There isn’t enough support among NBA owners to retain the amnesty clause in the new CBA, which could impact the Heat’s long-term decision on Chris Bosh, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reports.
The amnesty clause was included in the past two CBAs, which allowed each team to waive one of its player contracts and have 100% of the player’s salary removed from the team’s salary for cap and tax purposes. The team still had to pay that player.
Without an amnesty clause included in the next agreement, the Heat would lose one of their best options regarding Bosh. They refuse to medically clear Bosh, whose last two seasons have been cut short by blood clots, leaving Bosh in limbo. Bosh has three years and approximately $76MM remaining on his contract.
The two sides are close to finalizing the new CBA, as Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reported earlier. Windhorst offers a few more tidbits on the negotiations:
- Players are expected to have the ability to sign an extension two years after the date they signed their current contract, rather than three seasons.
- Restricted free agents will be able to agree to offer sheets on the first day of free agency — July 1 — instead of waiting to July 7. The window for teams to decide to match offer sheets would be reduced from 72 hours to 48 hours. That would make it more appealing for suitors to make those offers, since they are often hamstrung financially until a final decision is made.
- Teams would no longer be able to pull qualifying offers from RFAs, which is currently allowed prior to July 31.
With the way contracts are rising, I am surprised.