Q: What is the top 51 rule?
A: During the offseason, only the players with the 51 highest cap numbers count against the cap. In addition, the prorations, roster bonuses, or workout bonuses of players not among the top 51 count against the cap. So if a team signs a free agent and his cap number for the first year is 3 million, he will knock another player out of the top 51. If that player had a cap number of 300K, than the free agent is really only lowering the team's cap room by 2.7 million, not 3 million.

Q: How does proration work?
A: When a player receives a signing bonus, it is divided evenly throughout the contract for salary cap purposes. This is called "prorating" a signing bonus. However, if the end of the current CBA is approaching, this would change some. No signing bonus can be prorated farther than 3 years past the last capped year. Since 2006 is currently scheduled to be the last capped year, the maximum proration for any signing bonus in 2006 is 4 years.

Q: What is dead money?
A: Dead money is the name given to salary cap space that is being used up by players no longer on a team's roster. When a player is released or traded before every year of his proration has been used up, the remaining prorations accelerated into the year in which he was released/traded. So if a player received a 5 million dollar signing bonus that was prorated over 5 years (1 mil per year), and he was cut after 2 years, the remaining 3 million would count against the team's cap in year 3.

Q: How does June 1st effect the rules for acceleration?
A: When a player is released after June 1st, only the current year's proration counts in the current year. The remaining prorations would count the following year. If we use the example in the previous question, the team would only be left with 1 million in dead money for year 3, but they would have 2 million in dead money for year 4. This is a way for a team to put off their cap problems for one more season before getting into trouble. Please note that this rule does not apply when a player is traded or waived. Also, because 2006 is the last scheduled capped year, the June 1st rule does not apply in 2006.

Q: What do LTBE and NLTBE stand for?
A: LTBE stands for Likely To Be Earned. NLTBE stands for Not Likely To Be Earned. These phrases are in reference to incentives, and how these incentives count towards the cap. An incentive is considered LTBE if the specified performance was achieved the previous year. This goes for an individual or a team incentive. Therefore, if the performance was not achieved the previous year, the incentive is considered NLTBE. All LTBE incentives are counted against the cap, while all NLTBE incentives are not counted against the cap.

Q: How does acceleration occur when a player voids the end of his contract?
A: The acceleration for the voided years occurs in the year in which the player voided the contract.

Q: How do LTBE credits work?
A: LTBE credits can be used to transfer cap room from one year to the next. The CBA states that if the LTBE credits that weren't actually achieved are greater than the NLTBE credits that actually were achieved, the the difference will be added to the next year's salary cap. Even though all LTBE incentives are counted against the cap, not all of them are actually achieved. Since using up cap room for money that ended up not even being paid is unfair, teams can get a credit for the next year. However, if the NLTBE incentives that are earned are greater than the LTBE incentives that are not earned, the team will have its salary cap decreased the following year. So while there is a starting salary cap each year, almost every team ends up having a different salary cap after the incentives are calculated.

Q: So do teams just get lucky? Or is there a way to control this?
A: The key to the whole thing is on page 124 of the CBA, which states that "Any new or altered incentive bonuses renegotiated in a pre-existing contract after the start of the regular season in which they may be earned automatically will be deamed "likely to be earned" during that season". This means that a team could write any incentive into a contract, and it will still be considered LTBE and counted against the cap. So if a team has 3 million in cap room at the end of the season and knows they won't use it, they can write bogus incentives into player's contracts to create LTBE incentives that won't be achieved. This makes the LTBE incentives not achieved greather than the NLTBE incentives achieved, so the team's salary cap is raised the following year.