STEPIEN-001Beta Ref

Stepien Rule: consecutive first-round pick gap

WARNCBA Article X, Section 1(b)

Summary

A team may not trade away first-round picks such that they would own no first-round pick in two consecutive future years.

How it works

The rule looks at a 7-year horizon of future first-round picks. If trading away picks would leave the team without a first-round pick in back-to-back years, the trade is blocked. The engine checks this at WARN severity at MVP.

Example

Team has already traded their 2027 pick. They want to trade their 2028 pick. Post-trade they would have no pick in 2027 or 2028 (consecutive gap). STEPIEN-001 fires.

Engine behavior

WARN severity at MVP. In a strict interpretation this rule should be BLOCKING. The engine flags it to surface the issue without blocking the trade. See IMPLEMENTATION_DECISIONS.md Section 3.