A core difference in this aspect of “paying later” that I think makes it hard to understand is that unlike the credit we’re used to getting in real life, this credit has no interest. It’s not the same as credit cards or loans.

Each year is a new cap so you’ll always have somewhere to push it if that’s the route you want to take, you’ll never be in “cap hell”, you’ll never have to “start over” and you’ll never pay a penny of interest. In fact, if two teams pay 80M for 4 years for the same player, but one team pays later…. Neither team paid a penny more and neither team is worse off for it.