How do buyouts work?

[Mikchek]

I read a story that said because we still owe Thud money as well as Howard we won't be active in Free Agency....but since they signed with other teams dont we get some type of break or do they just get double paid? I never understood how a player can cry and/or demand a buyout and then complain about being treated fair or demand more money

[theGreatRC]

What happens for example if a player has three years on a deal for 10 mil for each of those seasons and we decide to buy him out, we can negotiate how much we will pay him this year. So say we don't want to pay him 10mil this year, but want him off the team, we could buy him out for 6 mil if X player agrees to it and any team can sign him to any amount they want, but we would still have to pay the following two years of his contract of 10 mil per.

I hope that helps.

[casey]

Yeah you get a little break, but considering these guys got minimum contracts, it's really small.

[deeney0]

What happens for example if a player has three years on a deal for 10 mil for each of those seasons and we decide to buy him out, we can negotiate how much we will pay him this year. So say we don't want to pay him 10mil this year, but want him off the team, we could buy him out for 6 mil if X player agrees to it and any team can sign him to any amount they want, but we would still have to pay the following two years of his contract of 10 mil per.

I hope that helps.

Someone (shrink?) posted a while ago that if you buy out a player for less than their full contract, the difference has to be prorated over the length of the contract. So you couldn't buy out a player owed $10mil the next three years ($30 mil total) by paying them $6mil this year and $10 mil the next two, it'd have to be $8.6mil each year.

[shrink]

Good point -- I'd just clarify by saying that the buy-out has to be in the same proportion as the original salary. For example, we bought Juwon Howard out of a two year deal of roughly $14.25 mil for $10 mil. He had a small raise in his original salary, so Year 2 was slightly bigger than Year 1. This proportion is reflected in the buy-out

2007-08 $4,827,586
2008-09 $5,172,414

I should add, that this number is salary as it applies to the salary cap and the lux. I think I remember reading that Glen Taylor agreed to pay Juwon out over 4 years, but since his contract was only guaranteed for this year and next, the numbers as it pertains to our cap and lux had to be pro-rated over only the two guaranteed years as well.

[PeeDee]

the difference has to be prorated over the length of the contract.

Yep, that's how it works.

http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#60

[theGreatRC]

I'm not good with numbers.