[PINNED] Trade Rules

TSFBL III will feature trade rules that attempt to mirror real life as closely as possible. With that said, the pool of players eligible to be traded might be smaller on a sim-by-sim basis, but trade matching has never been easier. The accompanying Trade Machine will help you work through what does and doesn't work, but here it is in written form, as well:

SALARY MATCHING

Outgoing salary	Maximum incoming salary
$0 - $7,250,000	200% of the outgoing salary, plus $250,000
$7,250,001 - $29,000,000	The outgoing salary plus $7,500,000
$29,000,001 -	125% of the outgoing salary, plus $250,000

As you can see, it could not be much easier to match salary in a trade. As long as the incoming salary is less than the maximum amount allowable based on the table above, you're good to go.

Please note that the table above is for teams below both apron levels only^a. As is also detailed in the Luxury Tax Explained thread. Like all other privileges afforded only to teams below the Apron, if you use the trade table above to match salaries, you will be hard-capped at the 1st Apron level for the remainer of the season. However, if the incoming salary does not require you to use the table above (i.e. if you are taking back 100% of outgoing salary or less, you will not be hard-capped. If you are a team over the Apron, you are restricted to the following trade-matching rules:

Apron level	Outgoing salary	Maximum incoming salary
Any	Any	100% of outgoing salary

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Almost always, outgoing and incoming salary will count exactly the same on both sides. There are a few instances where this is not the case:

MINIMUM SALARY PLAYERS
Minimum salary players do not count towards incoming salary. This means you can acquire a minimum player (or multiple, for that matter) without worrying about salary matching.

SIGN-AND-TRADE
When you are trying to sign-and-trade a free agent, the player's outgoing salary is equal to the greater of the player's previous salary and 50% of the player's new salary. However, the player's incoming salary for his new team will still be equal to his new salary.

Example: If a player who previously made $5,000,000 is signed-and-traded to a new team on a new deal starting at $12,000,000, his outgoing salary will count for $6,000,000, but his incoming salary on his new team will count for $12,000,000.

POISON PILLED PLAYERS
When you are trying to trade for a player on a rookie scale contract who was recently extended, his incoming salary for the team he's traded to is equal to the average of his current contract and the salary of all the years of his new extension.

Example: If a player who was making $5,000,000 on the final year of his rookie scale contract signs a 4 year, $40,000,000 extension, he will count as $5,000,000 in outgoing salary but will count for $9,000,000 ($45,000,000 divided by 5) in incoming salary.

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WHO CAN'T BE TRADED

This section header may be daunting to some, so I'll preface by saying that most players can be traded. Here's who cannot:

- If a player recently re-signed with his team, he is subject to the Sign-and-Trade rules.
- If a player recently signed an extension, he is subject to the Trading Extended Players rules.
- If a player was claimed off waivers, he cannot be traded for 20 days (in game) from when he was successfully claimed.
- If a player recently signed a new contract, he cannot be traded for:

• 40 days (in game) from when he was signed, if he was signed before training camp, unless...
• A player signed using bird rights or early bird rights and receives over a 20% raise from his previous contract cannot be traded for 60 days (in game)
• 60 days (in game) from when he was signed, if he was signed after training camp

On top of this, if you've acquired a player via trade within the last 40 days (in game), that player can be traded away again immediately. However, his salary cannot be aggregated with other salary until that 40-day period is up -- in other words, he can only be traded by himself. This rule does not apply if the player was acquired by being traded into cap room.

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OTHER GENERAL RULES

- All trade agreements are final.
- Multi-team trades are still, sadly, not allowed
- There is a maximum of 5 players than can be traded away by one team in a given trade. Cash, picks, and stashed European players do not count towards this total.
- You need to have the necessary roster space for any trade you post, at the time you post it. All releases must be posted in individual threads in the Waiver Wire forum. All releases are final, regardless of whether or not the subsequent trade goes through.
- If you are hard-capped at a certain salary number, you cannot complete any trade that would put your team salary over that number.
- If you traded away a player earlier in the league year, you cannot reacquire him until the following league year. Similarly, if you released a player earlier in the league year, you cannot acquire him via trade until the following league year.
- To piggy back on the above, I'm going to try my hardest to prevent "trade backs" from happening over a year after a trade happens.
- All trades must include both sides trading away one of the following:

• A player under contract
• A future draft pick
• The rights to a future NBA player currently stashes overseas
• The right to swap unencumbered picks in a future draft
• $110,000 or more^b

Notes:
a - All apron statuses, as they relate to trades, refer to where your team sits AFTER the trade is completed. For example, if your team sits below the 1st Apron, but a trade would put you over the 1st Apron, the first salary-matching table above does not apply and you must adhere to the stricter rules of the second table.
b - You cannot sell first round picks ever, or second round picks during the current Rookie Draft when the draft has reached the second round

Rules on Trading Draft Picks

SEVEN-YEAR RULE

You cannot trade picks that are more than seven years in the future. For example, if 1996 is the upcoming draft, the furthest-away tradeable picks are in the 2002 Rookie Draft.

