Our Miami Heat Preview will be posted tomorrow morning.  In the meantime, enjoy the previews for the Northwest Division, which have been brought to you by some of the best basketball blogs on the web.  I think that the Thunder is easily the sexy team to pick, but what happens if the Blazers talent actually stays healthy for a year?

Jazz : SLC Dunk | Salt City Hoops | SBN Recap

Nuggets: Denver Stiffs | Roundball Mining Company | The Nugg Doctor | SBN Recap

Thunder - Welcome to Loud City | Planet BBall | SBN Recap

Timberwolves - Canis Hoopus | TwolvesBlog

Blazers - Blazersedge.com | SBN Recap

NBA Blog Previews: Northwest Division Recap from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

According to the money, our money should be on the Celtics.  And in the Finals, our money should be on the Lakers.  But more importantly than that, it is necessary to realize that three out of the four teams left in the playoffs are in the top 6 in payroll.  The Phoenix Suns are sitting at #9 (payroll $74.9 million).  And last round, 7 of the 8 teams left in the playoffs were in the top 10 in payroll, with only the Atlanta Hawks as the major surprise with the #22 payroll of $65.9 million.

What does this tell us other than the fact that Al Horford is a miracle worker?  That if you want to win in the NBA, you better put your money where your mouth is.  This should quiet everyone who complains that the MLB isn’t fair due to the lack of a salary cap.  The NBA has a cap (albeit a soft one), yet does the playoff landscape say anything of competitive balance?  What it says is that teams that want to win better be willing to pay talented players what they are worth.

Out of the top 10 spenders in the NBA, 9 of the teams made the playoffs (the New York Knicks being the odd team out).  16 out of 30 teams make the playoffs.  Out of the bottom 10 spenders, 7 of them were left out of the playoffs (the Portland Trailblazers, the Oklahoma City Thunder and the aforementioned Hawks being the exceptions).

The NBA: You Have To Pay To Play from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

I wrote several articles relating to this specific matter regarding Miles (Blazers Miles From Resolving Conflict) and his financial situation with Portland, and after this last bit of news it is pretty much official.  Even if Darius did not re-sign for the entire season, the Blazers were in debt to him for $18 Million from a two year contract since January 16th, when he participated in his tenth game of the year.  The Blazers were told that Miles was to have career ending surgery on his knee last year when he had two years left on his contract.

Since his amazing return from injury, Miles has averaged 5.7 points and 2.6 rebounds in 10 games this season.  He is looking good for someone who had a “career ending injury.”  Maybe Portland was too quick to dismiss him and pay the minimal amount for ending a contract with an injury, versus paying the rest of his salary and seeing if he could recover.

Despite everything, the implications of this are not as severe as the Trailblazers made it out to seem when they sent threatening emails league-wide.  The new arrival of Darius’s yearly salary to this year’s cap puts Portland at $80,884,803 on the season.  The additional $9 million each year would clearly place them over for this year and force the team to pay a large luxury tax, which would change the team’s ability to go out and re-sign and sign free agents this off-season.  Not to mention another $9 million they would have to account for in 2010.

This could be good for some players and agents as the Blazers will be looking to unload some talent and large contracts to free up much needed cap space.  Channing Frye, Steve Blake and Ike Diogu will all be looking to sign again with the team after this year and could be the first ones management looks at to find some space.  All three have no official contract for the 2009 season yet, only qualifying offers that are non guaranteed contracts.  No one on the team has a contract with an early-termination clause.  Stars like Greg Oden, Brandon Roy, and LaMarcus Aldridge are looking good in Portland jerseys and will likely continue to do so for many years to come.

The Blazers have many young, talented players, making the future seem bright.  However, the Darius Miles situation does throw an unexpected wrinkle into the salary aspect of the team and will cause this free agent season to be one to remember for Portland.  On top of Miles, Portland is paying Steve Francis $15,730,000 for this season and he is no longer with the team. Any way you see it ,the team will have to make some adjustments.  Agents for some players will be forced to get their clients adjusting to playing elsewhere.

Darius’s Dirty Deal from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

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 greveince 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.

One More Mile from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules

When Darius Miles was under contract with the Trailblazers he suffered what was thought to be a career ending knee injury.  The injury caused him to have micro-fracture surgery in 2006 and he was released by the Blazers in April 2008 after not participating in any NBA games for two seasons.

One of the big screen actors on The Perfect Score, with Scarlet Johansen, Miles started out this pre-season on the world champion Boston Celtics roster and was waived by the Celtics after playing in six pre-season games. He later signed with the Grizzlies and played in two regular season games when he was released before his contract became guaranteed.

Last Friday was when all the chaos started. Miles officially became a free agent, having already participated in eight games this season. According to the NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), Miles will be due $18 million by the Blazers if he plays in 10 total games this season. If he plays two more games with any team, the Blazers would owe him $18 million from their prior contract with Miles.  This additional sum would put the Blazers over the cap this year and force the organization to pay a luxury tax (much like the MLB has in place), of around $8 million for this season.

The Blazers were aware of this and even thought of picking up Miles again, just to sit him so he could not play the remaining two games on his contract (similar to Marbury’s ordeal in NY). The craziness officially began when Miles signed a ten-day contract with the Memphis Grizzlies.  This short-term deal to see how Miles could do, scared the Trailblazers enough for team President Larry Miller to send out threatening emails to all 29 other NBA teams.

In Miller’s email sent on Tuesday he threatened to sue any organization if a team attempted to sign Miles to “damage the franchise financially.”   He threatened and challenged all 29 other NBA franchises in one email.

The NBA responded a few days ago by sending out a league wide email which stated: “This is to inform you that Darius Miles has cleared waivers as of 10 a.m., EST, Friday, Jan. 9, 2009. He is now a free agent. The NBA has received the e-mail sent last night by Portland to all teams. Under league rules, teams are free to sign Darius Miles to a Uniform Player Contract if they wish to secure his services as a player, and any such contract would be approved by the NBA.”

NBAPA executive director Billy Hunter later expressed his disappointment in Portland’s threat on Miles and added that the players union will be filing a grievance against the organization as well.  The NBAPA believes that the league should have no collusion and that a player should be able to participate in the NBA as long as he is physically able to.

To make matters worse, the Grizzlies hosted the Cleveland Cavaliers and not only did Darius Miles play in the game, but he added 13 points in the Memphis loss.

The only good news for the Portland Trailblazers is that the NBA will not file a grievance against the organization for the President’s threatening emails.

With Miles looking good in his return it appears likely that he will play again in Memphis’s game this today.  While the Grizzlies are hoping for a big game out of Miles, the Blazers are hoping he will wind up on waivers ASAP and not lacing up his Nikes.

We will see in ten days if Miles get a contract extension, or if Memphis only intended to ruin Portland’s summer by busting their salary cap space and causing additional fines.   Now that all emails and threats have been issued with no action, only time will resolve this situation.

Blazers Miles From Resolving Conflict from Sports Agent Blog - Sports Business, Sports Law, Sports Negotiations, NCAA Rules