[Clarkmeister]

For example, after the initial draft, everyone will be right at or near the $66 million cap. Right now, at the start of year 5 (after free agency, rookie draft, etc), here is the salary breakdown (same $66 million cap):

137
118
112
105
100
95
91
86
75
70
70
66
64
63
57
56
Avg 85

Note that the payout structure is very flat, so there are like 4 teams in the league that can only make money by making the finals, and 2 that I think will only make money by winning the league. These teams really fatten the pot so that just making the playoffs for the lower-mid salary teams can turn a profit.

Anyways, just an illustrative example of the upward pressure on salaries and that it takes a while to get there. But when it does, it's pretty awesome how salary dumps etc really approximate real life.