Grizzlies waive F Miles

Jan 8, 2009 - 7:01 AM EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- The Memphis Grizzlies waived forward Darius Miles, the team announced Wednesday.

The 27-year-old Miles collected two rebounds and two blocks in nine minutes in two appearances with Memphis. He was suspended for the first 10 games he was on the Grizzlies' active roster for violating the league's anti-doping policy.

Miles had not played an NBA regular-season game since April 15, 2006, thanks to a right knee injury.

In fact, Miles was waived by the Portland Trail Blazers last season when an independent doctor deemed his injury career-ending. The Blazers, as a result, were allowed to remove the $18 million that was owed to Miles over two seasons from their salary cap.

The ruling allowed Portland to become a threat in the summer of 2010, when a bevy of superstars - including LeBron James - hit the free-agent market.

However, the Blazers again would have been saddled with the money if Miles had played in 10 games this season.

According to a Yahoo! Sports report on Wednesday, Miles is even closer than expected to reaching that mark. The six preseason games he played for the Celtics in October count toward the total.

Should Miles get picked up by another team at any point this season and play two games, the Blazers' cap will take the hit.

The third overall pick in the 2000 draft by the Clippers, Miles was drafted out of high school and averaged 10.7 points and 5.2 rebounds in parts of six seasons with three teams prior to his short stay in Memphis.

He spent training camp with the Boston Celtics this season but was waived before the start of the campaign. The Grizzlies picked him up on December 13.