Should the amnesty clause be a regular thing?

[Pantsman]

Or just don’t sign obviously stupid deals

[bstein14]

I wouldn't be surprised if they just shrink contract length down to 3 years for signing with new teams, and 4 years for resigning your own FA. You can always extend if things are working out well but with how many players have signed long deals and then demanded a trade I think something will change.

[sp6r=underrated]

Trade-offs exist.

There is no way to create an amnesty clause that does all of the following:

1. Pay the players all of the money on their contract.
2. Allow teams to get out of bad contracts.
3. Not count the dead money against the BRI
4. Not further the competitive balance gap between relative wealthy and poor teams.

You can do all four. If you decide to have the players get screwed out of their money you're going to have an enormous fight with the union on the CBA & start seeing regular holdout every year. Once contracts become meaningless for the players they're going to hold out more.

If you decide to pay the players but not have the money count against the cap/BRI wealthy teams will start offering contracts that everyone knows they intend to amnesty.

If you could somehow do all 4 the trade-off is you diminish the importance of management. Dumb teams will have a closer chance to compete with smart teams with success is more luck driven.

Is the current system really that bad?

[sp6r=underrated]

I wouldn't be surprised if they just shrink contract length down to 3 years for signing with new teams, and 4 years for resigning your own FA. You can always extend if things are working out well but with how many players have signed long deals and then demanded a trade I think something will change.

Trade offs exist. If you make contracts shorter lengths while maintaining max contracts, you'll increase the number of superteams as top players will find it easier to coordinate their free agencies.

I don't have a problem with superteams but I know a lot of people on this board do.

[clippertown]

Amnesty benefits wealthier owners and hurts small market teams. The only way amnesty works is if you have to pay double or triple the remaining salary in order to clear the cap-space and the non-playoff teams get to share the new revenue.

Rules that allow an owner to get a mulligan, will ensure there are many stupid overpay deals that will ultimately hurt the game. Everybody cannot get paid the max as it seems all decent players are seeking.

[Sothron]

I think every three seasons it should be available. The players still get their money. This just frees up a front office from a bad contract or a guy with injuries who just can't stay on the court.