draft day deal with Minnesota was not just to trade up to get O.J. Mayo, but also to create some cap space. With the contracts of Antoine Walker and G-Buck not guaranteed past this season, Memphis took on the extra year of Marko Jaric's salary in order to open up $6 million in cap space next summer, a saving afforded by moving the salaries of Mike Miller and Brian Cardinal for the two aforementioned unguaranteed deals. Mike Miller isn't the kind of player you gift away, but when doing so gets you a valuable trade-up and $6 million more in your already decent caproom, it's worth it. Memphis, along with Oklahoma City, will now have oodles of cap room to work with next summer, and even if free agents aren't big on the idea of signing there, Memphis will at least be able to pursue whoever they want.
The thing is, though, that Portland also figures to have cap room. Quite a bit of it, in fact. Even after Martell Webster's extension, it only takes the renouncements of insignificant players such as Ike Diogu, Channing Frye and Raef LaFrentz, plus the waivings of decent backups Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw (note: they're decent backups in an ideal world, if not currently), and Portland suddenly has 8 figures of cap room. General Manager Kevin Pritchard has spoken about how he's trying to trade LaFrentz's salary, which would scupper any cap room chances, but Outlaw and Blake signed deals with unguaranteed final seasons for this very reason: Portland has 2009 cap room aspirations, and always has.
Those cap room aspirations will be roundly buggered, though, if Darius Miles plays ten games with somebody else. If this happens, Miles's significant salary ($9 million each of the next two seasons) is put back on Portland's books, after it had initially been taken off due to Miles's medical retirement. However, playing ten games invalidates that medical retirement, and the salary would be on Portland's cap figure once again, making cap space an almost impossible (and entirely unworthwhile) aim.
(Reader's note: the ten games thing is not quite that simple, as I understand it, but that's the gist of it. Truth be told, I don't understand it especially well. There's something about an appeals process or something.)
Since they traded Javaris Crittenton to Washington, the Grizzlies have only 13 players under contract, and Hamed Haddadi is in the D-League. This leaves Antoine Walker on the active list, despite him having not played a minute all year, being out of shape (for a change) and being out of the team's plans. Therefore, the Grizzlies can easily leave Miles on the active list even for the ten games of his drug-related suspension. After that, he just needs ten games as a 10th man, and suddenly Memphis loses one of its few competitors in next year's free agency market. All for the $500,000-or-so cost of having Darius Miles around for 6 months.
And that's just a bargain.
Of course, maybe Im being overly cynical. It's happened before, many a time. Maybe they have only the best of intentions, and really think that Miles will provide a lot both on and off (HA!) the court for them. But somehow I doubt it.
Perhaps they should just admit it.
Free agent forward Darius Miles arrived in Memphis early Saturday morning and signed a nonguaranteed contract with the Grizzlies following a physical examination.
I'm hungry. Anybody in the position I'm in, and has been through what I've been through the past two years, if he's not hungry he shouldn't waste anybody's time," Miles said. "I'm hungry. I ain't quitting. I feel like I can still do this. I wouldn't even waste the Grizzlies' time if I felt like my career was over."
"We got very good reports from Boston that he was really getting close to what he used to be," Griz coach Marc Iavaroni said.
"We're taking a shot to see if he's a guy who can resurrect his career and help us," Griz general manager Chris Wallace said. "We need to find more veterans not just so much for leadership but for production on the court. We need guys who have been there a little bit."
Everyone's saying the right things, at least. And the Grizzlies do indeed need veterans, as well as just more talent. But the cynical side of me thinks they might have an ulterior motive.
The point of that whole draft day deal with Minnesota was not just to trade up to get O.J. Mayo, but also to create some cap space. With the contracts of Antoine Walker and G-Buck not guaranteed past this season, Memphis took on the extra year of Marko Jaric's salary in order to open up $6 million in cap space next summer, a saving afforded by moving the salaries of Mike Miller and Brian Cardinal for the two aforementioned unguaranteed deals. Mike Miller isn't the kind of player you gift away, but when doing so gets you a valuable trade-up and $6 million more in your already decent caproom, it's worth it. Memphis, along with Oklahoma City, will now have oodles of cap room to work with next summer, and even if free agents aren't big on the idea of signing there, Memphis will at least be able to pursue whoever they want.
