Jan 13th 2009 11:00AM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Grizzlies, Trail Blazers, NBA RumorsAnother day, another cannonball lobbed at Portland. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! supplies it again, revealing that before threatening to sue any team that signed Darius Miles the Blazers attempted to claim the forward off waivers.

Had Portland been successful, the team would have been on the hook for the rest of his league minimum salary for 2008-09. But the benefit would come in stashing Miles on the bench and keeping him from Games 9 and 10, games that would (err, will) halve Portland’s summer cap space.Continue Reading

Jan 12th 2009 1:35PM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Bobcats, Cavaliers, Lakers, Trail Blazers

* “It amazes me how quickly the question ‘Who is the best player in the NBA?’ has been rendered moot.” — The Painted Area.

* “(Bleep) that guy, he’s walking around rubbing everyone’s nose in the deals he’s made and even with all those lottery players his team is still not in the playoffs.” — , via TSB.

* “[Gerald] Wallace’s true talent is much more valuable to the team than [Boris] Diaw’s. What scares me about this little brushup is that Larry Brown probably has never understood that because he doesn’t like Wallace’s style, and ” — Rufus on Fire.

* Ridiculously interesting “heat maps” from Obsessionism, photos of a young Mark Cuban squeezing some dames, and when good logos go bad.

Jan 10th 2009 7:55PM by Matt Moore (author feed)
Filed under: 76ers, Bobcats, Bucks, Bulls, Celtics, Clippers, Hawks, Heat, Jazz, Kings, Knicks, Lakers, Magic, Mavericks, Pistons, Raptors, Rockets, Spurs, Suns, Trail Blazers, Warriors, Wizards, Eastern, Western, Thunder

Look, we recognize that this the arguably the best weekend of football of the year. But if Kerry Collins and Joe Flacco trading getting pounded into the turf, or watching Bryant Westbrook just irritates you, there some options.

SATURDAY HEADLINER:
Detroit at Utah, 8PM

Two teams that have been exemplary over the past three years that are struggling to maintain their championship aspirations, but who have been on a tear, putting the pieces back together. Detroit’s starting to figure out their rotation after the Allen Iverson trade, and Rodney Stuckey has been lights out. Utah just laid a beatdown of epic proportions on Chris Paul and the Hornets, in defense of the Utah-held “8>3″ movement. The Jazz were particularly boosted by the new-and-suddenly-premier Paul Millsap. So you’ve got Utah’s home crowd and the Paul Millsap demolition movement against Detroit’s efficiency. Something’s gotta give.

SUNDAY HEADLINER:
Miami at LA Lakers, 9:30PM

You really need me to break this down? Dwyane Wade’s not being talked about in MVP discussions, even though his team is more competitive than expected, he leads the league in scoring, and the rest of his game is nothing to sneeze at.Kobe Bryant, after a sluggish (by his standards, don’t get your underwear in a trapezoid, Lakers fans) start, has been absolutely blistering. His line last night made me pass out. Now, clearly the Lakers have the better squad and should dominate, but it’ll be fun to see the matchup. Of course, if there was ever a night Andrew Bynum should be able to show why people think he’ll be the next great NBA center (any day now, seriously), it’s Sunday night.
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Jan 10th 2009 12:20PM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Grizzlies, Trail Blazers, NBA TransactionsOn Friday night, news slipped that Memphis signed Darius Miles to a 10-day contract which goes into effect today, giving the Grizzlies three opportunities to get Miles some run. This would not be notable if the Blazers hadn’t threatened to sue any team that signed Miles for the purpose of damaging Portland’s salary cap standing.

Clearly, no team really had much to fear once the NBA put out its statement Friday morning telling the league any franchise was free to sign Miles.

The Blazers stuck to their guns before Memphis signed D, even in the face of a grievance from the players union.Continue Reading

Jan 9th 2009 8:54AM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Trail Blazers, NBA RumorsOn Thursday we judged whether or not the potential Darius Miles un-retirement would really hurt the Blazers. For anyone still arguing it doesn’t really matter … well, they might want to explain that to the Blazers front office.

Ian Thomsen of has news of a peculiar (read: %@#$ing crazy) threat Portland president Larry Miller sent around to NBA executives this week. Here’s the short letter, according to Thomsen:
The Portland Trail Blazers are aware that certain teams may be contemplating signing Darius Miles to a contract for the purpose of adversely impacting the Portland Trail Blazers Salary Cap and tax positions. Such conduct from a team would violate its fiduciary duty as an NBA joint venturer. In addition, persons or entities involved in such conduct may be individually liable to the Portland Trail Blazers for tortuously interfering with the Portland Trail Blazers’ contract rights and perspective economic opportunities.

