If the time has not passed you can drop him with no charge to your Salary cap. If that time has expired then you would be hit for the $14.5M. This would be due to his salary not being highlighted in yellow. Kenny set a deadline for when the latest you could drop someone without penalty but I do not know when that is/was.
As far as making a claim on him, you would pay the full amount
Unconditional Release Waivers
If a player is placed on Unconditional Release Waivers, any other organization may choose to
claim him. If claimed, the new team will inherit the player’s contract in its entirety. If no team
claims him, he will become a free agent and the remainder of the contract will be paid in full by
the waiving organization. Other organizations have 48 hours to make a claim.