Trading Future Consecutive Picks

[loserX]

It's my understanding that a team cannot trade away consecutive future first round picks unless they have an incoming pick in that time. (Put another way, a team cannot make trades that leave them without any first round picks in two consecutive future years.)

The Utah Jazz traded away their 2009 pick, protected, to Philadelphia. They also currently hold the rights to New York's pick, which is protected in 2009 and unprotected in 2010.

My question is this:

Can the Jazz trade their 2008 pick prior to the draft? I would assume that the Philadelphia trade would normally prevent this even if there's a chance they do NOT transfer that pick to the Sixers. But the Jazz technically hold the rights to the New York pick in 2009, even if nobody knows at this point whether or not it will be transferred in 2009.

Do the "maybes" associated with the New York '09 pick allow the Jazz to trade their '08 pick even though their '09 pick is encumbered?

Thanks in advance.

[bgwizarfan]

my understanding is that the Jazz cannot trade their 2008 pick, since there's a shot they won't have a 2009 pick. The Knicks, for instance, are in the same situation. They can't trade their 2008 pick, since there's a chance the 2009 pick will go to the Jazz (even though most likely, it won't). If the Knicks were to acquire a 2009 conditional pick, I still don't see how that changes anything, since there's still a shot it won't be conveyed in 2009

So to answer your question, the Jazz can't trade their 2008 pick

[casey]

If there's any chance at all of them not having a 2009 pick then they can't trade their 2008 pick.

[Tommy Udo 6]

However, if the Jazz somehow acquire another team's 2009 pick, then they CAN trade their 2008 pick.

Then, even if the Jazz lose their own 2009 to Philly, they would still have the extra 2009 pick that they acquired from somebody. Since they would have a pick in 2009 (not necessarily their original pick), they could trade their 2008 pick.

[loserX]

Gotcha. Thanks for the help, everyone.