Please be aware that if a team engages in such conduct, the Portland Trail Blazers will take all necessary steps to safeguard its rights, including, without limitation, litigation.
The Blazers have already gone a few steps too far on the Miles situation, badmouthing him around the league and leaking details of his 10-game suspension to keep prospective teams from even giving him a chance. Local fans, however, remain sympathetic to the Blazers cause in this matter. But this is a mile past the line, right?
Continue Reading

Jan 8th 2009 4:50PM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Cavaliers, Clippers, Nets, Trail Blazers, Warriors, Wizards

* Andray Blatche (sort of): “Thankfully, I found out that the top I was wearing was too long, which .” — , via Bullets Forever.

* “While he is no doubt to be commended for bringing the energy, the corniness gets to me from time to time: “Did you SEEEEE VC?”, “Yi-normous!”, “VC off another Yi-Z feed” and all made appearances throughout the evening.” — CelticsBlog.

* Greg Oden (sort of): “Here we go again, another day of practice. ” — Lowposts.

* LeBron’s greatest season ever, Warriors coach-in-waiting Sidney Moncrief follows Bonzi to China, and Al Thornton’s age catches up with him.

Jan 8th 2009 2:00PM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Trail Blazers, NBA TransactionsAdrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! dropped a bombshell on the whole Darius Miles escapade: those six preseason games Miles played in for Boston counted toward the 10 which would “un-retire” Darius and stick his $9 million back on Portland’s 2009-10 salary cap figure. The understanding, furthered by Woj, is that the cap addition would cripple Portland’s summmertime spending spree. (Woj’s assessment: )

But is that really the case? Are the Blazers screwed if Miles plays two more games this season? Dave Deckard of Blazers Edge doesn’t think so. Let’s look into the situation in detail.
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Jan 6th 2009 2:35PM by Tom Ziller (author feed)
Filed under: Cavaliers, Celtics, Nets, Pacers, Trail Blazers

* LeBron James: “I was just fascinated with catching the ball man.” — The Starting Five.

* Larry Bird: “I used to love the feeling of running, of running too far. When I used to play, if I was in my room and I was on the road, I’d just go out for a run before games. In the city. Around the parking lot. On the track. I’d run around the top of the arena.” — , via Cornrows.

* Stephon Marbury: “” — Timberwolves.com.

* Channing Frye is the Carlton Banks of the NBA, Julius Hodge is gunning for MVP of the Aussie league, and booing Josh Boone makes the Nets angry.

Jan 6th 2009 12:35PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
Filed under: Clippers, Knicks, Trail BlazersAs Tom Ziller pointed out over the weekend, rumblings of a three-way deal between the Knicks, Blazers and Clippers surfaced a few days ago. Exact details of the alleged trade were never clear, but it seemed to hinge on David Lee (and potentially Eddy Curry) heading to Portland, Marcus Camby returning to New York and, well, going to the Clippers.

Now that a couple of days have passed without movement, the trade appears to be dead in the water — and if you believe the parties involved, it may not have ever been alive in the first place.

Jason Quick of the said last night that he’s “been told by multiple people, multiple times that this talk has zero legs to it. Zero.” Donnie Walsh was even more blunt, telling Mitch Lawrence of the , “That stuff is made up.” And Mike Dunleavy? He opted for sarcasm, telling the , “Oh yeah, I’m looking to trade 20 rebound (a night) guys every day.’”Continue Reading

Jan 5th 2009 12:35PM by Brett Pollakoff (author feed)
Filed under: Cavaliers, Celtics, Lakers, Trail Blazers, NBA Last Night
Kobe Bryant finished this reverse dunk against the Blazers last night, and in the process helped his team to pass the Boston Celtics in the league-wide standings.

Thanks to a bizarro night in the Association — one where the Celtics fell to the Knicks, and LeBron’s crab dribble couldn’t save the Cavs from losing a close one in Washington — the Lakers now own the NBA’s best record with a 27-5 mark through the team’s first 32 games.

Of course, it’s not like they’re running away with it or anything; the Celtics have actually played three more games, and have won two of them. The Lakers have the advantage by mere percentage points (.844 to .829), and are just a half a game ahead of Cleveland, with the same amount of wins but one fewer loss.

It may be a bit early to start talking about home court advantage throughout the playoffs, but it’s worth noting that the top of the East is shaping up to be tougher than the top of the West. The Celtics lead the Cavs by just a single game in the East, and lead the Magic by just two and a half games (again, percentage points). L.A. has it a bit easier out West at the moment, with a slightly more comfortable five and a half game lead over their closest competition, the Spurs and the Nuggets.