Darius Miles Update

So as I am sure some of you already know, if Darius Miles plays 10 games or more in the next 2 years, his $9 mil. Annual salary goes back on Portland’s books. Miles, made yet another huge step towards doing this last night in Memphis’ game vs. Dallas. Miles played a little under 2 mins in a blowout Memphis win. This is huge in the fact, that Miles has already made it through his 10 game suspension (for taking a banned weight loss drug). So Darius is 1 down, 9 to go.

What is intriguing about his current situation is as of Friday (01/09/09), any player that is on a team with a non-guaranteed contract, will automatically be turned into a guaranteed contract for the remainder of the year. Darius Miles is one of those players. So what if the Grizzlies decide to cut Miles? Well, if Miles gets cut and becomes a free agent then anyone in the league can sign him to a 10-day contract. However, Miles can only be signed to a total of (2) 10-day contracts, before a team has to give him a guaranteed contract for the remainder of the season.

So lets run through a scenario (one that Portland fans such as myself would like to see). Memphis has three games between now and Friday. So what are the chances that Darius gets to play in any or all of those games? It’s hard to tell, because he only played 2 mins in a blowout win vs. Dallas. What if it’s a blowout loss? Memphis is playing, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Toronto this week. I am willing to bet at least two of those games will be fairly close, so I think its safe to say Miles could only legitimately see burn on 1 game.

Now lets say they cut him. He gets picked up in a few weeks by a team on a 10-day contract. Most teams play an average of 4 games in 10 days, assuming he gets 2 of those 4 games, that puts him at (5). Then the same for another 10 day contract.

So to me it basically comes down to if the Grizzles cut him this week or retain him for the remainder of the year. Let’s hope they cut him, so we have some room to work this offseason.