The Amnesty Rule

[Roy H.]

Report: Howard Beck of NY Times

Tentative agreements are already in place on the following major items:

¶ Amnesty clause: Each team will be permitted to waive one player, with pay — anytime during the life of the C.B.A. — and have his salary be exempt from the cap and the luxury tax. Its use will be limited to players already under contract as of July 1, 2011.

A tentative agreement? Wow. To use the amnesty at anytime over the life of the CBA.

That would be insane.  It's limited somewhat by the fact that players already have to be under contract -- i.e., no new Greg Oden deal -- but it's a pretty huge get out of jail free card for a lot of franchises.

[nickagneta]

Interesting stuff on the amnesty and stretch clauses though nothing is mentioned regarding whether teams will be allowed to resign anyone they waive under the stretch or amnesty clauses to a lesser contract, hence, finding a loophole in the CBA for lowering salary cap numbers.

[Who]

Sports Illustrated reporting the same thing about the amnesty rule.

Also adds that players must be waived at the start to the season. Not during the season. I wonder whether that means the opening of free agency, opening of training camp or opening night of the regular season.

I would imagine that the players fought hard for opening of free agency so that waived players could get a good contract from somebody with cap space (or MLE) rather than be left scrambling for a new team right at the start of the season. I remember that being a big issue (in negotiations) in 2005.

[Kane3387]

Espn Article on likelihood of people getting cut

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7147880/nba-most-likely-amnesty-candidates

[StartOrien]

I wonder if Baron Davis would head down to Miami.

The advantages is that obviously he'd be on a winning team, with exciting players and you'd think you'd be likely to get the "engaged" good Baron Davis.

But on the other hand he's still poor from distance and wouldn't really be able to capitalize on the open shots Lebron & Wade are likely to create. And he's also a PG who needs the ball in order to operate, which obviously is a bit of a problem.

[Moranis]

I wonder if you could trade for a player and then use the amnesty clause on him.  Say the amnesty rule was in effect last year and you are Dan Gilbert and the Cavs and you trade Mo Williams for Baron Davis and a 1st, ride out the year and then use the amnesty clause on Baron in the off season.  I could see some scenarios where that might come into play, especially if you have up to 5 years to make the call (like Joe Johnson in Atlanta, someone could trade for him, use him for 2 seasons and then amnesty him out when he still has a year or two left).

[StartOrien]

I wonder if you could trade for a player and then use the amnesty clause on him.  Say the amnesty rule was in effect last year and you are Dan Gilbert and the Cavs and you trade Mo Williams for Baron Davis and a 1st, ride out the year and then use the amnesty clause on Baron in the off season.  I could see some scenarios where that might come into play, especially if you have up to 5 years to make the call (like Joe Johnson in Atlanta, someone could trade for him, use him for 2 seasons and then amnesty him out when he still has a year or two left).

Marc Stein tweeted earlier that they were working to make that against the Amnesty rule. (Sorry, Magic fans)

[nickagneta]

I wonder if you could trade for a player and then use the amnesty clause on him.  Say the amnesty rule was in effect last year and you are Dan Gilbert and the Cavs and you trade Mo Williams for Baron Davis and a 1st, ride out the year and then use the amnesty clause on Baron in the off season.  I could see some scenarios where that might come into play, especially if you have up to 5 years to make the call (like Joe Johnson in Atlanta, someone could trade for him, use him for 2 seasons and then amnesty him out when he still has a year or two left).

The only stipulation I have seen that has come out is that the waived player must be on team, contractually, that is waiving him before July of this year. Which means that your trade scenario will not work.

Would still like clarification regarding if a team could waive a player and then immediately re-sign them to a much lower salary to loophole the salary cap.

[Who]

Why would Atlanta waive Marvin Williams?

It'll cost them $5-6 million a season to replace him. At that point, you are paying $13-14 million for a role player that adds nothing more than middling SF play to your club. It's nonsensical.

[Who]

Espn Article on likelihood of people getting cut

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7147880/nba-most-likely-amnesty-candidates

That is interesting information on Brendan Haywood's contract. I didn't know the final year of his contract is non-guaranteed. I have never seen that anywhere else.

