NBA salary cap exercise: What player would every team amnesty?

New Orleans Pelicans – Darius Miller

For a young team with a number of expiring contracts on the roster, New Orleans is facing a tricky offseason from a financial perspective. When the league year resets they will have a payroll of $83.2 million and will be looking to replace or re-sign Derrick Favors, E’Twaun Moore and Brandon Ingram before even considering the players further down the bench.

The Pelicans have a few things going in their favor. It starts with the collection of draft picks they have in the pipeline coming from a variety of moves. They will be able to restock the young talent or use the picks to grease the wheels on win-now trades should they so desire. Having David Griffin involved is the biggest advantage this team has off the court.

Griffin did brilliant work around the draft last year to continuously swap players and picks for more picks to fill the war chest to build around Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram. There is little doubt that the team will match any offer sheet for Ingram but it would not hurt to free up some money to make this possible.

Darius Miller is the unfortunate cap casualty here. Like Ilyasova before, Darius Miller’s contract is not guaranteed for next year so this is a pretty seamless move. He is due to make $7 million next season and is a 30-year-old coming off an Achilles injury that he suffered before this season. He was a solid reserve when he was available but as this team moves forward they can do better with that money.