Just so I understand (not arguing), the salary cap hit after the first couple of years must go up tremendously then, right? Eventually, the total contract still averages out to 40 mil a year, right? I will be the first to admit, the cap jockeying that teams around the league do is pretty confusing.
Absolutely.
Let's keep this easy and even and say 4 years 160 M.
Year 1 you hand him 50M SB.
12.5M cap hit each of those 4 years.
plus the yearly base.
year 1. 5M base cap hit 17.5M
year 2. 25m base cap hit 37.5M
year 3. 30M base cap hit 42.5M
This is ALL GTD. 110M GTD
----------------------- at this point you either extend Dak or release him.
but maybe you play it out 1 year for some crazy reason.
year 4 50m base cap hit 62.5M, dead money if released? 12.5M
And with that 50M base you have your SB number again ready to extend.
Extension 5 years 250M.
50M SB, 10m Base. Cap hit 12.5 prior bonus, 10m new Bonus, 10m base = 32.5M cap hit in year 4.
year 5. 25M roster bonus. 25M base = 10 SB+6.25M RB+25m base = 41.25 cap hit.
This is even easier to do if they do agree to a 5 year deal to start with but you can see how you can really pay below 40M in cap hits for a very long time.