Signing players after their 'rookie' contracts expire

I'm yet to finish a season (playing as Denver), but was wondering...

If one of my contracts expires, can I only offer them whatever I have left under the cap?...or can I offer my current players large contracts that put me over the cap?

I'm only about $1.5M under the cap, but figure that I'll need $10M+ to re-sign Carmelo at the end of the 06-07 season.

Is it purely that you can go over the cap to sign your own players, but can't go over the cap to sign free agents?

Someone explain this to me please. If I do need the cap space the K Martin for Grant Hill trade is looking like it will be needed.

You can go as far over the cap as you like when it comes to signing current players. Also, your players will always re-sign if you offer them exactly what they are asking for.

Yeah, its called the Larry Bird Rights. Its too bad they done allow the mid-level exception in NBA LIVE. That is where you get to spend the average leauge salary (~5mil this year) on free agents every year, even if you are over the cap.

Thanks

Yeah, it really irks me that I can't sign free agents if I'm over the cap.

Also, if I release a player I know I carry their salary on the books for the rest of the season. But if I release a player with 3 years left on his contract, do I carry his salary for all 3 seasons, or only for the rest of the season in which I release him?

To my knowledge, yes, you carry his salary for three reasons. Otherwise it would be way to easy just to "hit the reset button" and blow your team up and start over from scratch. Hey, Isaiah can dream, cant he?!?!?!

yea it sucks when you have a 10 man roster with somebody injured and you can't sign unless it's for the very minimum i believe, which nobody wants