Medical retirement - stretch waiver

[DBoys]

If a player retires for medical reasons (as in Miles and others before him), in theory his salary comes off the cap after a year from his last game. Under the new CBA cap rules...

a - If he was waived/retired in the summer, can the team also stretch that retired salary for cap purposes?
b - If approved, will that future stretch portion then be erased entirely in future seasons? Or just the partial season amount?

Those questions are hard to word to be well understood, so let me use a specific example in the news: Steve Nash. His last game played was 2/11/2014. He is owed about 9.6M for 2014/15 season.

If the Lakers waive/medical retire him in the summer, and assuming he is approved for the medical exemption, his contract would come off the Lakers' cap on 2/11/2015.

If they can also stretch his contract, they will begin with a cap hit of 3.2, 3.2, 3.2 for him for the ensuing 3 seasons. Then on 2/11/2015 ...
a - is the cap hit changed to 0, 0, 0?
b - is the cap hit reduced by only the part of the 2014/15 salary that remains after 2/11/2015, an erasure of the partial season, and then becomes something like 2, 2, 2?
c - is a stretch not allowed when a team is pursuing the medical exemption?

[Dunkenstein]

This is purely speculative, but since neither Answerthink or Deeks have stepped up, I thought you deserved an answer. I'm assuming in your hypothetical that the Lakers waive and stretch Nash between July 1 and August 31 of 2014. Article VII, Section 7 deals with the stretch provision, and according to its language the remaining year of Nash's contract would be spread over the next three salary cap years.

Article VII, Section 3 deals with long-term injuries. It states that the team can apply to the league to be excluded from the team's team salary for each remaining Salary Cap Year on the first anniversary of the date the player played his last NBA game. In the past, when the league grants an exclusion, that has always included the current salary cap year.

Since the Lakers can't request the exclusion before 2/11/15, he will already have been waived and stretched prior to that date. So that rules out (c) in your last paragraph. Since the practice in the past has been that when an exclusion is granted, the player's entire salary for that season is removed from the team's salary cap for that and all remaining cap years. So that would seem to rule out (b).

It is my opinion based on reading the CBA that (a) is the answer. Nash will be paid over the three seasons in accordance with the spread provision, but his salary will be totally removed from the Lakers' team salary.

[Dunkenstein]

Thinking about what I wrote above, I began to wonder if it's an either/or situation. Can a player who has been waived and stretched get a long-term salary cap exclusion, even if a league appointed doctor says he is physically unable to play? Do the Lakers have to decide whether they want to stretch his remaining salary, or not waive him and apply for the exclusion in February? I don't know. Maybe a wiser man than I will know the answer.

[DBoys]

Thinking about what I wrote above, I began to wonder if it's an either/or situation. Can a player who has been waived and stretched get a long-term salary cap exclusion, even if a league appointed doctor says he is physically unable to play? Do the Lakers have to decide whether they want to stretch his remaining salary, or not waive him and apply for the exclusion in February? I don't know. Maybe a wiser man than I will know the answer.

You are now asking the same question I originally asked, with virtually the same basis for asking! lol

[JES12]

That is a very interesting scenario and clever use of the stretch provision if it indeed works that way.