Past drafted picks ...

[Macedonianbull]

Is there any rule that states how much time the PLAYER has to accept a tendered offer by the team that drafted that player?

Same question in another version ... I know a pick drafted in the past is team's property forever as long as the team shells out a qualifying offer every year. Is there a time interval which would pass and the team couldn't trade the rights of that player to another team? I mean, this looks like a major loophole to me. Dead players could be traded 10 years after they have been drafted.

[LarryCoon]

Could you give me a scenario where a team could possibly take advantage of that loophole? There's no contract, so the rights could $0 in the trade, and there's obviously no basketball value in acquiring a dead player*. So I see no benefit from either a basketball or financial standpoint.

* I guess there are a couple players where I'd rather have a dead guy...

[FGump]

The team loses the rights when they don't tender a qualifying tender as the rules require. That's the limit. and it's a real limit, because at some point, when the player no longer has any playing ability, the team won't want to put that contract on the table as a possibility for the player to accept. A team won't be making qualifying tenders to a dead man.

And as L Coon says, this isn't a scenario that is happening or has happened, ever. Player rights only get dropped into trades when there is (at least theoretically) some potential value there.

[Macedonianbull]

Involved in a strange trade on Oct. 29, 2001. The Portland Trailblazers traded Will Purdue and some cash to the LA Clippers in exchange for the rights to Doron. The Clippers immediately released Purdue. Since a team can't just give a player to another team, including Doron's right's gave the Trailblazers a way to get rid of Purdue's salary and free up room under the salary cap. The Clippers apparently had some salary cap room they didn't need so they took the cash from the Trailblazers as compensation for absorbing Purdue's salary for salary cap purposes.

Doron was drafted in 1996. Never played in NBA, and never will.

If there is no limit about trading those picks it means that today, in 2008 some team might trade another 1996 draft pick who never signed to play in NBA and whose career could be already finished.

[Three34]

Andy Betts was traded for Peja Stojakovic in 2006, too. Andy Betts was drafted in 1998 and will never play in the NBA. Teams only keep those rights to make deals such as this - meaningless filler in trades in which they have to give up something, so they choose the most meaningless thing that they can get their hands on.

But it was made possible because Betts was (is) still playing professionally, as was Sheffer at the time. (He's since retired three times.) However, since you lose the draft rights to someone after they haven't played elsewhere for a year, your theory isn't valid.

Or at least, that's how I read this to mean:

If the player is already under contract to, or signs a contract with a non-NBA team, the team retains the player's draft rights for one year after the player's obligation to the non-NBA team ends. Essentially, the clock stops as long as the player plays pro ball outside the NBA. Players are not included in the team's team salary while the player is under contract with a non-NBA team.

Ain't no dead guys playing in Europe. Except maybe Jumaine Jones.

[Macedonianbull]

<i>However, since you lose the draft rights to someone after they haven't played elsewhere for a year, your theory isn't valid. </i>

This info here answers all I wanted to know.

Thank Sham.

* I didn't mean dead dead. I meant basketbally dead.

[Dunkenstein]

It is not true that a team loses the rights to a player if they don't tender him a qualifying offer as a previous poster stated. If you look at the definition of Qualifying Offer in the CBA it states that QOs are only for "First Round Picks finishing their Rookie Scale Contracts" and "for all other players subject to a Right of First Refusal in accordance with Article XI."

If a team doesn't tender a qualifying offer to a restricted free agent then they lose the right of first refusal. Teams however retain rights to UFAs until they are waived, renounced, signed by another team, or officially submit retirement papers to the league.

The CBA doesn't waste words on those players who have passed on, though it would probably fit under some "physically unable to perform" clause.

[FGump]

Dunk sorry but you're wrong, and in fact you're talking about something completely different and irrelevant to the discussion here.

You are confusing "qualifying offer" which is applicable to restricted free agents who have played for a team and whose contract has expired.

But we are talking about unsigned draft picks, which require a tender of a contract that meets certain minimum standards (ie, a "qualifying tender" or a "required tender") by a certain date.

The CBA very clearly mandates that for a team to retain the rights to that player if he doesn't sign, it must make the the required tender by a certain date, and do it again each season. Art X Sec 4, Sec 5, Sec 7. If they do so, they retain exclusive draft rights to the player and can trade those rights. If they fail to make the required tender, they lose those draft rights and he becomes the same as any rookie free agent who was not drafted. In that event, the team cannot trade his rights, because they don't have any draft rights to him any longer.

[Macedonianbull]

I am a Bulls fan as you probably already know.

I wanted to know the following. When the clock stops for the Bulls to trade lets say, Mario Austin, drafted 2001? Lets say they don't plan to sign him ever, but hold his rights in case they trade for somebody using their own exception.

[Three34]

If they keep giving him the required tenders, then they can hold his rights for as long as Mario keeps playing elsewhere. Th ecountdown to them losing his rights only starts after he stops playing, and if he starts playing again withina year then the clock is reset. As the FAQ quote above states, you keep their rights for a year after their last professional contract ends. So if they keep signing contracts, you keep on to their rights.

Mario's situation is a bit unique in that most players in his position aren't good enough to play in the NBA. Mario, however, is. Normally, such second round scrubs are worth nothing as players. But occasionally teams can deal those rights in deals that aren't meaningless. Such as with J.C. Navarro or Luis Scola this past summer. The Bulls might get lucky like this one day if someoneis willing to Mario more than they are.

[Dunkenstein]

I misread the context. I stand corrected.