Amnesty clause can help save the Golden State Warriors dynasty

The Golden State Warriors have benefited from the changes to the NBA season. An amnesty clause could take this even further.

The NBA is in a weird position. While they attempt to pull off an unprecedented ‘bubble’ in Orlando to conclude the season, the Golden State Warriors are wondering how the next few seasons will be impacted by the financial hit the association is likely to take.

Already, the cap for next season is looking like it will be lower than projected (although it will still be higher than the current season). This doesn’t matter much to the Dubs who wouldn’t exactly have much room under the cap anyway. However, there is something the NBA can do to help the Warriors and other teams.

The amnesty clause is something the league has rarely implemented. It was last used in 2011 when a lockout caused a delay to the start of the season. In short, the amnesty clause allows teams to dump a player’s contract of their choosing.

This doesn’t mean the Warriors would be absolved of paying the contract. Instead, the player they choose would then be available to the other 29 teams for bidding. The winning bidder will then be subtracted from the player’s current contract. For example, if a player was set to make $20 million next year but the winning bid was worth $15 million, the original team would still have to pay that player the remaining $5 million from his contract.

Last time, the clause was available from 2011 to the 2015-16 NBA season. Teams can only use the clause once, but this extended time gave everyone time to make their decisions. In 2011, the Dubs amnestied Charlie Bell’s $4 million dollar contract in hopes of signing DeAndre Jordan. They never acquired Jordan, but I’m sure the Warriors aren’t complaining.

This time around for the Warriors, the amnesty could be a get out of jail free card. They are locked into three massive, long term contracts right now. Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins will each eat up a chunk of the Dubs’ cap space for the next three years.

If the Dubs decide to use the amnesty as an opportunity to open up a sizeable amount of cap space, Wiggins or Green would be the obvious choice. Green is entering his 30s and could quickly decline while Wiggins hasn’t lived up to his price tag thus far. Even if Wiggins finds success with the Warriors, it’s unlikely he justifies making over $80 million dollars across the next three seasons.

Thompson is a dark horse candidate for this clause as well. He is also entering his 30s and is fresh off a serious knee injury. The amnesty could offer the Dubs a chance to get off of his contract before it’s too late.

Golden State could also go in an entirely different direction and use the amnesty on one of their lower-paid players. This could give them just enough financial freedom to replace that player with someone they deem more valuable.

Whatever the franchise decides to do with this potential clause, there is no argument against wanting this additional asset to help clear cap space within the next few years.