59. Can existing contracts be renegotiated?
A contract for four or more seasons can be renegotiated after the third anniversary of its signing, extension, or previous renegotiation (if the previous negotiation increased any season's salary by more than 5%). Contracts for fewer than four seasons cannot be renegotiated. A contract cannot be renegotiated between March 1 and June 30 of any year.
Only teams under the cap can renegotiate a contract, and the salary in the then-current season can be increased only to the extent that the team has room under the cap (and cannot increase the player's salary beyond the maximum salary). A renegotiation can only be used to provide a salary increase -- players can't take a "pay cut" in order to create more cap room for the team.
If the player agrees to waive a portion of his trade bonus in order to facilitate a trade (see question number 100), his contract may not be renegotiated for six months following the trade.
Every category of compensation (base salary, likely bonuses, and unlikely bonuses) that are increased in the renegotiated season must also increase in all subsequent seasons of the contract. Raises are based on the salary that is added to the first renegotiated season -- 8% of the amount that is added to the first renegotiated season becomes the maximum additional (renegotiated) salary in each subsequent season.
A renegotiated contract can be extended simultaneously (see question number 58). If a player's contract is extended and renegotiated simultaneously in this manner, his salary may not decrease by more than 40% from the last season before the extension (after it is renegotiated) to the first season of the extension. For example, if the salary in the last season of a contract is renegotiated to $10 million and the contract is simultaneously extended, the salary in the first season of the extension cannot be less than $6 million.
Other rules for renegotiations:
A signing bonus cannot accompany a renegotiation unless the contract is extended simultaneously (see question number 58).
A renegotiation cannot lead to any season having an unlikely bonus greater than 15% of the player's regular salary for that season.
A rookie scale contract (see question number 47) cannot be renegotiated.
A contract cannot be renegotiated in conjunction with a trade.
Two-Way contracts (see question number 82) cannot be renegotiated.