Points in the Paint 01.23.09: The Darius Miles Episode

Posted by Rob Bonnette on 01.23.2009

Darius Miles and a standings update!

Hey everyone, time for a super late post-inauguration edition of Points in the Paint. This week we talk more Steve Nash, Darius Miles, and the standings! Let's do it!


More on Steve Nash

Well, I didn't quite get the bashing I was expecting from assault on Steve Nash's status, but I got a lot of excellent comments from you guys. No one, it seemed, really disagreed with me at all. I even got an awesome shout out form my fellow 411 basketball columnist Porforio Diaz. So the consensus seems to be here that Nash is :a) a very good shooter, b) a very good passer and runner of the offense, c) not as great as he appeared to be while running Mike D'Antoni's system. And a few you were OK with him winning one MVP award but thought two was one too many. I'll say that he got two more than he should have. To me the MVP has to be someone who is at least in the conversation for best player in the league. I don't think anyone with a functioning brain who was not a Suns fan ever thought Nash was a better player than Kobe, KG, Shaq, Dwyane Wade, or Lebron. Yet it looks as if he's a surefire Hall of Famer thanks to all the love he got for four years. I remember stories being written about how he resurrected the NBA and all this other nonsense. That's just a joke; Magic and Bird took the NBA from tape delay to prime time, and Jordan took it international. Steve Nash did nothing of the sort. Before he went to the Suns the league did have a huge perception problem, and was suffering from declining television ratings, but that was more the fault of it's biggest names being unable to get very far in the playoffs and having less than lovable off court personas. Nash was a media friendly presence, and that did generate a lot of positive buzz that the league hadn't received in a while, but I dare say that he alone did not turn much of anything around from a money standpoint. OK, OK, I'll stop bashing him now. I don't want people to think I put him on the same level with Chris Duhon or anything. He's a surefire resident for the Hall of Very Good, but doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame. At least not in my book.

The Darius Miles Episode

Now this thing is just bizarre, front start to finish. The Blazers talked an injured Miles into retiring due to injury, seemingly because they wanted to get some cap relief and avoid the luxury tax. Miles agreed to do so, for whatever reason, even though he still wanted to take up space on someone's roster, I mean play basketball. Fast forward a couple years, Miles gets himself back in playing condition and over whatever injury he had, and starts trying out for rosters. The Blazers start sweating bullets because if he makes a roster and plays ten games then they'll be on the hook for his salary and go over the luxury tax threshold. So he gets in a few preseason games, which cut into the ten game limit. Boston releases him, and he's back on the market. The Blazers relax. But now, word leaks out that someone may be willing to sign him so the Blazers start sweating again. Then they fire off a ‘don't even think about it!' letter to everyone else in the league, claiming that they'll sue if anyone signs him because doing so would obviously indicate a desire to mess with the Blazers money situation. So of course, the Memphis Grizzlies do exactly what everyone was threatened not to do and sign Miles. OK, that's a lot to digest. What do I think? Well, to me this is yet another example of GM's making bad decisions and then wanting to weasel their way out of them. As all three of the people who've read this column consistently over the past three years know, I always blame the GM. Especially in the NBA. Pro basketball is not like football where you can coach guys up; you have to make the right decisions on people or else you're screwed.

Miles is yet another guy who was drafted high because of his height, his wingspan, and his athletic ability, not because of any stellar basketball skills or know how. (This trend really got bad around 2000, and it has done as much to hurt the league as any of the overblown thug life media stories) That's not his fault; I never blame anyone for taking the money if it's offered to them. This is America, and if they're willing to pay you have every right to ask for it and take it. But the man who decides to pay should get some blame if things don't work out, because most of the time there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the guy wasn't worth drafting that high or signing to a big free agent contract. Miles was a McDonalds All American who wasn't much of an outside shooter and needed time to learn the game. He got drafted by the Clippers, which was probably the worst thing that could have happened. Then he was dealt after two seasons where he played 26 and 27 minutes per game and averaged nine points and five rebounds each time. He showed little to no improvement during that span and was considered an expendable player two years into his career when he was still only 20 years old. That should have been a big enough red flag right there. Then, his second team was ready to trade him after a season and a half; another red flag should have come up. But that didn't stop Portland from giving him bigger money than was warranted, and now they're stuck.

These type of contracts can almost always be avoided. One of the things I give Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld for is resisting the temptation to re-sign both Larry Hughes and Jared Jeffries; both of them were considered good young players going into their free agent summers, but neither of them had proven themselves worthy of big contracts. There was some public sentiment for not allowing them to leave, but Ernie let them go and neither of them has lived up to the contracts they were awarded as free agents. Again, I'm not hating on either of them, but there was enough evidence to keep any self respecting GM from overspending to bring them in. I find myself constantly coming back to this issue because these guys never seem to learn. Guys who aren't superstars but can really play tend not to get traded around; they do switch teams as free agents if their current employer gets into salary cap or luxury tax issues and has to let people leave, but that's about it. Never throw big money at a guy whose team isn't sad to see him go; there's always a reason.

Where we are right now

It's been an interesting season, and the standings are a little different that what was expected. The East, once thought to be the Celtics playground, has turned into a three way race for first between the defending champs, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Orlando Magic. The C's started off like gangbusters but then suffered through a very rough patch before getting things right again. They do have a serious depth problem; James Posey was indispensible to last year's team and he's gone to New Orleans. PJ Brown was another huge piece and he's gone back into retirement. If they don't find guys who can give them those 20-plus quality minutes a night in a playoff series it will be extremely hard to stay fresh against their younger competition in Cleveland and Orlando. The rest of the conference is divided into the second tier of Atlanta, Detroit, and Miami (three games separate fourth place Atlanta from the sixth place Heat); the third tier of eight teams separated by five and a half games, and the last place Wizards. Really, the Wiz are the only Eastern Conference team that can check out until next year. They're six games behind the fourteenth place team in the conference; that's about all you need to know.

The West is a different animal altogether. You have the Lakers and everyone else. The closest team to them, the Spurs, are five games back in the standings right now and a mere four and a half games ahead of the ninth place team. So it literally is a race for second among eight teams, and one team with a really good record is going to be in the lottery when it's all said and done. So should are the Lakers more or less getting a bye to the Finals this time around? Don't count on it. The Spurs can take them down if healthy. Remember that Manu Ginobli had a bum ankle when they played last season, and that changed everything. Over the past sic six years, the Spurs have won the title every other season; the off year is due to injury or dumb luck (Derek Fisher hitting that last second jumper to beat them in the second round the year the Lakers lost to the Pistons). Last season, they sent the Suns home in short order then won a game seven on the road against the Hornets. These guys are battle tested, and won't be afraid of anything the Lakers throw at them. And don't forget that other than Kobe and Fisher, the rest of that team is composed of guys who haven't played in a serious playoff series or who have a reputation for coming up small when it counts. The Spurs can take them down.

OK, that's it for this week. Next week I talk about…..I have no idea right now. Until then!