STEPIEN RULE

You cannot go back-to-back years without a first round draft pick. The pick does not have to be your own, but you must have at least one first round pick every other year. For example, if you have traded away your 1996 first round pick, you must have possession of at least one unprotected 1997 first round draft pick.

Once the Rookie Draft begins, all picks in this draft no longer are subject to this rule and can be traded. Similarly, the Stepien Rule only looks towards the past. In 1998, it does not matter if you did not have a first round pick in 1997; you can trade that pick (so long as you have at least one first round pick in 1999).

PROTECTING PICKS

If you are trading away draft picks, it is common to "protect" picks depending on their position (for example, "we keep it if it falls #1 through #13, otherwise you get it"). This helps teams to protect against unfortunate situations where they have traded away a pick projected to land towards the top of the draft order. Such a pick as exampled above is deemed to be "Top 13 protected", or "lottery protected" in this case. It is worth noting that most opposing GM's will view protected picks as less valuable in trades, but protecting yourself is important.

It is common for these protections to relax over several years. For example, a team might convey its own pick in the first draft in which it is not a protected pick, where a protected pick is defined as picks 1-13 in 1996; 1-10 in 1997; 1-6 in 1998; and unprotected in 1999. If the team's picks in 1996, 1997 or 1998 fall within the protected range, then they keep it; otherwise, it is conveyed to the other team. If they make it to 1999 without having conveyed a pick, then the other team gets their 1999 pick unconditionally. In this situation, the team trading away its pick must retain control of its first-round pick all the way through 2000 to comply with the Stepien Rule (above) in any of the pick-conveying scenarios.

A team may protect its pick through all seven upcoming drafts. However, if a protected pick is not conveyed by the seventh draft, the obligation to convey a pick either must extinguish after the seventh draft or convert to a permissible alternative (such as a second-round pick). For example, if 1996 is the upcoming draft, you can only trade picks up to the 2002 Rookie Draft, and you cannot have a protection on any pick that settles after 2002.

Any pick protection must leave at least five consecutive picks for the protection to not convey. In other words, the maximum protection for a first-round pick is 1-24 (or 2-25, 3-26, etc.), and the maximum protection for a second-round pick is 30-53.

Transparency is key. It is up to the GM's making the trade to outline any and all protections on draft picks in the trade, and what happens if the pick does not immediately convey -- if that is nothing, that must be specifically written, too. All previously established pick protections must be cited in all future deals of said protected pick, as well.

PROTECTING ANOTHER TEAM'S PICKS

A team can add protection to a pick it acquires in trade, as long as they received the pick as an unprotected pick. For example, Team A can receive an unprotected first round pick from Team B, and subsequently trade the pick to Team C, protected for picks 1-13. A team cannot add protections to a pick that already had protections when it was received.

Example: Team A cannot receive a pick that is protected for picks 1-5 from Team B, and then add further protections when trading it to Team C. However, Team A could receive an unprotected pick from Team B, then trade it to Team C, protected for picks 1-13, and also to Team D, protected for picks 14-29 (i.e., Team D gets the pick if it's in the lottery, and Team C gets the pick if it isn't in the lottery).

PICK SWAPS

If you want to offer something of draft value but can't trade a first-round pick in a certain season, you can offer, instead, the ability for a team to swap draft picks with yours based on position. For example, Team A can give away the rights to swap its 1996 first-round pick with Team B's. If Team A pick ends up more favorable than Team B's in the 1996 Rookie Draft, the picks will be swapped automatically. These picks are now intrinsically connected, even if they aren't eventually owned by Team A and Team B, respectively, at the time of the draft.

Please note that if you are offering another team the rights to swap picks with you, all picks available to be swapped with must be available at the time of the trade and outlined clearly. For example, in the above scenario, if Team A acquires another draft pick after trading away swap rights on its own pick to Team B, Team B cannot swap its pick with the newly acquired pick, as it is only linked with Team A's own pick.

