With massive financial implications looming over the NBA, there’s potential for the amnesty clause to return. Who would the Milwaukee Bucks use it on?
In 2005, the NBA introduced the amnesty clause that allowed teams to waive a player ahead of the season’s start with no impact on their luxury tax or salary cap sheet. The Milwaukee Bucks exercised it twice — once on Calvin Booth in 2005 and again on Drew Gooden in 2013. This way, the team could proceed without these massive contracts bearing on it at the start of a new season.
There’s a serious chance that this clause could return in 2020 because of the ramifications of COVID-19, the league’s broken relationship with China and the absence of fans in stands. The timing of it all doesn’t bode well for the Bucks, who will look to lock Giannis Antetokounmpo into a long-term contract extension as soon as possible. If the salary cap takes a dramatic dip as one would expect, the Bucks might need to let go of crucial rotation players to put themselves in a better position for the future.
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Milwaukee has $120.5 million allocated to 17 players this season and next year, it’ll be even worse. Five of those players can hit free agency this offseason with player options or as unrestricted free agents, but the recent contracts allocated to their starters put them in a true financial bind. The Bucks have Giannis, Khris Middleton, Eric Bledsoe and Brook Lopez slated to make a combined $90.2 million next season, leaving them very little financial flexibility to pick up tertiary role players on low-cost deals.
Asking free agents to take pay cuts amid a pandemic may not bode well, even if it’s to compete for a title. Obviously, they’re not going to do anything with Giannis’ contract and his co-star, Middleton is probably in the clear too. That leaves Bledsoe and Lopez as the two starts soaking up tons of money who the Milwaukee Bucks could wistfully amnesty in the coming season.
Lopez, a 12-year veteran in this league, has transformed his playstyle from what it was in his lone All-Star season with the Brooklyn Nets. Once a traditional post-up center and rim protector, Lopez has become a full-on floor spacer who dominates the backline and stretches defenses with his shooting threat.
While he remains one of the most consistent defensive anchors in the game, Lopez is having one of the worst offensive seasons of his career. Shooting 42.7 percent from the field and 29.7 percent from deep, Lopez is posting his worst effective field goal percentage since the 2011-12 season; which was the Nets’ last year in New Jersey.
Letting him walk would be troublesome considering the Milwaukee Bucks signed him to this deal in the offseason. However, the 32-year-old is flashing serious decline as a scorer after being dubbed ‘Splash Mountain’ the year before. Bledsoe still produces at a high rate despite his steals per game dropping exponentially since last season, so Lopez is the most-likely starter to get cut from the team.
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Still, there are a few bench players who might make more sense for this clause. The fifth-most expensive player behind those listed above is backup point guard George Hill. The 34-year-old is under contract through 2022 on a three year, $28.8 million deal that makes him one of the league’s more expensive backups. Still, that contract has been warranted thus far since Hill embodies everything this team needs from its veteran floor general. He leads the league in 3-point percentage while playing hard on defense and executing Mike Budenholzer’s gameplan.
Amnestying Hill makes sense financially, but it doesn’t make sense in reality. He’s been great for them and probably wouldn’t be too hard to trade if push comes to shove, so we have to move on.
The final option is the player who’s most likely to be put on the chopping block.
Through 895 minutes this season, the Milwaukee Bucks are 4.7 points per 100 possessions worse with Ersan Ilyasova on the floor than they are with him off. I’ll give him some credit since there’ve been many times in which he plays backup to Giannis at the four-spot, but there’s a case that he’s not worth his deal and that contract would be very easy to get rid of after exercising the amnesty clause.
Ilyasova is owed $7 million next season that could bring the Milwaukee Bucks’ cap sheet down to roughly $118.6 million, helping to alleviate some of the financial strain enforced by the league’s repeater tax. The 33-year-old is averaging 6.8 points and 4.9 rebounds while hitting 37.1 percent of his shots from downtown. These are commendable numbers for a role player and he’ll probably find another gig elsewhere, but the Bucks could probably replicate that output without having to spend more than the league-minimum.
Milwaukee would need to give every option a long, thoughtful look, but in the end, Ilyasova is probably the guy who gets amnestied.