Warriors waive G Bell under new amnesty provision

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)—The Golden State Warriors have waived guard Charlie Bell under the new amnesty provision, wiping his remaining contract from the salary cap and avoiding any luxury tax penalties.

The Warriors also announced Sunday that the qualifying offer to forward Reggie Williams has been rescinded. The moves give Golden State more space to sign another free agent. Teams can only use the new amnesty clause on one player a year.

Bell never reported for training camp. Authorities said Bell showed up intoxicated at a Thursday court date for a drunken driving arrest in Michigan. He already is facing a one-game suspension without pay after pleading no contest to reckless driving in California.

Bell appeared in 19 games for the Warriors last season, averaging 1.7 points in 9 minutes per contest.

Well that settles it, our new front office sucks. I'm officially sick to my stomach.

The amnesty rule was the single greatest thing any Warriors fan could hope for. This was our golden parachute, our get-out-of-jail-free card. And we just wasted it.

Essentially, the NBA sent this message to all of the terrible franchises: "you f-ed up, so go ahead - here's a magic undo button, go fix your biggest mistake and make yourself competitive so you aren't an embarrassment to the Association anymore". We didn't listen.

We have so many bad contracts to choose from that it made me almost giddy to think of ways we could improve our team. We could have gone so far under the salary cap that we'd have ultimate flexibility at the trade deadline or for next off-season's free agency. We could have given more playing time to guys that have promise and upside: Curry, Udoh, Thompson, Tyler.

Instead, we wasted it on waiving an actual trade asset (yes, his expiring contract is a positive trade asset). Are we that dense? Do we not realize that we have many, many overpaid players to pick from? Are we in full denial about this?

Our front office doesn't deserve to run this franchise. Even when the NBA tries to help us suck less, we choose not to accept the help.