The Philadelphia 76ers are 3-4 after a pretty shaky start to the season. Joel Embiid struggled out of the gates and James Harden’s brilliance wasn’t able to take them to a winning record in their first 7 games. But they’re slowly starting to figure things out, helped along by Tyrese Maxey seemingly taking the next step and becoming even better as a scorer and an all-around player.
The hype around the Sixers before the season began came from their excellent roster-building in the offseason. The additions of Danuel House and PJ Tucker were considered to be huge wins for the Sixers and were expected to be big pieces for them moving forward. But even when those signings were made, there were suggestions that the Sixers has tampered, and that the league would be investigating it.
ESPN Sources: The NBA has opened an investigation into the Philadelphia 76ers for possible tampering and early contact centered on franchise’s summer free agency class of James Harden, P.J. Tucker and Danuel House. Sixers have begun cooperating with league on probe. Story soon.
NBA’s expected to pursue circumstances surrounding Harden declining $47M option to sign a 1+1 deal that cut salary to $33M and gave team more flexibility to sign Tucker and House. Some have wondered if another deal was already in place for future — which is against CBA rules.
It seems that what people thought was a possibility then, has proven to be true now. The league’s investigation has resulted in punishment for the Sixers.
The NBA Will Take The Sixers’ 2023 And 2024 Second-Round Picks For Early Discussions In Free Agency
Very few teams genuinely follow the rules when it comes to these things, free agency rules are flouted a fair bit. But the league found the Sixers to be guilty and has now punished the franchise.
The league’s investigation found no wrongdoing in James Harden’s near $15 million pay cut last summer – but findings showed that the 76ers made early free agency discussions with Danuel House Jr. and PJ Tucker, NBA says. https://t.co/7cT18MPSnV
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) October 31, 2022
“The NBA has taken away the 76ers‘ second round picks in 2023 and 2024 for early free agency discussions last offseason.”
“The league’s investigation found no wrongdoing in James Harden’s near $15 million pay cut last summer – but findings showed that the 76ers made early free agency discussions with Danuel House Jr. and PJ Tucker, NBA says.”
This makes sense for the league to do, they cannot allow these transgressions to go unchecked. Two picks seem like a lot, but second-rounders will make it sting a lot less than if it were in the first round. It is now up to the Sixers, though, to get it together and make a deep run that makes this all worth it.
