From Travis K:
"Hey Darren, we enjoy the content! How does restructuring a contract work to free up cap space? Kicks the can down the road, right? Seems like eventually it will blow up financially for the team. Just not sure exactly how that works. Also, does the player have a say in the restructure? Do they sign off on it?"
Let's start with a couple of basics. Restructuring a contract essentially means moving money that was not guaranteed and paying it now to adjust the cap numbers. It always is a benefit to the player, so no, they don't sign off on it -- contracts have language allowing teams to restructure at their own discretion. Yes, there is a kick-the-can aspect to it, but these days, teams seem to be smarter about it.
For a more specific example: A player originally signs a 4-year, 80-million contract with a $30 million signing bonus. The non-guaranteed salaries are $5M, $10M, $12M, $23M. The bonus is paid at once, but is split equally ($7.5M for each year) for cap purposes. The cap numbers would be $12.5M, $17.5M, $19.5M, $30.5M.
In the second year, a team wants to lower that $17.5M cap number. They can turn $9M of that $10M salary into a signing bonus, so the player would still get his $10M that year, but it would change the equation. That $9M would be split over the last three seasons of the contract for the cap, making the new cap numbers on the end of the contract $11.5M, $22.5M, $33.5M.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.