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All things considered, I think it will be Blatche who gets the amnesty. Cap is set at ~58 mil and we're current sitting at around 40 mil. New CBA necessitates an 85% figure, so if you take Lewis out of the equation we're around 20 million, when 49 million is the target figure. Unless they want to sign player after player to reach that number , they should just keep Lewis on for two years, make a few smart signings, and let Blatche go.

Great post Method Man, and your proposed approach to the amnesty clause is certainly viable, but for a few reasons I still believe Blatche should be the one to go.

I suppose it depends on your philosophy regarding team building. Personally, I don't believe that signing up a bunch of vets, and contending for a 7th/8th seed is anything to be excited about. Not only can that lead to perpetual mediocrity (think Detroit with the Gordon/Villanueva nightmare), but you then miss out on what figures to be a stacked draft next year. Signing up a bunch of veterans sounds good in theory when considering all your points, but I don't think you go that route without having a definitive core. My philosophy (and indeed many others, such as OKC) involves acquiring two or three top players through the draft, maintaining long-term flexibility, and filling out the team with vets and role players when the time is right. We don't know for certain what we have with Vesely/McGee/Crawford, so why not let them play big minutes, and find out for sure? Who knows, they may even be decent this year depending on John's progress, and also fun to watch.

There's certainly going to be a few FAs and amnesty players worth signing such as Gasol, but who worth signing would actually come to a threadbare team like DC? It just doesn't seem like the right time to splurge on a bunch of mid level FAs. As a fan of the Skins, O's and Wizards, I would love to see progress in the form of wins, but I prefer we do the smart thing, and hold all our chips until we have a hand worth playing. Keeping Lewis may net us a draft pick, (or perhaps even the ability to package and trade up) as well as major cap room around the time we'll actually need it.

Granted, they likely will amnesty Lewis, but I think you may not be appreciating the underlying value of getting rid of Blatche. He's a cancer, plain and simple. From his work ethic, to his game, to how I've seen him interact with his teammates on the court. I'd hate to see John get disillusioned in DC by playing next to that clown for another four years. Yes, he's productive, but inefficient production at the cost of good team play is the absolute worst kind.