You have to leave so room so that at a minimum, you are not forced to keep your minimum salary players during the season. You would want some room in case a $900K player beats out a $650K player in camp.
I guess you don't have to, but would seem odd to go into camp with the roster 100% dictated by salary cap limitations. Even forgetting about room for in season acquisitions.
So with $3.5 in room, it's maybe more like $2.8. Which is certainly enough to add a free agent before start of season. It's also a tremendous amount fo room at the deadline, where you only take on a portion of the AAV.
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