

Oklahoma City Thunder center Kendrick Perkins is owed nearly $19 million over the next two seasons, but the team has no plans to amnesty him.

The NBA's collective bargaining agreement that was agreed on in 2011 allows teams to release one player without his salary counting against the cap. The Thunder have not yet used the one-time provision.

Even though Perkins may seem like a solid candidate after averaging just 4.2 points and six rebounds per game this season, the Thunder indicated they will not amnesty him.

"We think Perk has a lot of value to our team," general manager Sam Presti told the Oklahoman. "He's a member of a team that won 60 games and helped us to our third division title in three years. I don't know that we can discount that. I'm sure he'd like to have had a better postseason. But I'm sure that's pretty universal for the whole group. And we accept that."

The Thunder received the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs, but were ousted in the second round last week by the No. 5 Memphis Grizzlies. Perkins averaged 2.2 points and 3.7 rebounds in the playoffs.

Part of the reason the Thunder have not used the amnesty is because the team still has to pay the player after its releases him.

"We just haven't considered using the provision," Presti said. "I wouldn't necessarily directly attribute that to any player on our team. Every team looks at the amnesty provision different based on their different circumstances. But it's not something that we've really explored."