The Orlando Magic have waived Gilbert Arenas using the amnesty provision in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the team announced Friday afternoon via press release. The move continues a day of roster re-tooling which saw the team trade starting power forward Brandon Bass to the Boston Celtics for Glen Davis. Training camp starts Friday evening.
Under the amnesty provision, Arenas will receive his full salary as scheduled, but the Magic will "have 100% of the player's salary removed from the team salary for Cap and Tax purposes," according to the NBA's website. Arenas becomes a free agent and cannot re-sign with Orlando.
The decision to part ways with Arenas comes less than a year after Otis Smith, Orlando's President of Basketball Operations, made the controversial decision to trade starting power forward Rashard Lewis to the Washington Wizards for him. Hobbled by multiple knee injuries which robbed him of his once-lethal explosiveness, Arenas struggled in Orlando, averaging 8 points in 21.8 minutes per game and shooting 34.4 percent from the field. Further, he and coach Stan Van Gundy had a rocky relationship, as Arenas was used to dominating the ball and freelancing, whereas Van Gundy encouraged him to run an offense.
The Arenas experiment, in short, proved to be a dismal failure, but the amnesty clause enabled the Magic to save face. Yes, he'll still draw a paycheck from them, but it's more important that he's no longer on the court for them.
Orlando wasted no time in parting ways with Arenas; the NBA informed teams early Friday afternoon they could use the amnesty provision between December 9th and 16th, with Orlando taking action shortly thereafter.
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