Which of the following best describes accelerated payments?

Accelerated payments refer to the scenario where a player receives a portion of their contract's payments earlier than the scheduled timeline, thereby affecting the team's salary cap hit in the current year. When a team accelerates payments, it means they are distributing funds to the player sooner, which increases the cap hit for that particular year. This can occur in various contract scenarios, such as when a player is released or trades.

The other options do not properly capture the essence of accelerated payments. Payments solely made at the end of the contract are simply traditional contractual arrangements and do not involve acceleration. Delayed payments suggest that the payments are pushed back rather than received sooner, which doesn't match the definition of acceleration. Payments considered irrelevant to cap calculations do not factor into the implications of accelerated payments, as every contractual payment typically plays a role in cap management and calculations.