The thing is, though, that Portland also figures to have cap room. Quite a bit of it, in fact. Even after Martell Webster's extension, it only takes the renouncements of insignificant players such as Ike Diogu, Channing Frye and Raef LaFrentz, plus the waivings of decent backups Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw (note: they're decent backups in an ideal world, if not currently), and Portland suddenly has 8 figures of cap room. General Manager Kevin Pritchard has spoken about how he's trying to trade LaFrentz's salary, which would scupper any cap room chances, but Outlaw and Blake signed deals with unguaranteed final seasons for this very reason: Portland has 2009 cap room aspirations, and always has.
Those cap room aspirations will be roundly buggered, though, if Darius Miles plays ten games with somebody else. If this happens, Miles's significant salary ($9 million each of the next two seasons) is put back on Portland's books, after it had initially been taken off due to Miles's medical retirement. However, playing ten games invalidates that medical retirement, and the salary would be on Portland's cap figure once again, making cap space an almost impossible (and entirely unworthwhile) aim.
(Reader's note: the ten games thing is not quite that simple, as I understand it, but that's the gist of it. Truth be told, I don't understand it especially well. There's something about an appeals process or something.)
Since they traded Javaris Crittenton to Washington, the Grizzlies have only 13 players under contract, and Hamed Haddadi is in the D-League. This leaves Antoine Walker on the active list, despite him having not played a minute all year, being out of shape (for a change) and being out of the team's plans. Therefore, the Grizzlies can easily leave Miles on the active list even for the ten games of his drug-related suspension. After that, he just needs ten games as a 10th man, and suddenly Memphis loses one of its few competitors in next year's free agency market. All for the $500,000-or-so cost of having Darius Miles around for 6 months.
And that's just a bargain.
Of course, maybe Im being overly cynical. It's happened before, many a time. Maybe they have only the best of intentions, and really think that Miles will provide a lot both on and off (HA!) the court for them. But somehow I doubt it.
Perhaps they should just admit it.
Labels: Antoine Walker, Brian Cardinal, Cynicism, Darius Miles, Greg Buckner, Grizzlies, Hamed Haddadi, Jason Collins, Kevin Love, Marko Jaric, Mike Miller, O.J. Mayo
posted by Sham at
12:31 AM
5 Comments:
Looking at the numbers for a minute. If Miles goes back on Portland's books, and Portland aren't allowed to appeal it (and I can't imagine they would be), and they renounce Frye, Diogu, LaFrentz and Randolph, Portland's like this:
Miles - $9,000,000
Przybilla - $6,857,725
Aldridge - $5,844,827
Oden - $5,361,240
Webster - $4,500,000 (approximated)
Blake - $4,000,000
Roy - $3,910,816
Outlaw - $3,600,000
Bayless - $2,143,080
Rodriguex - $1,576,696
Fernandez - $1,165,320
Batum - $1,118,760
Koponen (cap hold) - $824,200
Freeland (cap hold) - $824,200
Next year's first - $900,000ish, depending on draft slot.
Total - $51,626,864ish
If they waive Blake and Outlaw, take away $7.6 million from that, they can still be free agency players. They also have plenty of opportunity to make a deal freeing up more space, and knowing Kevin Pritchard he quite possibly will. But Memphis is still stiffing them. And it's still funny.
And I still think Portland trades Lafrentz and doesn't bother with the cap room.
I Like D-Miles. He Is A Veteran-ish Type Player On A Very Young Team, So I Know he Isn't In Their PLans For The Future. But Nonetheless, I Like Him Alot.
Walker was not out of shape and he wasn't benched because he didn't play well. You're another idiot blogger that never watches the NBA but feels the need to comment on crap you know nothing about.
The "appeal process" is necessary to protect the Blazers. No matter how much it appears he was shoved out the door in Portland, that perception is moot because the Blazers rehabbed him, found him unfit to return, and set up the examinations with doctors approved by the league and NBPA. That doctor or those doctors confirmed that his career was over.
Nothing Miles does now or in the future should invalidate that determination, nor punish the Blazers for their decision to cut him. If Miles was fit to play, the doctors should have said so, and he'd be hooping it up in Rip City right now (or wasting away on the inactive list, more likely). Certainly a team would never waive a player owed that much money over that many years if he is likely to be able to continue playing basketball, and so it should be assumed in any ruling regarding his cap hold against the Blazers payroll that Portland management acted in good faith and trusted the medical judgment of a neutral party before proceeding with waiving Miles.
I would be SHOCKED if his salary counts against the Blazers this summer, no matter what happens in Memphis.
Antoine Walker isn't out of shape and stuck to the bench? Really? Really? Are we sure about this?
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