Salary Cap Questions

[snyderman]

I know I'm not the only one who is lost when it comes to the salary cap and luxury tax and everything. I understand there is a set amount that the salary cap is, but is there even a penalty for going over it? I have no idea what he luxury tax is or how it works. There used to be (or still is) a veterans minimum, with the new Agreement, does that still exist? Or has it been replaced by the MLE, LLE, or other unnesecarry acronym?

I play and understand basketball, but not the business end; and I don't have any desire to read the entire CBA, so if anybody could post what they know as simply as possible, that would be great.

[BillsCarnage]

Salary cap - $$ amount set by NBA that severly hampers a teams ablity to sign/trade new players, but with a savy GM deals can get done. $49.5mil

Lux tax - the hard cap that when a team goes over it they pay a $ for $ amount that exceeds the $61mil it's set at. For example the Mavs have a $95mil payroll which means they're paying roughly $34mil in tax. The tax $$'s collected are then divided up and given to the teams UNDER the lux tax.

Vet mins, i believe, still exist but i don't know what the amount is. The MLE and LLE are given to teams(all teams?) with little salary cap flexability so they can sign players. I'm not sure how they effect the lux tax though.

The new Amnesty clause allows a team to dump a high contract player and remove their salary from the lux tax. BUT it still counts against the salary cap. Example, Finley. He's owed $51mil remaining on his contract. By releasing him the Mavs save $51mil in lux tax over 3 years, BUT he still counts against the salary cap.

Somewhere there is a site that explains it; maybe someone has it bookmarked.

HTH

[snyderman]

thanks