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.
Continue Reading

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.
Continue Reading

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.