Pick swaps can be protected. In the scenario above, if Team A were to "Top 5 protect" the pick swap with Team B, the picks would only be swapped if both Team A's pick is more favorable than Team B's pick and the pick is not in the top five of the draft. Like above, you can only add protections to a pick swap if the pick is either your own or you received it unprotected.

Multiple swap rights can be attached to the same draft pick. To build off the unprotected example above, Team A can also trade the rights to swap its 1996 first-round pick with Team C, with Team C knowing already that Team B's swap takes precedence. In this situation, Team B would still get the more favorable between Team A and Team B's pick. Team C would then get the more favorable between Team C's pick and whatever pick Team A has after its swap with Team B, while Team A would receive the least favorable of all three picks.

Just like above, transparency is key. It is up to the GM's making the trade to outline any and all pick swaps in the trade. All previously established pick swaps must be cited in all future deals of said pick, as well.

PICK DEFERRALS

When trading away a draft pick, instead of a protection or a swap, you can give a team the option to defer the draft pick one year. This means at the time the draft order is announced, the team in possession of your draft pick can choose to defer ownership of your pick one year. If this team chooses to defer, the current draft pick is returned to its original owner in exchange for their first-round pick the following season.

This means the team trading away its pick must continue to own its pick the following year, as well as the year after to comply with the Stepien Rule in the case the pick is deferred.

Deferrals and protections cannot be combined.

AMENDING PICK STIPULATIONS

Once you've traded away a draft pick with protection/deferral stipulations on it or the rights to swap picks, the control of that pick and its terms are controlled by the team you traded them to. If you want to get these changed for any reason (sometimes removing protections can increase your own flexibility), you can only do so in the form of a trade, which is subject to all the normal trade rules laid out above.

Sign-and-Trades

All sign-and-trade rules can be found in the Off-Season free agency rules thread.

Trading Cash

As mentioned above, the minimum amount of cash that can be sent by a team in a given trade is $110,000. The maximum amount changes season-to-season, and is equal to the amount of the taxpayer mid-level exception, rounded down to the nearest million. For example, if the taxpayer mid-level exception is $5,750,000 for the given season, the maximum amount of cash you can send in a trade is $5,000,000.

This should go without saying, but you can't trade cash you don't have. If you are above the 2nd Apron, you cannot send cash at all.

Only one team can send cash out in a trade.

Trade Exceptions

Trade exceptions are a workaround to acquire more team salary while your team is already over the cap. They are generated from a trade where the money between the two teams is not even. Think of it as a credit. Instead of that salary difference between the two sides disappearing, it is converted into a trade exception for the team receiving back less money to use later. All trade exceptions have an expiry of one league year from when they were created.

Trade exceptions count against your team salary with respect to salary cap room, but they do not count against you in luxury tax calculations.

Example 1: Team A trades away a $10,000,000 player to Team B in exchange for a $6,000,000 player. Team A then generates a $4,000,000 trade exception that it can use for one full league year.

Example 2: Team A trades away a $10,000,000 to a team that can absorb his salary, either via cap space or trade exception. Team A then generates a $10,000,000 trade exception that it can use for one full league year.

I know this math may get confusing, so don't worry about doing any of this work. It'll be handled on the business side of things and you'll be made known if you generate a trade exception from a deal.

If you want to use a trade exception, that must be specified in the trade.

Rules:
- Whatever the amount the trade exception is worth, a team can trade for a player making that much plus $250,000. For example, if you have a $10,000,000 trade exception, you can take up to $10,250,000 back in salary when using it.
- Trade exceptions cannot be combined with players in trades. If you need to break a trade up into two separate trades to get around this rule, that's fine (explained further in new post below).
- As is detailed in the Luxury Tax Explained thread, you cannot use a trade exception if it would put you over either apron.
- Trade exceptions can only be used, not traded away. However, like in Example 2 above, if you trade away a player into a trade exception and don't take anything back, you then generate a trade exception of your own worth the salary of the player you traded away.
- You can use only part of a trade exception and save the rest for another time. However, this does not change the expiration date on the trade exception.
- Contract exceptions CAN be used as trade exceptions, but the converse is not true; trade exceptions cannot be used to sign free agents, unless it is by way of a sign-and-trade.^a
- Exceptions are exactly that, a way to get around not having cap room. Thus, if you have cap room, you do not have trade exceptions. If you have any trade exceptions, open up cap room, and then use that cap room, all your trade exceptions will disappear.
- Trade exceptions cannot be combined into a larger exception.
- Teams that are under the cap before a trade and go over the cap as a result of the trade can’t create a trade exception as a result of that deal.
- Trade exceptions do not fall on the list of things that there must be at least one of on both sides of a trade. In other words, you cannot simply trade a player into a trade exception, you have to receive something else back as well.

