I'm a little confused by this buyout. I may just not understand the rule. It looks like you included his 2016 salary in the buyout which is the 75% for this year but then you write off the $7m for this years salary like it's already been paid. It seems like a contradiction that the 2016 salary is included to total the buyout amount but then left out of the payoff. Shouldn't $14.5m be what needs to be paid off? I didn't know this years salary can be subtracted. I know the regular season is over but don't the 2016 contracts still count? I'm just looking for clarification as this would totally change my buyout strategy.
$7.0m is a part of the total amount counted against my 2016 cap figure. If I was simply Releasing under Contract at 75%, the amount would be $5.5 in 2016. So, with that my available 2016 cap would increase by $1.5m and rise to $4.5m. Then the succeeding amounts would be $3.5m in 2017, $2.0m in 2018, and $2.0m in 2019.
However, with a Contract Buyout I add all 4 amounts and multiply that amount by 1.1% as the rule dictates. The contract buyout amount becomes $14.5m. Given that amount, $7.0m is already counted against my current salary cap because it is the amount of Cashner's 2016 contract. I don't lose that amount because I am buying out his contract. A provision of the buyout rule is that I can spread it out for the duration of the original contract--which in this case is 4 years.
If you noticed in my original post, I spread the buyout amount of $14.5m over 4 years. In 2016, I am electing to pay $10.0m ($7.0m - the amount of the original Cashner contract + $3.0m of available cap). I then spread the remaining $4.5m into 3 equal amounts of $1.5m for the remainder of the original contract.
In response to your question, I am paying off the $14.5m. Cashner's 2016 contract is not 75% of $7.0m, it's $7.0m. Therefore, when I compute my financial obligation, I compute the buyout amount first, then deduct what I have available to me in cap for the duration of the contract. There is no contradiction, I have $10.0m available as I've previously outlined.
It's all spelled out in the rules and if you cross check what I listed, I have followed the process.
Halloween