For the first time since the 2020 offseason, the Detroit Pistons are free from the “Stepien Rule,” which prevented them from trading first-round picks in consecutive drafts.
The “Stepien Rule” is named after 1980s Cleveland Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien, who foolishly traded future first-round picks in consecutive years for mediocre players. The trades resulted in zero first-round selections from 1982-1986 and a record of 147-263 during that span.
The NBA implemented the rule to prevent Stepien from trading first-round picks in consecutive drafts.
The Pistons have been unable to trade any first-round picks over the past five years due to this rule.
In 2020, former Pistons general manager Troy Weaver traded a future protected first-round pick to the Houston Rockets in exchange for the 16th overall pick.
The Pistons selected forward Isaiah Stewart with the pick.
The Rockets never utilized that future draft pick after trading it to the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2021 for the rights to Alperen Sengun.
The Thunder traded the pick to the New York Knicks in exchange for the 11th overall pick in the 2022 draft, which became Ousmane Dieng.
Just before the start of the 2024-2025 season, the Knicks traded the pick to the Timberwolves in the Towns-Julius Randle blockbuster trade.
The protected future pick that Weaver traded hadn’t gone into effect until this year’s draft because the Pistons were in the draft lottery every year after the 2020 draft.
When a team is in the lottery, traded first-round picks are not conveyed and that team is still allowed to make its lottery selection. However, the team isn’t allowed to trade its lottery pick because technically, they don’t own that pick.
The Pistons will not pick in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft due to the protected future pick finally conveying to the Timberwolves.
The Detroit Pistons are set to pick 37th overall in the NBA Draft taking place June 26.
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