One More Mile

Last week i wrote a piece titled, Blazers Miles From Resolving Conflict, which now looks to be a true statement after today’s most recent update.  I wrote about the Portland Trail Blazers absurd reaction to the Memphis Grizzlies signing of Darius Miles to a 10-day contract extension.  

Miles needed to only play in one more game with Portland or any other NBA team, for the Blazers to owe him $18 million this year and additional fines to the NBA for going over the luxury tax and ultimately ruining their free agent opportunities in the off-season.

After all of the hype last week about the Blazers sending threatening emails to all NBA teams, Miles did not do much over the weekend and still needed only one more game to make the Portland organization really upset.  Well, as of only hours ago, the Grizzlies have signed Miles to yet another 10-day contract.

After his first debut with Memphis, Miles played in three games overall and averaged 8.3 points and grabbed 3 rebounds.  His stats and ability on the court are what the Grizzlies will be evaluating again, however, what the Blazers and the rest of the league will be watching for is if Miles will step on the court in a game for any amount of time and ruin the Blazers off-season.

After signing a second 10-day contract, it seems likely that Miles will log some minutes.  The number of games and overall minutes he plays in will be crucial as Portland is likely to file some type of grievance or complaint regarding the issue. A loss of $18 million more to the Blazers budget will only make the rough economy seem worse for Portland, but realistically they have to honor the contract they made with Darius and may be held to it fully.