Bonn1997 wrote:... he wants the pick indefinitely protected through #14. I'm not sure you're allowed to do that....
Been a little bit since I've dug through the last CBA.
IIRC, traded picks with protections can be protected for 3 full draft cycles, but on the 4th year, the language of the trade must confer the pick or the structure of the picks to the team that acquired it. ( Generally protected picks like 1st rounders that don't convey in the first few seasons convert to 2nd rounders. Usually two of them)
With regards to the Stepien Rule, IIRC, the protections will account for picks TRADED BEFORE the most recent protected trade transaction, but the Stepien Rule must be enforced within the framework around those grandfathered picks and not any future trade afterwards.
I.E. if a team trades it's 2018 first rounder, it can protect in 2017 ( upcoming), 2019 and 2020, but the pick must be conveyed by 2021.
The biggest change to the system was that previous acquired picks that are re-traded could not be previously protected. Now they can be protected.
I.E. when the Knicks traded a 1st for Bargnani, in the past, the Raptors, if they wanted to re-trade the pick, had to trade it "raw" without any protections. Now in the current system, the Raptors could re-trade it, but with protected restrictions.
What is yet unclear is if protections shorten depending on when draft pick slotting and compensation through the CBA expires ( i.e. the last labor war, the rookie scale and contract system was vested in place to the 2020-2021 season, this is the basis of "cost certainty" that makes the cost control cycle of drafted players, esp 1st rounders, so desirable) IIRC, the CBA has provisions for what amounts to a COLA (Cost of living addition) for the rookie scale, but not an overhaul of the system. Back in the Jordan days, rookies got 3 years guaranteed to scale instead of the laudy deals that Big Dog Robinson got, etc, etc. I suspect it will never be a functional issue, but I doubt, in a hypothetical, a team can trade with protections that extend past the negotiated CBA timeline for rookie scale and slotting.
I have to review the CBA at some point, but my best guess from memory is three full draft cycles for protection, barring a grandfathered Stepien consideration.