Daryl Morey spent the offseason getting the band back together from his days in Houston, signing PJ Tucker and Danuel House to add depth to the Sixers in free agency — thanks in large part to James Harden taking a pay cut to open up some space.
The only problem was, the timing of the signings felt a bit too convenient, leading to a tampering investigation by the league into the Sixers offseason. On Monday, we learned the results of that investigation, with the NBA taking away the Sixers second round picks in the 2023 and 2024 drafts for having conversations with Tucker and House prior to the moratorium period opening on June 30 at 6 p.m. ET.
The following has been released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/W3DlRJvmuq
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) October 31, 2022
The Sixers released a statement accepting the decision and saying they will be moving forward as an organization, and if you were to tell Morey prior to the summer that he could make those moves for the cost of two second round picks, he’d almost assuredly say yes. As always, the NBA doesn’t really have a great way to deter teams from tampering without giving out huge punishments. The loss of second round picks isn’t nothing, as those are ways to fill out the roster for a capped out team like Philly and/or serving as assets to send out in trades, but this won’t deter the next team from having early conversations, they just might want to be a touch more discreet.