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Pacers are expected to be under the cap during the 2012 offseason. They could get an extra $2.9m in cap space if Dahntay Jones opts out of the final year of his deal.

Let's say Pacers ask D. Jones to opt out. They then renounce his Bird rights to make full use of the cap space. Once they're over the cap, they then sign D. Jones to a 2 year deal starting at $2.5m using the room exception.

Questions: Is this legal? (I think it is). Would it be considered circumvention?

Circumvention? While it may technically be illegal, it's never enforced that way. Being smart is legal. You are allowed to use every loophole and quirk in the rules to your advantage.

Unwritten "understandings" are a gray area. The rules seem to prohibit them, but we've seen them go unchallenged, and the rule is probably designed more as a protection for the team than anything else - since they are technically illegal (for both player and team), it keeps a player or agent from ever having the ability to file a claim that they were secretly promised X, Y, or Z that they didn't get.

In practice, the ban on circumvention outlaws having a secret written contract or funneling pay to a player that's not on the cap books, including pay via endorsements from related entities.