The NBA moratorium on signing contracts has been lifted and now that players like Chris Paul and Dwight Howard are signed, teams will be making moves to get themselves in position for the cap and that could be through amnesty, which 13 teams can use on 34 different players that qualify.
Teams obviously won't use all the clauses and all the players will not be amnestied, but there are 34 players left who are on contracts from before the 2011-12 season and are with their teams and those players are eligible to get cut using that move. Some of the top named players that could end up on the cutting block are Rajon Rondo, Metta World Peace, Chris Bosh, Carlos Boozer, Zach Randolph, Kendrick Perkins, DeMarcus Cousins and Larry Sanders, but there is a good chance that won't happen for many of them.
The Bobcats have already stated they plan to use theirs on Tyrus Thomas so that they can sign Al Jefferson and while Toronto's Andrea Bargnani and Boston's Paul Pierce were candidates, they are being traded so that won't be happening. Seventeen teams no longer have the amnesty clause to use, including the Pelicans, as they have no players eligible based on the criteria and these moves could help these teams in free agency depending on who they are trying to sign.
Most players are in no risk of getting amnestied and some options include Metta World Peace as well as Boozer and Perkins, who could be gone just to help their teams with some financial flexibility. In the past a number of players were hit with the clause, including Elton Brand with the Sixers, Gilbert Arenas, Chauncey Billups with the Knicks, Chris Andersen with Denver, Luis Scola with Houston, Baron Davis, Andray Blatche, Josh Childress as well as Darko Milicic with the Wolves.
From ESPN.com, here is a full list of eligible players:
Atlanta: Al Horford
Boston: Avery Bradley, Rajon Rondo
Chicago: Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah
Detroit: Greg Monroe, Charlie Villanueva
Los Angeles Lakers: Steve Blake, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace
Memphis: Mike Conley, Zach Randolph
Miami: Joel Anthony, Chris Bosh, Udonis Haslem, LeBron James, Mike Miller, Dwyane Wade
Milwaukee: Drew Gooden, Larry Sanders
Oklahoma City: Nick Collison, Kevin Durant, Kendrick Perkins, Thabo Sefolosha
Sacramento: DeMarcus Cousins, John Salmons
San Antonio: Matt Bonner, Tony Parker
Toronto: Amir Johnson, Linas Kleiza
Utah: Derrick Favors, Gordon Hayward
