76ers Get Slapped On Hands, Lose Late Draft Picks For Tampering

Just about nothing has gone right for the Philadelphia 76ers in the early portion of the 2022-23 NBA season.

Sitting at 3-4, Philadelphia hasn’t exactly looked like the deep and talented team it was supposed to be headed into the season. James Harden looks like an All-NBA player again, but Joel Embiid’s play has slipped significantly from that of a season ago. Their bench, which was revamped this offseason, ranks in the middle of the pack in nearly every category. And Doc Rivers’ seat is growing warmer by the game. The icing on the cake? They just got punished for the way they built this team.

The 76ers have been stripped of two draft picks for tampering this past offseason, the NBA announced Monday.

“The NBA announced today that the Philadelphia 76ers violated league rules governing the timing of this season’s free agency discussions and that the league has rescinded Philadelphia’s second-round pick in each of the 2023 and 2024 Drafts,” the NBA said in a statement. “The rescindment of two draft picks reflected findings, following an investigation, that the 76ers engaged in free agency discussions involving two players (P.J. Tucker and Danuel House, Jr.) prior to the date when such discussions were permitted.”

In other words, the 76ers tampered.

The signings themselves were fishy to begin with. Both Tucker and House played in Houston with 76ers guard James Harden and under president of basketball operations Daryl Morey, and made the choice to sign within days of the opening of free agency.

The penalty is a relative slap on the wrists, as second-round picks in the NBA are essentially lottery tickets. For that, the NBA has reportedly decided to take a look at the way it penalizes teams that tamper.

“The NBA and NBPA are expected to revisit the rules that punish teams discovered to have had discussions with player agents on pending free agents ahead of free agency’s official start, sources said,” Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted Monday. “The practice is rampant, but hard to police and largely impossible to eliminate.”

Wojnarowski added the NBA is still investigating the New York Knicks for potentially violating the policy with their signing of Jalen Brunson.