One thing we could do, not just to deal with this issue but maybe with other cap related problems as well, is detach actual salaries from the cap-hit. So for example, a player in the lowest contract tier would make a guaranteed 3M, but only count for 1M against the cap.

Alternatively we could also make it so that ELCs simply don't count against the cap (while having a max value of 3M or something) - although I'm not quite sure if this would just push back the problem a few seasons, or help with the situation and create interesting decisions.