Sometimes, for one reason or another, a player and his team just want to break up. This normally happens:
2. Wait, what are waivers? Waivers is a 48-hour period where teams are allowed to bid on a player’s contract, and if they win the bid, that player no longer enters unrestricted free agency. Instead, he signs with the team that placed the winning bid. The team making the bid has to be able to fit the player’s existing contract into its payroll or an unused salary-cap exception.
This notably happened in 2000, when the Bulls acquired then waived Bruce Bowen as part of the Toni Kukoc trade.
3. OK, so the player has cleared waivers. Now what? When this happens, his remaining salary is either reduced or totally wiped clean from his old team, depending on what has been agreed upon. This is where things get fun. Now, the player becomes a free agent, free to join any team interested in signing him.
4. Can a player ask for a buyout? Yes, but that doesn’t always guarantee it will happen. For example, Jahlil Okafor asked for a buyout last season, but the 76ers rejected his request while holding out for a trade. Philadelphia eventually dealt Okafor to Brooklyn.
It’s possible something similar happens with Robin Lopez and the Bulls this season, though perhaps Chicago will set him free.
5. What happens to a player’s contract with their old team when they sign with a new team? The old team is only on the hook to pay a player what they’ve agreed to. For example, Dwyane Wade was one of the highest-profile buyouts in recent memory when he and the Chicago Bulls agreed to part ways in September, 2018. Wade agreed to leave on the table just more than $8 million of the $23.8 million he was owed for this season.
23.8 - 8.3 = $15.5 million
That’s how much the Bulls paid Wade to walk away last season. That’s a hefty price for zero points per game, but it’s the price a team pays when it buys a near-max contract out.
Teams are sometimes allowed to save money by setting off a portion of whatever the player’s new contract is, but the right to set-off is usually waived as part of buyout negotiations.