The amnesty provision provides salary cap relief, but any team that uses the provision still must pay the player it waives. That extra money could be burdensome to owners who have to field rosters on top of their obligation to a player who is no longer around. As our amnesty tracker shows, precisely half of the league's 30 teams have used the one-time chance to erase a contract from the salary cap, if not the payroll. Some of those contracts were up after last season anyway, so those teams — the Knicks, Pacers and Warriors — are free of any amnesty-related burden. Three more teams will see their amnestied contracts expire at the end of the season. They're listed here, along with the player and the team's obligation in parentheses.
- Sixers: Elton Brand ($16,059,855)
- Cavaliers: Baron Davis ($13,900,000)
- Clippers: Ryan Gomes ($4,000,000)
The Clippers might have received a small portion of relief via set-off rights when Gomes signed last November to play in Germany. The value of Gomes' deal overseas is unclear, but it would have to be for more than $762,195 to let the Clippers off the hook for any of the money they owe him. I doubt Gomes earned that much from his German club, particularly since he and the team parted ways in January.
Getting released from the $4MM Gomes burden probably won't have much effect on the Clippers' offseason plans this year, but it will be interesting to see what the other two teams on that list do when they aren't paying eight-figure salaries to guys who aren't on the roster. Since Andrew Bynum is missing the entire season because of his troublesome knees, the Sixers actually have two high-dollar obligations that aren't paying dividends this year, totaling $32,948,855. Freed of that dead money, perhaps the Sixers will be willing to spend freely on Bynum or another sought-after free agent this summer. The same could be the case for the Cavs, who largely eschewed free agents last summer and, at little more than $54MM, have one of the smallest team salary totals this season. That number doesn't include Davis' amnestied salary, which, if it were applied to the cap, would bring Cleveland within a few million of the $70.307MM tax line.
Nine teams have to wait at least one more season for their amnesty burdens to disappear. Those squads are listed here with the amnestied player, plus the remaining salary obligation and the year the contract expires in parentheses.
- Magic: Gilbert Arenas ($43,154,456 — 2014)
- Mavericks: Brendan Haywood ($14,607,812 — 2015)
- Nets: Travis Outlaw ($8,000,000 — 2015)
- Nuggets: Chris Andersen ($4,818,000 — 2014)
- Rockets: Luis Scola ($1,847,619 — 2015)
- Suns: Josh Childress ($14,500,000 — 2015)
- Timberwolves: Darko Milicic ($1,755,000 — 2014)
- Trail Blazers: Brandon Roy ($37,206,258 — 2015)
- Wizards: Andray Blatche ($16,266,260 — 2015)
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Someone with more cap knowledge might be able to answer this, but why would a team use the amnesty clause on a player making less than 2 million-ish, and not just buy him out and save the amnesty clause for a bigger fish? I’m assuming there’s a legit reason, but I don’t know it.
If you’re looking at the figures associated with Luis Scola and Darko Milicic, keep in mind that those numbers are simply what the Rockets and T-Wolves, respectively, still owe those guys. In Scola’s case, a significant portion of his contract ($9,377,003 to be precise) will be paid by the Suns the next two years, since they claimed him off amnesty waivers from the Rockets. Darko’s contract was only partially guaranteed for $1.755MM for next season, but the deal was worth $5.228MM this year.