I know there's been much debate on this fourm as to whether Petrie has lost his magic touch, or have the Maloofs tied his hands because of finances. Most people will come down on whichever side suits their personal bias. I've personally thought it was a combination of both. His hands being tied, and as a result, he started reaching out of desperation to do something. I was reading the Q & A in the Bee, and one comment caught my eye, and although once again Petrie, the master of talking and saying nothing, did let his guard down a little on this answer.
Q: You didn't use the amnesty clause last season. Is that going to be something that is an option this offseason?
A: There's tremendous advantages to amnesty and you saw it this year. The main advantage is you get that money knocked off your cap and your (luxury) tax and that's not an issue for us. The main advantage is the ability to go out and spend it again. That's not something we've really had much discussion about, the second part of it. Just in it of itself, it just creates more room and less tax and
if you're not going to spend the money again it doesn't make any difference.
Read more here:
http://blogs.sacbee.com/sports/kings/archives/2012/05/more-from-the-g.html#storylink=cpy
I think we can safely say that the implication is, whats the point of using the amnesty clause, if were not going to spend the money it free's up. To me, its obvious that Petrie is limited in what he can do from a financial point of view. So instead of truely treating the cause, he's doing his best to put bandaids on the symptoms. Right now our best bet is to get lucky in the draft, because it doesn't look like were going to spend much money in freeagency.