Report: Blazers Still Badmouthing Darius Miles

Color me unsurprised, but reports like this still grab my eye, no matter the repeated related history: Marc J. Spears of the Boston Globe cites two NBA general managers who say Portland officials are still calling around badmouthing Darius Miles.

As we all know by now, if Miles plays 10 games this season, $9 million of Portland's 2009-10 cap space goes poof. It could be the difference between the Blazers adding a good free agent this summer or not.

Here is one of Spears' anonymous GMs:

"He can still play and he also hasn't played in two years, so you have to understand that he will get better," one NBA GM said. "Too bad Portland is putting out bad information that he is not a good kid. Anything and everything they can say bad they are. It's too bad. He's a nice kid with a bad injury who has fought back. Right now, he's still an NBA player and he's going to get better. He's going to improve. It will be a smart pick-up for someone."

Of course, this could be gamesmanship just the same: other teams who consider themselves to be rivals of Portland would love Miles to get a contract ... but those teams might not want to look like the jerks who sign him just to mess with the Blazers. If the Lakers or Jazz sign Miles briefly, it will look petty. The smarter ploy at this point could be to convince someone else to do it.

Or we could be over-thinking things, and Portland really is trying to blackball Miles. The Celtics look like the good guys right now -- they gave him a chance, cut him loose, and seem to be giving an honest assessment of his performance to anyone who asks. Portland officials (who had a lot of reason to badmouth Miles during his time there) might think they are also spreading truth. But it looks petty, and they should stop.