mediocre man

I take you back to 1976-77 and the championship series. Ask anyone who the more talented team was and to a man you will hear Philly. The reason Portland won, besides Walton, is because they played better as a team. They had guys that knew their roles, and they all busted their behinds. Why is it that some of you don't get that. It's not all about talent, it's about teamwork and being able to rely on your teammates. that is the single biggest thing that eludes this Blazers team. They can not depend on Miles because they don't know which player is going to show up from game to game. At least with a guy like Malik Rose you know what you are getting day in and day out. Send me into battle with guys that all play hard and do what's best for the team rather than someone with a lot of talent that has been a failure everywhere he's been so far in his career.

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SLAM

I think Miles is just the latest whipping boy for the Oregonian. I've heard everyone ranting and shaking their fists at his bad behavior, but I've seen very little evidence that he's a destructive, "cancerous," influence on this team. He sounded frustrated with being injured and the overall terrible season. Who wouldn't be? And why do consider him a past failure? He's an athletic role player, not a star. The problem seems to be misplaced expectations.

wizmentor

Did you watch the last half of last season? He gave up. He asked to be traded and still wants
to be traded. Miles has on-court deficiencies. I'm not worried about those. His poor attitude
is the problem, and this was mentioned by both Skinner and Joel.

What about now? The Blazers offered to fly coaches to him to help him work out. His response?
"No thanks." A motivated Miles is a force to be reckoned with. An unmotivated Miles is a
cancer that needs to be cut. Right now, he's unmotivated. If you can motivate the guy,
call the Blazers. They'd love to know how to do it.

mediocre man

Role players are players who know what to do when they are on the floor. Miles has no idea. A role player brings it every night also, and Miles doesn't even come close to doing that. Miles would be a decent piece to a team with at least one star to keep him in line. Portland has none, not even close.

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Former Blazer Alaa Abdelnaby on being a student athlete at Duke. "The only way I could get 5 A's at Duke was to spell my name"


I'm Mediocre Man, and I approve this message.

yakbladder

Why don't we just handle this the old-fashioned way?

If Miles comes to play for the season, suit him up, let him start.

If he doesn't, let him ride the pine.

We aren't going to get fair trade value for him. If we cut him, then we have to pay to watch him play for someone else.

He can whine and moan all he wants if he's on the pine but all Nate has to say to the media is "If you work hard, you play". The younger guys will get the message, and soon Miles will just be a minor distraction (and one that can be put on the IR and asked to stay home if necessary).

Let's just accept the fact we're paying him and make his possible distraction irrelevant. If he comes to play and works hard, we have a huge bonus for our team.

RipCity9

Any excitement about the team goes out the window if we trade for Mark Madsen. No way, no how.

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Ed O

Exactly. One addition: if Miles gets out of line, suspend him and save some $.

Ed O.

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-- Sandy Koufax

Foulzilla

The issue I have with it, is even if we get an expiring contract for Miles, we still aren't under the cap due to other deals (Mainly Randolph and Lafrentz). So there's no point in dumping him just for an expiring contract. If it freed up space to go after a FA I think it would make more sense.

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dwood615

WE NEED A SMALL FORWARD NOT A POINT GUARD AND A SCRUB BIG MAN!!!


i say get hassel and someone for miles and dixon


kg will shape up miles....guaranteed

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Boob-No-More

EXACTLY! Any influence Miles may have on the young players will be negated when he's sitting on the bench and they are playing big minutes in his place. Any moaning and disrespecting of the coach will be drowned out by the very clear, unambiguous message that PT is the reward for hard work.

I know some people think you should try to showcase a player you want to trade. However, if that player isn't willing to put in a solid effort each and every night, rewarding him with PT sends the wrong message to the reast of the team and destroys morale. And, at the end of the day, every GM in the league knows Miles is a head case. Showcasing him isn't going to change that.

As long as he's EARNING his minutes, everybody wins. The Blazers win more games and Miles increases his trade value. If he isn't EARNING his minutes, bury his butt on the bench and give the minutes to someone who deserves them.

BNM

dudleysghost

Expiring contracts are appealing for the Blazers for two reasons:

1) They potentially save Paul Allen money. As fans, we might not be worried about Paul Allen's money, but he certainly is, and as the owner, it thus becomes relevant.

2) It saves the team room under the lux tax threshold. Rather than use the salary cap as a brake on salary, many owners now seem to be using the lux tax threshold as the number where they draw the line, apparently including Allen. If we are somehow able to turn Miles salary obligation into thin air, we can then have $8 mil more in the future to sign other teams' free agents with the MLE, vet exceptions etc, or have extra money available to re-sign our own free agents over the next 4 years (like Magloire, Webster and Jack). So even though we get no cap space, the salary space is still valueable.

Zuca

You can get Marko Jaric instead of Hudson...

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