Salary cap questions (1 Viewer)

[Weapon of Mass Instruction]

Not a salary cap guru. Explain these things to me if you can.

If a player is cut prior to June 1 vs after June 1, explain the cap benefits? Is it that the pre-June 1 hit is applied to last year's cap, should you have enough room?

What about a pre-June 1 trade?

 

[Bri]

Not a salary cap guru. Explain these things to me if you can.If a player is cut prior to June 1 vs after June 1, explain the cap benefits? Is it that the pre-June 1 hit is applied to last year's cap, should you have enough room?What about a pre-June 1 trade?

If a player is cut after June 1st, they can spread the "hit" out over 2 years

 

[msommer]

Not a salary cap guru. Explain these things to me if you can.If a player is cut prior to June 1 vs after June 1, explain the cap benefits? Is it that the pre-June 1 hit is applied to last year's cap, should you have enough room?What about a pre-June 1 trade?

If a player is cut after June 1st, they can spread the "hit" out over 2 years

If a player is indicated as June 1st cut but actually cut before then this is also the case. If a player is not designated a June 1st cut at the start of the free agency period his cap hit is taken in one year. This was agreed last year.

 

[Mungo Burrows]

Specifically, the cap hit is with the impact of prorated signing bonuses for future years. If the player is cut or traded after june 1 (or designated as a post-june 1 cut) then only one year's proration counts in the current year, and the future years fall into year+1. If he's cut or traded before june 1 (and not designated) then the prorated signing bonuses for future years all hit in the current year's cap. If a player has 1 year left on their contract it makes no difference because there are no future years to accelerate.

Note also, that pre-june 1 trades are not eligible for the post-june1 designation...only cuts. I also think that for post-june1 designations the team must carry the full current-year cap number for the player until june 1 including his base salary. Once june 1 hits, the base salary portion of the cap hit goes away as well and the only cap hit in the current year is one year's worth of prorated signing bonus. It's as if the team held the player until june, but it lets the player participate in early free-agency money grab. This lets the team show they "do right" by their players or it lets them get rid of a malcontent/injury risk during the offseason.

 

[GregR_2]

Others have already answered, but in general, here is a very good web page for explaining different aspects of the salary cap.

http://www.askthecommish.com/salarycap/faq.asp

 

[Weapon of Mass Instruction]

Note also, that pre-june 1 trades are not eligible for the post-june1 designation...only cuts.

Well, to my understanding, this is up for some debate and one of the reasons for my question.Originally, I had wondered if a team had cap room left on LAST year's cap -- could a pre-June 1 trade cap hit go against that? I guess not. You are telling me that trade cap hits, to your understanding, always hit in ONE year only -- the current year?

 

[Jeff Pasquino]

Others have already answered, but in general, here is a very good web page for explaining different aspects of the salary cap.

http://www.askthecommish.com/salarycap/faq.asp

I second that link.

 

[Mungo Burrows]

Note also, that pre-june 1 trades are not eligible for the post-june1 designation...only cuts.

Well, to my understanding, this is up for some debate and one of the reasons for my question.Originally, I had wondered if a team had cap room left on LAST year's cap -- could a pre-June 1 trade cap hit go against that? I guess not.

You are telling me that trade cap hits, to your understanding, always hit in ONE year only -- the current year?

To your first question, no. You can't apply cap money from a prior year to any trade.For the second question, again the answer is no. If the trade is made AFTER june 1, then only one year's proration hits in the current year, and the rest accelerates into year n+1. This was a change made with the last CBA. Prior to that, trades always accelerated to the current year, even after june 1.

My comment referred to the ability to designate up to 2 pre-june 1 cuts as if they were post-june 1 cuts for cap purposes. My point was that the ability to make this type of designation only applies to cutting a player, not trading him. If you trade someone before june 1, you have to take the full cap hit in the current year.

 

[msommer]

Note also, that pre-june 1 trades are not eligible for the post-june1 designation...only cuts.

Originally, I had wondered if a team had cap room left on LAST year's cap -- could a pre-June 1 trade cap hit go against that? I guess not.

Excess cap money from last year is lost, except if it was in bonuses not likely to be earned in which case it carries forward - How to spend your money without spending it - the Red McCombs school of economics

 

[GregR_2]

Note also, that pre-june 1 trades are not eligible for the post-june1 designation...only cuts.

Originally, I had wondered if a team had cap room left on LAST year's cap -- could a pre-June 1 trade cap hit go against that? I guess not.

Excess cap money from last year is lost, except if it was in bonuses not likely to be earned in which case it carries forward - How to spend your money without spending it - the Red McCombs school of economics

Small nitpick, but I think the way that was stated was backwards.Excess cap money not spent is lost. The exception is when an incentive is deemed Likely To Be Earned. Such an incentive is considered as likely enough to be earned that it does count against the team's cap that year, which means what would have been excess, unused cap space was turned into used cap space.But then when the incentive isn't earned and the player doesn't make that money, that cap amount is refunded to the team and can be used on the following season only. Of course they could do the same thing again to carry that and possibly more forward to the season after.