Two Rules Announcements - Future Picks and Declining Contracts

Morning all,

Just announcing two rules changes.

The first is a clarification of the future picks rule. As you know, you can only trade picks that are a maximum of 3 years out. In recent years, we've had people trade protected picks 3 years out, that roll to an unprotected pick 4 years out. I've almost always discussed those trades with those GMs, but realized I never made a public announcement of the rule. Here's a clarification:

1. It IS permissible to trade a protected pick that rolls to an unprotected pick 4 years out, but that is as far as it can go. You cannot have protections that result in a pick ever being conveyed that is 5 years out.
2. The restriction must not be an obvious attempt to get around the 3 year rule. For instance, if you tried to top25-protect a pick 3 years out, you're probably just trying to get around the 3 year rule. It'll be a case-by-case determination, but please don't use this exception to the rule to try to convey picks 4 years out that you are certain will never convey 3 years out.

The second rule is limitations on declining contracts. This rule will take effect immediately after FA completes. Last year Dave pointed out that you can give declining contracts, which was exciting. But it's been an absolute disaster this FA. We have teams offering $20m one year and $2m the next, and the player takes that deal. That's just not good for the league and it wouldn't happen in the NBA. So from now on, you will be limited to offering declining contracts at the same levels you can offer ascending contracts (5% per year for most players, 7.5% for bird rights players, and 10% for MLEs). The game will NOT track this for you so we need to be sure that people abide by this rule. Violations will be handled accordingly (may include voiding the contract if an egregious violation, maybe a lesser penalty if your math was just off by a few dollars).