Using the Amnesty?

You have to consider the value of the resultant cap space against the value of the player, but also against the value of the player in trade.

I don’t know that the cap space would help them right now, unless there was someone worthwhile on the waiver wire. The available free agents are not an enticing bunch, given that the Wolves have no chance at the cream.

Still, I would consider using it on Milicic or Beasley.

I’d amnesty Darko if it means we can bring someone else in. Last year I had such hopes for him and it just got so hard watching him make the same mistakes over and over. Even if half his problem is confidence, he didn’t show me much at all worth keeping.

Randolph, Pekovic and Miller/Tolliver/Love can fill the 5 in his absence, and all can probably do it better. Blocking a few shots a game doesn’t make up for all the other crap he does poorly.

Darko’s contract is reasonable. He’s the second best center we’ve ever had (Al Jefferson was a power forward), behind only Luc Longley, and his contract is almost precisely the average contract in the NBA. Any center we could get replacing him would be much worse. The people that made fun of the deal are mathematically illiterate. Technically, among our current players, Pekovic is the best amnesty candidate, but it’s possible he could develop into an NBA player. Brad Miller is an obvious amnesty choice, but I believe it’s just one year left. Martell Webster is an outside shooter, which we sorely lack. If Pekovic is a bust for another season, we should amnesty him then, if we can’t trade him.

Second, an offer for Oden would freeze $5 million in place for 3 days, during which the amnesty and free agent parade would pass us by. (We’re only about $10 million below the cap now.) Portland will match any offer…they’re not doing all that well, and if they let the top pick in the draft walk away, it will cost them significant fan support for years. An offer on Oden would benefit Portland, by allowing them to underpay Oden without Oden feeling resentful, and it would cost us significantly in the amnesty and free agency derby.

Also, once we sign D Williams, we’ll be less than $4 million under the cap, and if we re-sign Love, we’ll be over the cap. Granted, we’ll make our free agency moves first, but even so, we need to be aware of the future.

The best amnesty option we have is to trade some of our role players for a second bad player on another team (which has more than one player they want to amnesty), plus someone good and cheap, and hopefully a first rounder or two. We could then amnesty the expensive albatross we receive, and keep whatever else we get.

Pretty sure his last year isn’t fully guaranteed. So you could amnesty Darko, buy out Miller, and then throw a toxic offer at Jordan or Gasol.

Do you use the amnesty this year or later in the CBA?

Because it works with current contracts only, the sooner you use it, the more of a salary cap savings you have and the more of a buyout you have.

But, you may wait if you see no FA you want this year anyhow and the amnesty drops you below the minimum spend. The minimum I read for this year was $49 million. Wolves are at $48.3 w/o signing the rookies.

The number 2 pick I saw on RealGM is slated for $3.95 million — don’t know if that includes the extra 20% they allow you to go over. Say it doesn’t — $4.75.

Beasely has the max contract at $6.2 and you don’t amnesty him. Martell is highest of possible amnesty at $5.25. So, DWill’s deal alone with a Webster amnesty drops Wolves $.5 mil to $47.8.

Gotta believe Malcolm Lee might cost $1.2 and/or Wolves amnesty a player (if at all) less than Martell. So, Wolves appear in no trouble of amnestying themselves below the minimum so far they have to waste or throw extra money at a FA.

I’d say “Bad” Darko’s still probably our second best center…maybe third. (Nesterovic wasn’t ALL that bad, though he suddenly looked a lot better once he left Minnesota.) Apparently time has allowed people to forget Minnesota’s never really had any good center play. We treated Mark Blount as a savior for one season, is how desperate we’ve been for a good center. Don’t get me wrong, at best Darko is merely adequate, but after all the pathetic tall timber of the past, Darko looks pretty good comparatively. There are maybe ten good centers in the NBA, and we wouldn’t be picking any of them up for $4.8 million. When people say he’s one of the worst centers in the NBA, they surely aren’t counting, say, Pekovic, who was much worse. You want Theo Ratliff back? You want Hasheem Thabeet…you want to pay $6.2 million for a past-his-prime Jermaine O’Neal? No one makes fun of, say, Zaza Pechulia, who’s about the same level of player, and costs about the same, as Milicic. We are cursed by having a flawed, adequate starting center, which puts us ahead of a bunch of teams.

If we just start playing some of our overflow of centers, we’re just going to get those guys hurt playing out of position, as happened when we tried that with Al Jefferson. Milicic is at least of value to prevent crippling Kevin Love and Michael Beasley.

I checked. Miller does have a second year on his contract. Given that, he’s the best amnesty candidate. He’ll never play for us, and given the condition of his knees, it’d be pretty frightening if he did.

I missed that you couldn’t trade for a player and use the amnesty. Pity. Would’ve made for a more interesting off-season.

Would give us the most room for this year to then go after Brandon Roy.