Triple_Single

It would only effect how much they can spend if the cap is high enough that buying him out would put them far under the cap enough that they would have more than the exceptions in cap space. Basically, there is a cap figure that is different from the actual amount of the salaries. If you combine all the cap figures from all the contracts, plus cap holds for unsigned draft picks and unfilled roster spots, then add the exception amounts of the MLE and LLE, and that combined amount is still under the cap, then you don't have the exceptions and you get the cap space instead. If that amount is higher than the cap, you just get the exceptions to spend. If it wasn't like this, it would be possible that teams just under the cap would have less than the exceptions to spend, which would put them at an unfair disadvantage for an arbitrary reason. The way it is, it's impossible to have less than the exceptions to spend in an off season.

From what I've heard, the Nuggets total salary with Vo is about $48 million. If they bought him out it would be about $45 million. So it all depends on what the final cap figure is. If it's $48-$50 million, they would not be far enough under the cap by buying out Vo to clear the exceptions amounts. On the other hand, if it turned out to be $51 to $52 million, like the economics professor that cpawfan linked earlier thought it would be, they might have just enough room to clear the cap space. But other than that economics professor, most people are expecting the cap to be at $48 to $49 million. If that were the case, if they bought out Vo they would only have about the $5 million MLE and the $1.7 million LLE (plus the minimum salary exceptions) to spend. And they would have exactly that amount if they kept him too.