2021-2022 AROUND the NBA: GSW Champs [ARCHIVED]

[ItsGoTime]

If you don't want to read all of this then just go to the bottom: 
When a player signs a contract with a team, they are obligated to complete it until it ends. Meaning they can't go sign with another team at any point. Not even in a different league. If a team wants off of a player while they are still signed with them, there are only very few avenues that they can go through. 

The first avenue is waiving them. That is the team basically saying "we'd rather pay you your contract and just stay home, you're no longer employed here". The player gets all of the guaranteed money that is owed to them, and they are allowed to go sign with another team after clearing waivers (a 48-hour period where another team can pickup the waived contract). For example, the Mavs waived WCS this season. Subsequently, Cuban is paying 4.1 mil to WCS, and it is included in the Mavs total team salary, despite WCS not being employed anymore.  IF the Mavs waived KP, then they'd have 31 mil cap hit this year, 33 mil cap hit the next, and a 36 mil cap hit in the last year of his contract. 

• There is another wrinkle to this avenue and that is stretch waiving a contract. Essentially it breaks down the overall dead money to a smaller amount, but over longer years. The formula is # of seasons pre-stretch left remaining x2+1. For example if the Mavs waived Trey Burke's 3 mil and stretch waived it, his 3 mil will be paid over the course of 5 years (2 years x2+1=5). If they stretch-waived him next year then it'd be paid over 3 years.  
  
  

For a team not wanting to take a cap hit, sometimes they can just tell a player to stay home and collect a check, much like Houston is doing with John Wall right now. Other times the player wants out and doesn't report, in this rare scenario the player forfeits the money for whatever length of time they don't report. Ben Simmons being the most recent example. Neither of these affect a team's cap hit, nor roster spot. Just describes certain situations where a team and player don't want each other anymore. 

Finally for a team not wanting to take a cap hit, and a player wanting to leave, there is the buyout. It is like the name implies. A team "buys-out" the remaining length of the contract, taking no hit to their cap, and the player is a free agent. This can theoretically happen between any player and team, so long as they both agree they want out. Blake Griffin notably gave up 13.3 mil of the total 75 mil he was owed to leave Detroit. Dragic in this case asked the Spurs to leave, the Spurs obliged, since there's no chance of him ever being an asset since he'll be a free agent in 4 months. 

Hope this essay gave some background and answered your question. 

Tl : DR, the Spurs and Dragic agreed to part ways. Since Dragic wanted to be a free agent, he probably gave up some money on his contract (though not required). The Spurs paid the rest in full and are able to release him without any cap hit and Dragic can now sign with whoever he wants.

Much of the time the “discount” a player gives is the Vet Min they are about to receive from the next team to sign them.