If a player's initial contract changes due to renegotiation, what remains unchanged?

When a player's contract is renegotiated, the original signing bonus proration remains unchanged because signing bonuses are typically allocated over the length of the contract for salary cap purposes. This proration does not alter when the terms of the base salary or other aspects of the contract are modified.

In contract renegotiations, teams may adjust the player's base salary or even the total length of the contract to give the player more immediate financial benefits or to create salary cap flexibility. However, the portion of the signing bonus that has already been allotted to each year of the contract continues to count against the salary cap for those years as initially determined.

Renegotiating the contract can influence the other choices significantly. The player's base salary can be increased or decreased, the total length of the contract can be extended or shortened, and these changes can also affect the team’s salary cap space depending on how the renegotiation is structured. Thus, the original signing bonus proration remains the one constant that is not affected by the renegotiation.