Quote Originally Posted by sharpe1027 View Post
You're missing the point. if you push out cap into future years with signing bonuses, you'll have less money in those future years than if you don't. This gets worse when you factor in that when you don't push out cap you can get rid of underperforming players and bring in better players with the money you have extra due to less dead space. Add to that injuries and trades as being more problematic because they can accelerate cap and you start to see why large signing bonuses to push out cap are riskier.
That is true if you’re willing to push out at some point. If you’re in “keep cap health” mode and you intend to always stay there, you absolutely do not have more to spend. The very nature of that is to take hits earlier than late. That offsets the dead money of always pushing forward.

Whether you always keep a healthy cap or always max it out, I have no doubt you are wrong that you end up having less to pay for talent.

However, the moment you switch strategies, for a couple years you will have more or less.