Howard Beck of The New York Times reports that the following details about the "Amnesty Clause" have been agreed to by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association.
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.
Sam Amick of SI.com confirms the report.
Amnesty clause: Each team will be able to waive one player with a previously existing contract without it counting against the salary cap, but it will be available only once per team during the life of the new CBA. While the player will still be paid his full salary, this would allow teams to get rid of a contract that is weighing them down.
These details are slightly different from a reported version last week. In that previous report, the amnesty clause could have been used over a two-year period and potentially could have been used on a player who is not currently under contract.
That report led Tom Ziller of SacTownRoyalty.com to write that such an amnesty clause would make it less risky to offer Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden a large offer in free agency, because he could always be waived via amnesty if he didn't work out or was injured again. Waiving a new free agent signing via amnesty would not be allowed in the latest version reported by Beck, meaning that Portland or any team offering Oden an offer in free agency must be prepared to pay out the duration of the contract.
The latest amnesty report, however, would still allow the Blazers to have a "wait and see" year on guard Brandon Roy. Indeed, if the details stand, they would have the ability to "wait and see" however many times they want during the duration of his contract.
Marc Stein and Chad Ford write on ESPN.com that Roy could still be waived immediately.
Although there's an undeniable sense in Rip City that the Blazers will be tempted to give Roy one more season to regain something resembling his old form, one rival exec insists that "Roy would be gone for sure if [Rich] Cho was still there" ... and that it's only a matter of time even without Cho in charge.
Cutting ties with Roy, expensive as it'll be, is the only way they can truly start over. The Blazers, if they kept him for even one more season, would have a payroll approaching $75 million when the season starts.
The pair also lists center Marcus Camby as a possible amnesty candidate. Camby possesses an $11.2 million expiring contract.
Beck writes that these details are a portion of a new Collective Bargaining Agreement that is roughly "95 percent" done and now hangs on the revenue split issue.