# NBA Draft Capital Intelligence — Full Agent Reference

> Verbose markdown reference designed for AI agents (Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Cursor) to ingest once and reason over without crawling every page. Pairs with /llms.txt (the lightweight summary).

## Data files served from this domain

| URL | Format | Description |
|---|---|---|
| /all_teams_draft_picks.json | JSON | Canonical pick obligations per team |
| /season_data.json | JSON | Current NBA standings, auto-updated daily |

## Schema — `/all_teams_draft_picks.json`

Top-level shape:

```jsonc
{
  "metadata": {
    "lastUpdated": "YYYY-MM-DD",
    "sources": ["NBA.com 2026 Draft Order", "RealGM (reference)"],
    "notes": "..."
  },
  "teams": {
    "ATL": { "name": "Atlanta Hawks", "abbr": "ATL", "picks": [ ... ] },
    "BOS": { ... },
    // ... all 30 teams
  }
}
```

Each pick record:

```jsonc
{
  "year": 2026,
  "round": "1st" | "2nd",
  "originalTeam": "DEN",           // who owned this slot originally
  "currentHolder": "OKC",          // who controls it now
  "protection": "top-5" | null,    // protection clause if any
  "swapCondition": null,           // swap right description
  "notes": "Source-cited context",
  "condition": "pool_xyz" | null,  // pool-conveyance group ID if applicable
  "status": "Conveying" | "Conveying (kept own)" | ...,
  "pick_number": 26,               // exact slot once resolved (post-lottery)
  "last_updated": "2026-05-10",
  "lottery_resolved": true
}
```

## 2026 Draft Lottery — final order (resolved May 10, 2026)

| Pick | Team (Owner) | Original | Record | Protection / Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WAS | WAS | 17-65 | Top-8 protection triggered — WAS keeps own |
| 2 | UTA | UTA | 22-60 | Top-8 protection extinguished obligation to OKC |
| 3 | MEM | MEM | 25-57 | — |
| 4 | CHI | CHI | 31-51 | — |
| 5 | LAC (via IND) | IND | 19-63 | Pacers 1-4/10-30 protection: #5 conveys to LAC |
| 6 | BKN | BKN | 20-62 | — |
| 7 | SAC | SAC | 22-60 | — |
| 8 | ATL (via NOP) | NOP | 26-56 | More favorable of MIL/NOP — to ATL |
| 9 | DAL | DAL | 26-56 | — |
| 10 | MIL | MIL | 32-50 | Less favorable of MIL/NOP — MIL kept |
| 11 | GSW | GSW | 37-45 | — |
| 12 | OKC (via LAC) | LAC | 42-40 | Most favorable of OKC/LAC/HOU — to OKC |
| 13 | MIA | MIA | 43-39 | — |
| 14 | CHA | CHA | 44-38 | — |

Picks 15–30 (first round) and 31–60 (second round) are resolved by inverse record + tiebreakers. Full order at https://nba.mosiealong.com/all_teams_draft_picks.json.

## Core concepts agents should know

### Stepien Rule
NBA prohibition on trading first-round picks in consecutive years. If a team has already traded its 2027 first-round pick, it cannot also trade its 2026 or 2028 first. Named for Ted Stepien, Cavaliers owner 1980–83. The rule is automatically enforced when the JSON is loaded; the site shows `STEPIEN LOCKED` tags on first-round picks the team owns but cannot legally trade.

### Protection clauses (common shapes)
- **Top-N protected** (e.g., top-5): the pick conveys only if it lands at slot N+1 or later. If it lands in the protected range, it stays with the original team, often rolling over to a future year.
- **Range protected** (e.g., 1-4 / 10-30): conveys only if the pick falls outside the protected slots.
- **Lottery protected**: same as top-14.

### Pool conveyances
When multiple teams' picks feed one obligation, the resolution depends on which pick is more/less favorable (lower slot # = more favorable). Example: "most favorable of OKC/LAC/HOU goes to OKC" — once all three pick slots are known on draft night, the smallest-number slot is the one OKC receives.

### Swap rights
A team holds the option to swap one of its picks for another team's pick (or for the better of two/three other picks). Resolved on draft night.

## Site features available to agents

- Per-team detail pages (Dossier): combines picks, protections, cap tier, lottery position
- Team comparison via League Balance view
- PDF export per team (jsPDF-driven; includes full pick inventory + protections + cap context)
- Lottery reform proposals view (for future-format speculation)

## Updates and data freshness

- **Standings** auto-update daily (12:30am CDT) via GitHub Actions pulling ESPN's NBA standings API
- **Pick obligations** are manually verified entries; weekly verification job (Mondays 6am CDT) cross-checks against multiple sources via Claude and opens a PR with discrepancies for human review
- **Lottery results** were applied to the JSON on May 10, 2026 (NBA.com official release)

## Maintainer

Mosie Hackett · https://mosiealong.com · moshackett@icloud.com

Copyright © 2026 Mosie Hackett. All Rights Reserved.