I don't pretend to understand the details of the salary cap, I guess I'm just too lazy to try. My question though is this, isn't restructuring just kicking the can down the road? Could someone who really knows the nuances of it all explain that to me? Not trying to be confrontational, just wanna know.
Some do refer to it as 'kicking the can down the road.'
When a player signs a new contract or gets restructured, he receives a signing bonus. The bonus is considered to be paid at the time of signing/restructuring, even though it can actually be paid out over several years. These bonuses can count against the salary cap for a period of up to five years.
If a players signs a six year deal with a $10M signing bonus, the bonus will count $2M against the cap over the first five years of the deal. The final year of the contract doesn't have any prorated bonus money in it. The bonus proration, yearly salary and any workout bonuses or other incentives all add up together to give a player's yearly cap charge.
2017: $1m base salary, $2M signing bonus = $3M cap hit
2018: $11M base salary, $2M signing bonus = $13M cap hit
2019: $5M base salary, $2M signing bonus = $7M cap hit
2020: $7M base salary, $2M signing bonus = $9M cap hit
2021: $9M base salary, $2M signing bonus = $11M cap hit
2022: $12M base salary, $0M signing bonus = $12M cap hit
If the player has a large base salary in year two of his contract, the team could opt to turn the majority of the salary into another signing bonus in order to reduce the cap hit in the second season.
In this case, the 2018 base salary will drop to $1M with the remaining $10M being converted to signing bonus.
2018: $1M base salary, $4M signing bonus = $5M cap hit
2019: $5M base salary, $4M signing bonus = $9M cap hit
2020: $7M base salary, $4M signing bonus = $11M cap hit
2021: $9M base salary, $4M signing bonus = $13M cap hit
2022: $12M base salary, $2M signing bonus = $14M cap hit
The restructure in 2018 creates $8M in salary cap space that season. That money is added to the remaining years of the contract in equal $2M amounts.
If the player gets released or traded before the end of the contract, any remaining bonus proration will accelerate into that season. This is what's known as 'dead money.'
It isn't money owed to the player, it's just salary cap space that is unavailable because of what he was paid in the past and how it was assigned to the salary cap.
There would be $10M in dead money in 2020 if the player was released/traded. It would be $6M in dead money if it happened in 2021 and only $2M in dead money if it took place in 2022.
The team would be looking at only $1M in cap savings in 2020 and that doesn't include the cost of a new player replacing the old one. The savings would rise to $7M if it happened in 2021 and $12M in 2022.
The player would be safe in 2017, '18 and '19.
2020 could go either way, but the team would likely use the June designation to avoid taking the entire dead money hit if they released the player. The saving would not count against the salary cap until June 2nd, but only that season's regular proration of $4M would go against the cap. The remaining $6M in dead money would hit the 2021 cap the following season.
Over the cap has a guide to the salary cap that you can read. 
