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When a team retains a salary/cap hit on a player, that retained cap hit remains as a dead cap charge and cannot be altered or removed, similar to other dead cap charges like buyouts and bonus overages. The only exception is if a retained salary contract is subsequently bought-out; the retained cap charge is replaced with the buyout cap hit, which is the retained percentage multiplied by the buyout cap hit.
A team is eligible to re-acquire a player it retained salary on after one calendar year has passed since the retention. Assuming that the player has not had a subsequent retention (a contract can only be retained twice), then after a year, the team could reacquire the player they retained on and trade them and retain again.
If a team trades away a player in a retained salary transaction, and later reacquires the player, is the original retained salary transaction cancelled or does it continue for the duration of the contract? If the retained salary does continue, could the team trade the player a second time and retain twice?