What is the Stepien rule?
Teams may trade firsts up to seven drafts out, but the Stepien rule bars leaving yourself without a first-round pick in consecutive future drafts. The board tracks pick ownership across your move list, so a pick you dealt two trades ago still counts against you. A first your team already owes away in the real world never appears here — it isn't yours to trade, and its year counts as uncovered.
NBA rule (Stepien); 2023 CBA · Art. VII
How it actually bites
The rule: a team may never leave itself without a first-round pick in consecutive future drafts. The subtlety: picks you already owe count against you. If your 2030 first is owed to another team — even protected — trading your 2031 first leaves 2030 and 2031 both uncovered, and the deal is dead. The offending pick is the one you just added, not the one that left years ago.
If a pick you already owe would break the Stepien rule, Over the Apron names it.
Common questions
Do protected picks count as covered?
No — a protected pick might not convey, so the league treats that year as uncovered for Stepien purposes.
Do pick swaps count?
A swap still leaves you with a first-round pick that year (just possibly a worse one), so swap years remain covered.
See it enforced, not just explained.
Build a trade or signing and the sim rules on it, with the relevant citation when one applies.