Frozen Pick Database

A first-round pick freezes when a team finishes a regular season above the second apron. The pick that freezes is that team’s own first-rounder seven drafts later, so a team over the line in 2026–27 freezes its 2034 first-round pick. A frozen pick cannot be traded at all — not outright, not with protections, and not inside a swap.

What happens to it is settled over the four cap years that follow. Finish above the second apron in at least two of them and the pick slides to the end of the first round: the team keeps the selection, but it becomes the 30th pick rather than wherever the standings would have placed it. Stay under the line and the pick thaws after the regular season of the third year the team finished below the second apron. A pick either slides or thaws — it cannot do both.

These are the two seasons where committed salary supports an honest answer. A 2029–30 payroll counts only the players already signed through 2029–30, so every team looks clear four years out whether or not it will be; those seasons are left off rather than published as a false all-clear. The second column carries the same caveat in a milder form — it reflects salary already on the books, not a filled roster.

Watch marks a team within $5.0M of the second apron: close enough that one minimum contract crosses the line.