For Example: The Rockets want to waive Jason Collier. He makes five dollars a season. When they waive him, do they have to pay him his salary or buy it out? Or can they waive him and save all their money? Like get all their money back?
A contract is a contract is non-reversible. In the instance of Collier, as a 1st round pick he has a guaranteed contract for 3 years at a fixed rate and a 4th year as a Team Option at a predetermined rate. This is also the case for Yao and Griffin. The amounts may differ due to their selection order but the durations are the same. A contract buyout is a different story. The contract buyout value must be agreed to be the player and then that amount is amortized over the remaining life of the current bought out contract. A player who is waived still hits the cap for the full amount if no team claims that player off the waiver wire. They usually don't because then the claiming team picks up a pro-rated portion of the remaining contract. Why are you even bothering with this penny ante stuff?