Explaining How the “Rookie Salary Cap” Actually Works

The "Rookie" salary cap is unique!!   Take a look at:

Explaining how the 

“Rookie Salary Cap”

 actually works

Some important aspects are:

First, as way of further explanation, under the CBA of 2011, all rookies receive 4-year contracts, generally with a signing bonus and often with minimum base salaries set for each year of the deal.  While 1st and 2nd round picks may have base salaries of more than the minimum in years two through four of their deals, even those players will almost always receive the rookie minimum base salary during their first year.  For 2013, the minimum base salary for a rookie is $405K.  For Salary Cap purposes, the bonus received by the player is prorated over the four years of the deal and that prorated amount is added to the base salary to create the player’s Cap number.

Now, what does the salary look like for draftees?

Those (estimated) Cap numbers would breakdown as follows:

1st round:              $1.23M

2nd round:                 $614K

3rd round:                  $534K

4th round:              $501K

4th round:              $481K

5th round:              $445K

5th round:              $441K

6th round:              $428K

6th round:              $427K

6th round:              $425K

7th round:              $417K

7th round:              $417K

Hope this helps!