Following on the precedent set last season by Kawhi Leonard and the San Antonio Spurs, both the Detroit Pistons and Andre Drummond and the Washington Wizards with Bradley Beal have delayed extensions to presumably preserve cap space.
"It's against the rules," said an unnamed executive who described it as a cap circumvention.
Both the player and team assume some risk in delaying an extension. The player can suffer a catastrophic injury and lose his market value, while the team can be stuck with the player signing an offer sheet with another team.
The motive for delaying an extension is that the player's cap hold is significantly lower than the first year of their new deal would be.