Now, before we discuss you're gonna have to read the great Larry Coon's articles about bonuses in the CBA

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?STORY_ID=16366

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?STORY_ID=16384

It's quite interesting and it got me thinking that the team should be bargaining for more incentive bonuses in contracts to ensure that the players don't slack off after signing their new contract. We just have to make sure that we structure it in such a way that it remains off our cap by being deemed unlikely to be achieved. 

The contract Marcus Camby signed with Denver in 2004 is a great example. Nearly one-third of Camby's salary was in the form of incentive bonuses, which were broken down into two groups. The first group was based on minutes played, with multiple thresholds. The second group was based on various combinations of points, rebounds and blocks, which changed from season to season.

I think any new contract we hand out this season should have an incentive bonus for if the team makes the playoffs.

For TWill if he makes 100 threes in a season, or shoots 50% from the field.

I'm just liking these incentives as a way to make sure your players keep working hard and trying for something. 

Anyway, there are a lot of different things you can do with bonuses like this situation:

Suppose New York ends up signing LeBron James this summer and also wants to retain one of the own free agents, and as a result only has $12 million left to offer Chris Bosh. What if they offered Bosh the full $12 million, and also threw in a $3 million bonus that is triggered when the team makes the playoffs? This bonus would be classified as unlikely since the Knicks didn't make the playoffs the previous season, and therefore it would not count against the team's cap. The Knicks would sign Bosh without exceeding the cap -- yet Bosh is all but certain to earn that money, since a team with both James and Bosh would surely make the playoffs.

but

they closed this loophole in the CBA by requiring all salary, likely bonuses and unlikely bonuses to fit within the team's cap room or exception when the contract is first signed.

So a contract that pays Bosh $12 million in base salary and another $3 million in an unlikely bonus is only valid if the Knicks have at least $15 million in cap room. Once the contract is approved only the $12 million base salary counts against the cap, leaving them with $3 million in cap room. But if they don't have at least $15 million available, then they can't sign the deal.

But it's an interesting way to look at how you could stretch your cap space if you wanted to load up in one season. 

There's a lot of informative stuff in those two articles and you should get to know how the CBA works so we can improve and diversify our ideas for this summer