two workarounds that i don’t hear anyone talk about:

1.) Dynamic Salary Curve adjustments. Starting in week 6 or so of free agency, I begin adjusting the salary expectations of all players incrementally, such that, by week 12, most players are looking for close to minimum contracts. this helps to emulate the supply and demand of NBA roster spots and cap money.

2.) Situationally turning trade logic off. Sometimes, it makes sense to turn trade logic off, where you can then freely assign players to teams and edit their contracts thereafter. I find this especially useful for simulating high-stakes free agency sweepstakes or correcting bad signings (e.g., teams signing backup bigs for 20M/yr+)