Notes:
a - This $250,000 does not apply when using a contract exception (i.e. the mid-level exception) to acquire a player via trade.

Multi-Part Trades

Some rules in here can be circumvented via multi-part trades. Off the top of my head, the 5-player rule, the salary-aggregation rule for players recently acquired via trade, and the trade exception rule are all examples of rules that can be circumvented. Basically, if you break a trade into multiple parts, as long as every individual part of the deal follows the rules, you can do it. Here are some examples:

Example 1: Too Many Players

Illegal Trade:

Team A Trades:	Team B Trades:
Player 1 ($1,000,000)	Player 7 ($3,000,000)
Player 2 ($1,000,000)	Player 8 ($3,000,000)
Player 3 ($1,000,000)
Player 4 ($1,000,000)
Player 5 ($1,000,000)
Player 6 ($1,000,000)
Total Salary: $6,000,000	Total Salary: $6,000,000

As one big trade, this would not be legal, as you can't trade six players in one single trade. However, if you break the trade into two separate trades:

Trade 1:

Team A Trades:	Team B Trades:
Player 1 ($1,000,000)	Player 7 ($3,000,000)
Player 2 ($1,000,000)
Player 3 ($1,000,000)
Total Salary: $3,000,000	Total Salary: $3,000,000

Trade 2:

Team A Trades:	Team B Trades:
Player 4 ($1,000,000)	Player 8 ($3,000,000)
Player 5 ($1,000,000)
Player 6 ($1,000,000)
Total Salary: $3,000,000	Total Salary: $3,000,000

As you can see, these are two completely legal, separate trades. There is nothing stopping you from doing it exactly this way to get around the rules. This is a very basic example, I'll start getting into some more complicated ones now.

Example 2: Salary Aggregation

Let's say you recently acquired a player via trade and you want to trade him away again. As the rules state above, you can trade away a player immediately, but you cannot aggregate that player's salary in a trade for 40 days. Thus, the following trade would be illegal if you are within that 40-day waiting period:

Illegal Trade:

Team A Trades:	Team B Trades:
Recently Acquired Player 1 ($5,000,000)	Player 3 ($5,000,000)
Player 2 ($5,000,000)	Player 4 (5,000,000)
Total Salary: $10,000,000	Total Salary: $10,000,000

However, if you break this into two separate deals:

Trade 1:

Team A Trades:	Team B Trades:
Recently Acquired Player 1 ($5,000,000)	Player 3 ($5,000,000)
Total Salary: $5,000,000	Total Salary: $5,000,000

Trade 2:

Team A Trades:	Team B Trades:
Player 2 ($5,000,000)	Player 4 (5,000,000)
Total Salary: $5,000,000	Total Salary: $5,000,000

Both of these trades are fully legal, as the recently acquired player's salary is not being aggregated.

Example 3: Trade Exceptions

As I mentioned in the Trade Exceptions section, you cannot combine a player's salary and a trade exception to take back a bigger salary. Thus, the following trade would be illegal:

Illegal Trade:

Team A Trades:	Team B Trades:
Player 1 ($5,000,000)	Player 2 ($6,000,000)
Trade Exception ($5,000,000)	Player 3 ($4,000,000)
Total Salary: $5,000,000	Total Salary: $10,000,000

However, if you break the trade out into two separate deals:

Trade 1:

Team A Trades:	Team B Trades:
Player 1 ($5,000,000)	Player 2 ($6,000,000)
Total Salary: $5,000,000	Total Salary: $6,000,000

Trade 2:

Team A Trades:	Team B Trades:
Trade Exception ($5,000,000)	Player 3 ($4,000,000)
Total Salary: $0	Total Salary: $4,000,000

In Trade 1, the salary-matching rules allow Team A to take back the $6,000,000 in salary, as it is less than 200% of the outgoing salary + $250,000. In Trade 2, Team A absorbs Player 3's $4,000,000 salary into its trade exception.

One thing to note, Team B actually generates not one, but two trade exceptions out of this transaction. Trade 1 gives them a $1,000,000 trade exception because they are taking back $5,000,000 and trading away $6,000,000, and Trade 2 gives them a $4,000,000 trade exception because they are taking back $0 and trading away $4,000,000. These trade exceptions are not combined into one.

