Mavs officially waive Brendan Haywood using the Amnesty clause

As expected, the Dallas Mavericks have officially used the Amnesty clause to waive center Brendan Haywood, per Marc Stein. For those who are uncertain of what that means, the Amnesty is a one time use provision allowing a team to remove a player from salary cap and luxury tax totals. So, owner Mark Cuban will continue to pay Haywood the $27 million he's owed the final three years of his contract, but that will not count against Dallas' salary.

This brings about yet another sad end to a relationship between a high-priced center and the Dallas Mavericks.

The move was made, presumably, to allow Dallas to make an aggressive bid in the silent auction for fellow amnesty-victim Elton Brand, though word has surfaced that Luis Scola, also about to be waived, might be a candidate for a strong bid should Dallas fail to land Brand.

What remains for the Mavs' offseason? Well, at this point Dallas has about $5 million in cap space, most or all of which has probably been put into a bid for Elton Brand by now. Dallas will still have the $2.5 million "room exception", which by all accounts will be offered to Delonte West. There are no other exceptions at the Mavs' disposal, so if that exception is used on West(or a C.J Miles, etc.), and if most of the $5 million goes toward a winning bid for Brand or Scola, Dallas will only be able to sign players to minimum contracts. Brand and West would bring the roster total to 14, leaving just one spot to fill. Looking at the roster, I would guess that a sharpshooter type is a potential target, in the vein of former Mav 15th man, Steve Novak.