RealGM

Is it legal to trade a top 59 protected pick?

I've heard somewhere that a pick has to be top 55 protected. Otherwise the league office considers it a circumvention of the CBA rule that players cannot be given away. Can't find any basis though.

The explanation you've offered - that the current protection limit is "top 55 protected" and why that is so - sounds very feasible.

But if I'm not mistaken, rules on trading draft picks are in the constitution, by-laws and league memos. Those are not published, and there are volumes covering all kinds of cooperative rules between teams that aren't part of the CBA. The teams are very protective of these rules and don't let anyone see those docs. So if you're looking for the precise document that specifies this rule, or the exact wording of the rule itself, and it's in those volumes, you will probably never see it.

All i have to offer is empirical evidence. It surely can't be a coincidence that every team sends a top-55 protected pick to get around receiving something for nothing in a trade.

Philly traded a 2nd round first top 55 protected, and then traded the remainer top 50 protected this past offseason.

If we are going off the here is what we have seen, then based upon that it would see that a protected pick must have a minimum range of 5 picks it could be; i.e. You cannot trade a pick top 53 and above 55 protected but top 50 and above 55 is fine.