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The Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat made news this offseason with the acquisition of a couple of talented point guards. Both organizations made it a point of emphasis to go out and acquire two of the top free agents on the market in Lonzo Ball and veteran guard Kyle Lowry. Both moves came together quickly as the two guards came to an agreement on a deal with their new clubs during the opening week of free agency. But the NBA wasn't convinced that the moves were done from a "legal" perspective.
The term "tampering" has been a popular one in the NBA world over recent years. There's a fine line that teams cannot cross when it comes to prematurely negotiating with free agents. The problem is that teams are trying to get any potential advantage they can when it comes to luring in a potential "big name" for their upcoming season.
Shortly after the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat agreed to terms with their new point guards, the league announced they would conduct an investigation to see if the teams were involved in any illegal practices set forth by the NBA. After a four-month investigation, the NBA announced today that they would be penalizing both franchises due to premature discussions.
ESPN NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski reported that both the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat will be forced to forfeit their next available second-round draft pick over the findings.
This has become a situation that is quickly spiraling out of control across the league. It seems as if most of the teams in the NBA are involved in some sort of tampering, it's simply just a matter of if they get caught or not.
The same situation took place last year, when the Milwaukee Bucks were forced to forfeit a 2022 second-round draft pick for violating the league's tampering rules during a failed sign-and-trade agreement for veteran wing Bogdan Bogdanovic. The Bucks ended up not completing a deal for Bogdanovic, as he eventually went on to agree to a deal with the Atlanta Hawks.
Many will wonder if there's going to be a change in potential punishment when it comes to teams violating the tampering rules. As of now, it seems as if stripping the team of a second-round pick is a bit of a "slap on the wrist."
Although both the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls completed trades to acquire Kyle Lowry and Lonzo Ball, it seems as if the organizations could simply just imagine that they had to throw in an extra draft selection in order to make the move successful. Does that really seem like it's going to prevent future teams from trying to cross the tampering line in order to land a free agent? Most likely not.
The other problem it prevents is the realization that there's going to be fewer draft selections for incoming rookies. Instead of having harsher punishments for organizations that violate the rules, the league is instead punishing the incoming crop of NBA Draft talent that had no effect on the current situation. For now, the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat have their new point guards, but it remains to be seen if the NBA will install some stricter punishments in the future.
Guess the Lakers players!
