The NBA has pulled away the two second-round picks (2023, 2024) of the Philadelphia 76ers after violating free agency rules on their last offseason signing of P.J. Tucker and Danuel House, the league announced on Monday.
The investigation found out that the Sixers brass had negotiations “prior to the date when such discussions were permitted” with both Tucker and House, who hitted the market as unrestricted free-agents.
Meanwhile, the league didn’t find any violation on the alleged advance contract talks of James Harden and the Sixers. The All-star veteran developed chirpings after opting out his $47.4MM player option and taking a $15 million pay cut last summer to let the franchise maximize its salary cap flexibility to improve their roster.
The NBA has noted that the Sixers have fully cooperated on the investigations, while their probe on the Jalen Brunson-Knicks transaction remains ongoing (h/t ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski). The league together with the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) are also set to revisit rules that will sanction teams that will be found guilty of having preliminary talks with player agents ahead of free agency.
The Sixers became the recent team in previous years that was slapped by the NBA a punishment for violating free-agency rules, joining the Milwaukee Bucks, Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls.
