[rogermexico]

This is amazing getback, thanks so much!

Originally Posted by getbak

To clarify: He was paid $8.5 million the first season and $8 million the second (which would leave the $25.75 for the remaining 5 seasons). Is this correct?

Yes, that's what I was thinking. I want it to be one of those front-loaded contracts, like Kipper's, from that CBA period.

For the buyout, whatever is left owing over the remainder of the contract is divided by the remaining number of years on the contract, then divided by 3, and he is paid that amount each year over double the remaining term of the contract.

So, in this case, if he is owed $25.75 million over 5 remaining years, the buyout payout would be: (25.75/5)/3 per year for 2x5 years. This is $1.716... million per year for 10 years.

Ok, awesome.

The cap hit is more complicated. The cap hit in each year depends on the "cap savings" from the buyout in each year. In an unbalanced contract, that will fluctuate from year to year (until it gets to the final 5 years, when the cap hit is just the payout for those years).

In this case, over the first five years of the buyout, the cap hit is calculated by taking the player's pre-buyout salary for that year and subtracting the buyout payout for that year to determine the cap savings from the buyout. That savings is subtracted from the player's cap hit for the year to calculate the new cap hit for that year.

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So, let's say in your situation, the player's contract was set up to pay him: 8.5, 8, 8, 7, 7, 2, 1.75 over the full 7 seasons. The cap hit for that contract would have been $6.036 million per year.

For year 3, the first buyout year: Base salary is $8 million. Buyout is $1.717 million. That makes the savings: $6.284 million, which would actually give him a negative cap hit for the first year of -$0.248 million.

For the following 2 seasons, the cap hit would also be reasonable: $7 million - $1.717 million is a savings of $5.283 million, and a cap hit of $0.753 million.

The next 2 years would be the killers though, as the savings would be minimal and the team would have to carry nearly the full cap hit.

The final five years would just be the buyout amount for the cap hit.


If the contract was structured differently, the calculations would work out differently.

This is super helpful. I want to know the cap hit as well as the actual salary owing, so I will use the structure you've got here and your cap number.

One of the story elements I want to play with is that this guy lives in relative obscurity in this little town, but every now and then some tourist or someone passing through recognizes him, and the first reaction is always "Oh my god, I can't believe the team still has to pay you so much!" So I like the idea that there are some really painful buy-out years for the team that knowledgable fans would really resent.

Thanks again!