oh...sorry...i kind of figured you were talking about LT.

was using him as an example

Well, the Chronicle seems to still think the roster bonuses begin in Week 2, so maybe that's not a mistake after all...?

Regardless, something else from McClain's article and blog is confusing me... and I'm not sure if it's because he's in the media and doesn't really understand this stuff or if the roster bonus is somehow treated as a NLTBE bonus.

From the blog link from an earlier post:
So does this mean the new $3mm roster bonus(es) are not counted on the cap because they are though to be Not Likely to Be Earned? Normally roster bonuses are LTBEs, which then should actually increase Green's cap hit by $500,000. (It's not $1mm - - Don't forget the $500k in roster bonuses Green had before the restructuring.)

The CBA is tough to decipher when it comes to incentives. It basically says that any incentive bonus based on a per game occurence automatically will be deemed as LTBE to the extent the performance was achieved by the player in the previous year.

So, does that mean since Green was not active for 15 games last year that the entire $3 million bonus is NLTBE? Or is it prorated based on the # of games he was active in 2007? ****.

My understanding was that the roster bonuses before the restructuring were LTBEs, so I'm not sure why that would change under the altered agreement.

Still, getting Green to lower his base by $2mm is a pretty good move any way you slice it. If the roster bonuses are LTBE and Green doesn't earn them, then they ought to be added as additional cap space in 2009.

We'll see. Anyhoo... I'm working on the cap page updates if you can't tell, hopefully I'll have them done on Sunday.

We both know the answer to that question. It is LTBE. And Green is going to gain us some extra cap so we can cut him next year. (By not playing every game we will be adding 200K to the roster next season for each missed game).

I hear ya.

Checking in with another capologist since I posted, and he thinks it is prorated. Given Green was active 6 games last year, I think that means 6 games * $200,000 = $1.2 million is LTBE and $1.8 million is NLTBE.

I think the NLTBE isn't reflected in the 2008 cap for now. If earned, it will eat up remaining space in 2008; if the team is out of 2008 cap space, then it reduces the available 2009 cap by that amount unaccounted for in 2008.

Kind of a pain on the cap page. For now, I'll keep showing it as all hitting the 2008 cap and reduce it game by game each time Green is inactive.