2 of my allstar* guard start "missing" their pops with ~40-42k salary
They may have been approaching their cap but they were not fully capped yet (if it was just 1 week longer). When you have players who are fully capped, it seems to me it can be 6-7 weeks between pops, even on guys that are very young.
By the way, it seems to me that 3x tremendous Cs with a bit of SB are fully capped if they have allstar potential.
Run of the Mill Canadian Manager