No. You just cant acquire players "freely". Restrictions on trade differences and shit. You can still sign your draftees though just cant get anyone for more then 5.76 mil in free agency
Yeah, it's a soft cap. It means past that, you will be more restricted in who you can sign and for how much you can sign them for. The three more common exceptions (and I think the only ones that apply to NBA 2k13) are the Rookie Exception, Bird Exception and Mid Level Exception (MLE). Rookie Exception means you can sign any first round draftees regardless of your cap. Bird Exception allows teams to re-sign players that have played a number of years (standard is three) at the team. MLE allows teams to sign up to one player each season for up to a certain amount based on how much cap room they have.