How do they other teams sign superstars under the cap?

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Can you go over the cap and pay a tax?

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Of course. It's the NBA.

No one here can correctly explain to you the cap and its details. I'd suggest googling it/researching it yourself.

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some go over

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not when signing big FAs

imagine if the pels had no gordon or ryno contract this offseason. that's about $22M more in cap room that we'd have

consider that we acquired about $21M in contracts and only gave up like $6M, and you'll see the theoretical space we'd have

and lebron, wade, and bosh all took slight paycuts to sign with the heat

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Howard just got 22 a year...

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his initial salary won't be $22M. i'd guess it's more like 16-18M

the rockets had that much cap room

Sorry I'm a newbie in basketball but what part of a salary counts against the cap? If you pay a guy 1 mil this year and owe him 21 next, you have to get rid of home after a year right?

there are rules about salary jumps. typically salaries can only increase by a certain % (like 15-18% or something)

now the asik deal? i'm not 100% sure how that was allowed. that's a highly technical thing. his cap hit is only $8.33M though

*ETA: i think only his cap # affects their salary cap. the rest is just payroll (and a luxury tax issue)

Poison Pill Provision

He's getting a (huge) extension in that scenario. I'm assuming the rookie contract was for 5M and he got a 1-year 15M extension at the end of that.

That might be wrong though

ETA: It is. From Grantland's Robert Mays:

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The real problem for the Bulls is that Houston GM Daryl Morey is an evil mastermind. Thanks to a loophole in the new CBA, Chicago wouldn’t owe Asik an even $8 million a year over the three-year deal. As laid out by John Hollinger, there’s a provision that limits the amount of money a player like Asik (a restricted free agent with one or two seasons in the league) can be paid in the first two years of a new contract. In years one and two, Asik can make the maximum of the mid-level exception (around $5 million), but in year three, Houston can offer him any amount up to the maximum salary.

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LINK

that explains it. that's a highly detailed loop hole, though

In the NBA between the various exceptions and the ability to S&T, and the ability to go over the cap in signing your own players, there is more flexibility in building a competitive roster when a team is above the cap instead of below it.

Under the cap, you have less access to your exceptions, and a team probably has a less than full roster in order to create the room so you've got fewer assets and moving parts to work in the trade market. Being perpetually under the cap, or trying to clear huge room for FA is generally a losing strategy in the NBA, and is usually a lousy way to build a team.