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I Didn't Know I Hated The Derrick Rose Rule Until Today

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When it comes to NBA rules there are so many that often times the general public isn’t even aware some even exist. It’s way less fun to factor in salary restrictions, CBA rules and things of that nature when talking about NBA trades/signings/etc every summer because often times in reality those rules would kill a trade before it even begins. I mention this because in Bobby Marks’ free agency piece today there was a little interesting nugget about the Derrick Rose Rule. What is the Derrick Rose Rule? Well allow me to tell you because I had to look it up

The rule was named after Rose because he earned first-team All-NBA honors in 2010-11 and was also selected by fans to play in the All-Star Game in 2011 and 2012 while still on his rookie contract.

The league’s goal was to reward players operating under rookie-scale contracts who had signed a maximum salary extension but had outperformed the Tier 1 (25 percent) maximum salary slot.

If a player on his rookie contract accomplishes one of the following – (1) earns All-NBA first-, second- or third-team honors twice, (2) is voted an NBA All-Star starter by the fans twice, or (3) named NBA MVP – his salary slot will be eligible for the Tier 2 maximum salary (30 percent) when the extension begins in his fifth season.

Teams do have the right to negotiate the percentage of a max salary slot as long as it falls between 25 percent and 30 percent in the first year of the extension if the player reaches the criteria set forth above.

So why am I talking about this rule today? Well for a couple reasons. The first is apparently a team cannot have two of these guys at the roster at the same time via trade. How fucking stupid is that? Where this impacts me is we’ve spent the last what, three summers as Celtics fans dreaming of a scenario where they find a way to trade for Anthony Davis. While personally I’ve been more inclined to just wait out his current deal for when he hits the market at 27, the mere fact that once Ainge traded for Kyrie Irving (a Rose Rule guy), it immediately killed any chance that the Celtics could trade for someone like Anthony Davis. For a more in-depth breakdown of their situation, I suggest you follow @dangercart who always does a great job of breaking down the Celts financial options

So if you were still holding out hope that there was some small chance Ainge could find a way to trade for Anthony Davis this summer, kiss that dream goodbye all because of this stupid rule. Theoretically the Pelicans could say OK we’ll do it for X/Y/Z and the Celts wouldn’t be able to pull it off. How stupid is that? Now there’s always next summer if you still feel like torturing yourself with this pipe dream, but upon hearing this information I looked into this rule more and once I did that I couldn’t help myself for hating everything I was reading.

My problems with this aren’t really only Celtics related, but the concept as a whole. In no way shape or form in my opinion should players salaries be attached to the fans. Fans are fucking morons, all of us. The fact that All Star starter votes are one of the criteria is ridiculous considering that’s now turned into a popularity contest and not always who is most deserving. So that’s an issue. Second, is how it’s also tied to the media. Media people can be extremely bitter and hold personal grudges for whatever reason. With that comes the possibility that they don’t vote for a guy and that single vote could cost a player millions. We’ve seen this over the last few years where a guy misses out on big money because a bitter media person doesn’t vote them to an All NBA team.We just saw Anthony Davis lose $24M back in 2016 due to this, and does anyone legit think he’s not one of the best 15 players in the NBA? Again, this is so stupid.

What’s also weird about this is you get the same type of bump whether you were a First Team All NBA or a Third Team All NBA. Call me crazy but the 15th best player should not be given the same salary raise as the 5th best. We talk all the time about how Player X isn’t worth a max deal, so why should All NBA Teams be considered equal when it comes to price? As pumped as I would be if I had a player on my team that made a Third Team two years in a row, I would not love the fact that you now have to pay him the same as a First Team guy.

But mostly I can’t understand why you can’t trade for two of these guys at the same time. If each side can figure out how to make the money match, and they agree on the overall package, then what’s the problem? I searched the internet for a legit reason why this is the case and I couldn’t find it. That alone makes me hate everything about the Derrick Rose rule. You want to keep the criteria, fine that’s whatever, but they need to figure out a way to change the fact that you can’t trade for two guys. For example what if the Pelicans could have been able to secure a huge return for AD this summer, but then he gets hurt next year and his price severely drops. Then nobody is happy.

In reality there are only a handful of players that are impacted by the rule so it’s not a huge issue, it’s just one that is so blatantly terrible that it needs to be revised. They did that before the last CBA by taking out All Star votes, so the criteria is now

- Selection to an All-NBA team (at any level) in the player’s fourth season, or in two of the three seasons between his second and fourth seasons.
– Selection as Defensive Player of the Year in the player’s fourth season, or in two of the three seasons between his second and fourth seasons.
– Selection as MVP in any season from the player’s second onward.

which is a step in the right direction I guess. As soon as they lift that trade part then we can get back to cooking up the trade machine for trades that would never happen in real life, but not because of a stupid rule.