Clearing waivers from Aug 15th through the end of the season takes 48 hours. Clearing waivers at other times takes 10 days. Clearing waivers means the contract has been terminated, and the player is a free agent. Further, the Player Contract can have agreed provisions for reduction or elimination of compensation upon clearing waivers. Picking someone before they clear waivers means the contract is being assigned in tact, and new team pays the salary. If he clears waivers, the original team continues paying all compensation over the minimum salary, which the new team must pay. If two teams try to grab someone off waivers, the team with the worst record gets him. btw: Maloney cleared waivers after we released him on Nov 1, 1999, and the contract indeed terminated. The Bulls signed him as a free agent on Jan 7th, 2000. This means that if we are still paying him salary, then his contract was guaranteed against termination for "lack of skill." Does anyone know if this had a "lack of skill" guarantee in it, or just an injury guarantee? (Old School...dude, I never said the program was correct, just that he was on it. You sound offended. Sorry I didn't answer better right off, but I didn't really care to do a search for Maloney more than look for him on the program.)
The contract isn't necessarily terminated. It's still in existence, it's just that the player is not on the team anymore. When a contract is terminated, it means neither the player nor the team have any contractual binding to the other. In Maloney's case, he had no ties to the Rockets after he was cut, but the Rockets damn well had ties to Maloney and his fat contract.
