South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
NBA looking into tampering over Lowry deal
LAS VEGAS — The Miami Heat’s swiftness in executing the sign-and-trade acquisition of Kyle Lowry from the Toronto Raptors has drawn NBA scrutiny.
ESPN reported Saturday that the league is looking into potential tampering violations over the transaction, with others in the league confirming the league’s inspection.
By league rules, such a transaction could not be negotiated with Lowry until Monday’s 6 p.m. start of the league’s offseason personnel period. Within minutes of that starting line, the Heat reportedly closed three-year, $85 million agreement with Lowry.
That transaction was formally announced Friday, at the start of the offseason signing period, with Goran Dragic and Precious Achiuwa going from the Heat to the Raptors in the complex transaction.
Potential NBA punishment includes cash penalties, loss of draft picks, suspension of executives or cancellation of such transactions
in question. The NBA has the right to seize phone records and emails.
According to ESPN and The Athletic, the NBA also is looking into how the Chicago Bulls also rapidly reached resolution Monday on a similar complex sign-and-trade transaction with the New Orleans Pelicans for restricted free-agent guard Lonzo Ball.
Such NBA inspection is nothing new for the Heat.
The NBA voided the Heat’s freeagency signing of Juwan Howard
in 1996, of which Heat president Pat Riley, who then was coaching the team, famously said, “I spent the weekend at my proctologist’s trying to remove the NBA’s 17-foot pole out of my rear end.”
Howard instead wound up re-signing with the Washington Wizards.
“Even if we took it to court and won in court,” Riley said at the time, “there was no way we were going to be able to get Juwan Howard back. Basically, there was nothing to fight for other than principle and there was too much at risk.”
The central issue in that case was a matter of whether the contract to Howard violated the NBA’s salary cap. Howard would later join the Heat at the end of his playing career, sharing in two Heat championships, before becoming a Heat assistant coach. He is now coach at Michigan.
In order to complete the acquisition of Lowry, the Heat had to reach a salary agreement with Lowry and also negotiate terms of a trade with the Raptors. It is the potential timing of the contact with Lowry that appears to be in question.
To that end, the Heat, a day ahead of the trade for Lowry, picked up the 2021-22 team option on Dragic’s contract, with Dragic’s contract then utilized the following day to balance the Lowry trade under the salary cap.
It is not unusual for a team to target a free agent in advance of the start of the free-agency negotiating period and then work through the specifics of contract and trade elements afterward.
The Heat did that when acquiring Jimmy Butler in a signand-trade transaction with the Philadelphia 76ers in the 2019 offseason. At the time, Butler had made clear his interest in the Heat, just as Lowry had in advance of this signing period.
The Heat took nearly a week to work out the final elements of the Butler acquisition in 2019, with Hassan Whiteside eventually dealt to the Portland Trail Blazers and a first-round pick sent to the Los Angeles Clippers. Josh Richardson and Meyers Leonard also were involved in those machinations.
During the 2019 offseason, the NBA stiffened its tampering rules, including fines to teams up to $10 million for tampering, $6 million for improper deals and $5 million for comments enticing other teams’ players.
At the time, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said, “Our teams want to know that they’re competing on a level playing field, and frankly don’t want to feel disadvantaged if they are adhering to our existing rules.”
Last offseason, the NBA made the Milwaukee Bucks forfeit a 2022 second-round pick and voided the Bucks’ attempted signing of restricted free agent Bogdan Bogdanovic from the Sacramento Kings due to a timing issue similar to what appears to now be in question for the Heat. Bogdanovic instead signed with the Atlanta Hawks.
Of that sanction, Silver said, “We said if we catch it we’re going to penalize the team. We saw a violation and we acted and penalized the Bucks. It’s our hope that that will act as a clear deterrent to any other team who is thinking or will attempt to engage in similar type behavior.”
In 2000, the NBA fined Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor $3.5 million for salary-cap manipulation regarding forward Joe Smith. The league initially docked Minnesota five first-round picks, before returning two. Smith wound up moving that offseason to the Detroit Pistons.
The Heat free-agent signings this past week in the wake of the Lowry signing were completed with the intention of augmenting the core of Lowry, Butler and center Bam Adebayo. Markieff Morris and P.J. Tucker both said they were lured by the opportunity to play alongside Lowry, with Butler acknowledging as much after signing his four-year, $184 million extension.