Miami can't trade

[redstorms]

Can someone please clear this up for me. The rule in the NBA is a team can't trade away draft picks in consecutive years right? Miami owes the Twolves their first round pick next year so they can't trade away their pick this year yet everyone talks about that as an option for them like Chad Ford. Hell even Riley hinted that might be an option in an interview I saw. So whats the deal? Is this just another case of the media and everyone forgetting one of the NBA's simple rules because its more fun with all the rumors?

[Seven]

They can take the player, trade the player at the draft, not the pick.

[DBurks2818]

Like Seven mentioned, there's a loophole that allows team to trade players on draft day after drafting them.

[redstorms]

Anyone know the exact rule offhand? Is it than you can't trade your first round draft pick in consecutive years before draft day or is it that you can't go without a first round draft pick two years in a row? Like lets say Miami trades down a few picks before the draft so they would still have a first rounder even though they technically traded their first round pick.

[jpatrick]

The guys above have it right, you can't trade YOUR pick in back to back years. I'm almost positive that means Miami can't trade their pick before the draft, even if they were getting another first rounder back because they would still be trading "their" first round pick.

So Miami would have to wait, draft the player and then trade him because in that scenario they are not trading a pick but a player.

I do believe they would be able to trade the pick to Minny though if part of the trade would be they get their 09 pick back.

[gswhoops]

The exact rule is this, from Larry Coon's CBA FAQ:

n addition, teams are restricted from trading away future first round draft picks in consecutive years. This is called the "Ted Stepien Rule." Stepien owned the Cavs from 1980-83, and made a series of bad trades that cost the Cavs several years' first round picks. As a result of Stepien's ineptitude, teams are now prevented from making trades which might leave them without a future first-round draft pick in consecutive years.

This rule applies only to future first round picks. For example, if this is the 2005-06 season, then teams can trade their 2006 first round pick without regard to whether they had a 2005 pick, since their 2005 pick is no longer a future pick. But they can't trade away both their 2006 and 2007 picks, since both are future picks. Teams sometimes work around this rule by trading first round picks in alternate years.

In addition, teams are required to have only a first round pick, and not necessarily their first round pick. So teams may trade away their own future picks in consecutive years if they have another team's first round pick in one of those years.