| FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SALARY CAP
Q: Can a team pick up part of a player's salary when trading him to another team? A: No. Article 50.9(e) of the CBA states: "Nor shall any Club be permitted to retain an obligation to pay a portion of any Player's Player Salary or Bonuses in connection with the Assignment of such Player, other than as set forth in paragraph (g) below." 50.9(g) deals with Recall Waivers.
Q: Can a team just pay a player a percentage of the Upper Limit? A: No. Article 50.6(b) of the CBA states: "No SPC may provide for a Player Salary and Bonuses in any year that is not fixed (i.e., every SPC must state the amount of dollars of Player Salary and Bonuses to be paid in each League Year during the term of the SPC, and cannot state that it will be indexed as a percentage of the Upper Limit)."
Q: So if a player earns performance bonuses, they just count the following year - right? A: No. Performance bonuses are counted in the year earned - if a team exceeds the Upper Limit because of such bonuses, the amount by which they exceed the Upper Limit is carried over to the following year. -- Example: In a year where the Upper Limit is $45 million, a team has players signed to contracts that include performance bonuses worth $2 million and ends the season at $45.5 million. The amount by which the team exceeded the Upper Limit ($500,000) is carried over to the following year and counts in full against the Upper Limit for that year.
Q: So when a player is injured, he quits counting against the cap and ... A: WRONG!!!!! Injured players still count against the cap! This is a misconception that has been aggravated because it has been repeated throughout the media and accepted as the truth.
Injured players always count against the Upper Limit - even if the player blows out a knee on the first day of training camp and is going to be out the entire season. See the section on "Long-Term Injuries" on the prior page for more information.
Q: Does the salary cap apply in the playoffs? A: The answer is no. This has been reported in a couple places, but the official reason I got from someone in the league office is this: "At the end of the season, the Active Roster and Injured Reserve cease to exist; players cannot be placed on Injured Reserve during the playoffs, and there is no roster limit during the playoffs. Additionally, calculations for the purposes of determining compliance with the Upper Limit end upon the completion of the Regular Season. Therefore, a Club may use players whose Averaged Salaries exceed the Upper Limit during the playoffs - including any and all players who were designated for Long-Term Injured Reserve."
Q: If the salary cap drops and a player would be making more than 20% of the new Upper Limit, what happens? A: Nothing. The player's contract is not decreased to the new (lower) salary cap - in fact, nothing in the CBA allows for a player's contract to be decreased if that happens. As long as the player's contract was valid at the time it was signed, it's entirely possible that a player could take up more than 20% of the Upper Limit. However ... for the Upper Limit to decrease, league revenues would have to decline by at least 5% from one year to the next - something that is quite unlikely given how league revenues have moved over the last 15-20 years.
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