TRADE STRUCTURING

Sometimes, both teams in a trade might benefit from a trade being structured a certain way (I will provide a convoluted example below). Instead of arguing and having to compromise on which way a deal is structured, both teams can do whatever benefits them the most, so long as the trade as a whole is exactly the same, and all parts of the structure are legal for their team.

When posting a trade, whichever team creates the trade post will structure the trade exactly as they want it to be processed. If the agreeing team simply agrees to the trade, I will process it that same way for both teams. However, if the agreeing team wants it to go through differently, please include your preferred structure in the trade agreement post, and then I'll process it that way for your team. This is as confusing as any concept we have in the league, probably, so feel free to reach out if you have questions. Here is that example, which actually comes from real life:

Example 4: Two Different Structures

Full Trade:

Raptors Trade:	Knicks Trade:
OG Anunoby ($18,642,857)	RJ Barrett ($23,883,929)
Precious Achiuwa ($4,379,527)	Immanuel Quickley ($4,171,548)
Malachi Flynn ($3,873,025)
Total Salary: $26,895,409	Total Salary: $28,055,477

This trade, on its own, would work in exactly the structure that is posted here. But NBA front offices are smart enough to try to maximize every little advantage they can get, and generating as many trade exceptions as possible is usually the optimal strategy. Thus, these two teams got creative:

How the Raptors Processed the Trade:

Trade 1:

Raptors Trade:	Knicks Trade:
OG Anunoby ($18,642,857)	RJ Barrett ($23,883,929)
Malachi Flynn ($3,873,025)	Immanuel Quickley ($4,171,548)
Outgoing Salary: $22,515,882	Incoming Salary: $28,055,477

The maximum amount the Raptors could take back when dealing this much salary is $30,015,882 (outgoing salary plus $7,500,000), so this is legal.

Trade 2:

Raptors Trade:	Knicks Trade:
Precious Achiuwa ($4,379,527)
Outgoing Salary: $4,379,527	Incoming Salary: $0

This is probably the part that will confuse the most people. How did the Knicks trade nothing and take back Achiuwa? To put it simply, this is the Raptors' perspective of the trade, so the legality of it from the Knicks' side doesn't matter. The Raptors are trading away Achiuwa's salary and receiving less back than what would be too much (200% of Achiuwa's salary plus $250,000), so it's fine, and actually allows them to generate a trade exception worth $4,379,527.

How the Knicks Processed the Trade:

Trade 1:

Knicks Trade:	Raptors Trade:
RJ Barrett ($23,883,929)	OG Anunoby ($18,642,857)
Outgoing Salary: $23,883,929	Incoming Salary: $18,642,857

This generates a trade exception worth $5,241,072 for the Knicks.

Trade 2:

Knicks Trade:	Raptors Trade:
Immanuel Quickley ($4,171,548)	Precious Achiuwa ($4,379,527)
	Malachi Flynn ($3,873,025)
Outgoing Salary: $4,171,548	Incoming Salary: $8,252,552

The maximum amount the Knicks could receive back for Quickley's contract is $8,593,096 (200% of $4,171,548 plus $250,000), so this is, perhaps surprisingly to some, legal (a win for more lenient trade-matching).

So as you can see, with a little cap magic^a, both teams were able to generate sizable trade exceptions. At times, this concept is confusing even to CBA nerds such as myself, so if it's frustrating or confusing to you, don't sweat it. Remember, you can just process the trade the basic way from your side and call it a day. But, if you want to get into the weeds further, your team can reap the benefits down the line of finding every possible advantage in a trade. The Trade Machine is also designed to try to point you to the optimal trade structure, with all the caveats in that thread applying to that functionality as well.

Notes:
a - This "magic" does involve the ability to use all the different trade-matching rules granted to teams below both apron levels. If you are not one of these teams, all the different parts of the trade will be bound by the stricter trade-matching rules, depending on which Apron you are in.

Trade Rules Regarding Sim Schedule

All trades must be completed before the scheduled sim time. Trades posted after the scheduled sim time will have to wait until the following sim, even if you get your depth chart update in immediately. If I choose to push the sim back, that opens up more time to trade unless I specifically state otherwise.

If the league is waiting on a depth chart from you and the scheduled sim time has already past, you can only make a trade if the Commissioner approves it as a deal necessary for your roster.

Similarly, if a trade requires you to make further moves that can't realistically be made before the scheduled sim time, I have the right to delay the processing of the original trade until after the sim for the benefit of the league schedule.