Four years, $36 million. At that price, given his talent and the lack of centers in the league, I have to believe Haywood is a trade-able asset.

I mean, even if the luxury tax was to become an issue down the road (say 2013 or 2014), Dallas should be able to move Haywood for an asset + gain quality play from him in the interim rather than eating all that salary, losing his on-court contributions and watching him join another contender.

[Who]

If the owners manage to keep that rule that allows them to waive a player under contract at any point during the CBA, the Denver Nuggets should keep Al Harrington for one season before deciding his fate.

With Kenyon Martin leaving the club, the Nuggets have no true (proven) power forward on their roster. Al Harrington could take those minutes and likely supply 16-18ppg in 34-36mpg next season.

That type of performance, on an MLE deal, could turn him into a trade asset. Rather than dead weight. Potentially a big win for Denver.

[Who]

Espn Article on likelihood of people getting cut

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7147880/nba-most-likely-amnesty-candidates

Just finished reading the rest of the article. Good piece.

Two other things (in addition to the Brendan Haywood final year non-guaranteed tidbit) which caught my eye were ...

(1) Milwaukee leaning towards waiving Beno Udrih instead of Drew Gooden. That is going to do a lot of damage to them in both the short and long term future. Beno could play a Luke Ridnour like role as a backup guard behind Brandon Jennings next year while Drew Gooden is nothing more than a major complication and liability to Milwaukee's big man rotation. Then add in the financial dead weight he'll be to the Bucks cap for the next 4 years. Very bad decision.

(2) The value for New York in waiving Renaldo Balkman. I overlooked that when I was scanning through the salary lists the other day. New York will definitely waive him. Frees up an extra and useful $1.2 million for 2012 free agency. Gets them down from $44.58 to round $43.4 million. That extra money could be very useful in getting the free agent they want. They should consider moving Toney Douglas' $2 million (in a trade for an expiring contract), that would get them another $1.5mil in cap space. Depending on where the cap ends up, that might be enough to offer someone (say Chris Paul) a max contract next summer.

[StartOrien]

Howard Beck just tweeted that he reconfirmed that as of right now the amnesty deal would take 100% of salary off cap.

But pointed out again that all agreements are tenative

EDIT: Odd, I'm 100% sure on the details of the tweet, but I can't seem to find it on my timeline now. Wonder if there's conflicting reports coming out now.

[Kane3387]

Espn Article on likelihood of people getting cut

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7147880/nba-most-likely-amnesty-candidates

That is interesting information on Brendan Haywood's contract. I didn't know the final year of his contract is non-guaranteed. I have never seen that anywhere else.

Four years, $36 million. At that price, given his talent and the lack of centers in the league, I have to believe Haywood is a trade-able asset.

I mean, even if the luxury tax was to become an issue down the road (say 2013 or 2014), Dallas should be able to move Haywood for an asset + gain quality play from him in the interim rather than eating all that salary, losing his on-court contributions and watching him join another contender.

Dallas has been doing this for a while. Jason Terry's deal is similar. They did it with Stackhouse but weren't able to acquire value for his deal. They also did it with Dampier which is why they were able to acquire Tyson Chandler straight up for Damp from Charlotte. Charlotte then cut Damp soon afterwards saving them a ton of money this past season. It's a very savvy way to draw up a contract.

I mean if you are set on paying a guy for only three years then why not add a fourth year at fully non guaranteed? At the worst you will still only have to pay the player for three years and at best you have a great trade asset for a team looking to cut salary immediately. The Damp contract won them a title.

More team are catching on to this though. Portland did it with Andre Miller. He was fully non guaranteed this year if cut at the right time. Denver traded Felton just to have that option and after taking to Miller Denver decided it was worth the 7 mill to have him back up and mentor Lawson.

DA kind of did it with Pierce's fourth year because its set at what 16 mill but only 4 mill is guaranteed? Still I expect more teams to start adding on a fully non guaranteed year to their contracts. If I was a GM I would do it to every contract I could that's not a max deal.

Kudos to the Mavs for creative General Managing.

[Kane3387]

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/33019/lakers-knicks-or-bobcats-for-baron

Looks like Baron would likely go to the Lakers. That's no good.