What’s it like to be investigated by NBA? A look, as Heat’s move for Lowry draws scrutiny
As the NBA investigates the Miami Heat for potential tampering over its sign-and-trade acquisition of Kyle Lowry from the Toronto Raptors, the timing of events is what’s at the center of scrutiny.
The deal that landed Lowry with the Heat and sent Goran Dragic and Precious Achiuwa to the Raptors was evidently agreed to shortly after free-agent negotiations were permitted to begin Monday at 6 p.m., as Lowry announced his decision to join Miami with a post on his Twitter account at 6:38 p.m.
According to ESPN, the NBA also is looking into a potential tampering violation involving Chicago’s sign-and-trade acquisition of Lonzo Ball from the New Orleans Pelicans. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Twitter that the Ball deal was done at 6:01 p.m., just one minute after negotiations were allowed to begin.
“I think probably what sends a red flag, and I think Kyle’s situation is a little bit different than Lonzo Ball, the Lonzo Ball sign-and-trade came out at 6 p.m,” ESPN analyst and former Nets executive Bobby Marks said. “When the moratorium lifted, that was the first transaction. So if you’re the league, you’re thinking wait a minute. A complicated sign-and-trade, how did this come about? So I think you just got to be smart about it.
“Just wait an hour for it come out. You didn’t need to be first. I think that’s kind of the league’s perspective. Yeah, everyone is talking and stuff. But eventually you have to kind of draw a line in the sand a little bit.”
The Heat was allowed to speak with the Raptors about the parameters of a trade before the start of free agency. But to complete a sign-and-trade, a team also must negotiate a new contract with the free agent it’s acquiring in the deal.
By league rule, the team must not make contact with the free agent involved in the sign-and-trade transaction or their agent until the start of free agency. The central question of this investigation: Did the Heat make contact with Lowry, an unrestricted free agent, regarding the deal and a potential contract before Monday at 6 p.m?
The Heat formally announced the sign-and-trade deal on Friday, with Lowry signing a three-year contract worth $85 million with Miami to complete the move. The Heat exercised Dragic’s $19.4 million team option for next season on the eve of free agency on Aug. 1, which allowed Miami to use him in the sign-and-trade deal with Toronto.
“The thing here where it’s a little bit different is it’s not one of these teams complaining about each other,” Marks said of the investigations surrounding the Heat and Raptors, and Bulls and Pelicans. “The four teams all benefited from it. Everyone benefited. Nobody got screwed over and then one team is complaining about the other team tampering. So they all benefited. But the sign-and-trade at 6 o’clock when it comes out is a major red flag.”
But the belief is at least one NBA team issued a complaint about potential Heat tampering with Lowry, and the league has now launched an investigation. Multiple Western Conference teams expressed interest in Lowry ahead of free agency, according to a source, but teams reportedly began shifting their focus elsewhere when the Heat established itself as the front-runner.
“There was a team that complained, and now it’s the league’s job to investigate it,” Marks said.
Marks has some experience with what the Heat is going through. While Marks was working in the Nets front office, the team was investigated in 2013 in the wake of Andrei Kirilenko signing a two-year, $6.5 million contract with Brooklyn after opting out of the final year of his contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves, which was set to pay him $10.2 million next season.
The Nets were cleared in the investigation.
“I’ve been through it. I always say it every year when you hear one of these stories,” Marks said. “When you get investigated by the league, it’s probably one of the most uncomfortable things because it’s not the league who’s doing it. Basically they bring in an outside law firm and they go through everything. They go through your records, they go through your personal emails, your texts. You’re going through a lot of different things here. It’s almost like you’re guilty before innocent.”
An important layer in the Heat’s case is it also pursued Lowry at the March trade deadline, and the interest between the Heat and Lowry appeared to be mutual at that time. The Raptors kept Lowry at the deadline in part because of the Heat’s reluctance to include Tyler Herro in offers, but that negotiation process allowed Miami to get a read on who Toronto would be interested in from its roster and appeared to confirm that Lowry would have interest in joining the Heat.
Throw in any conversations the Heat and Raptors had about a potential trade entering free agency, which is allowed under NBA rules, and the teams could have been far along in negotiations by the time free agency opened Monday.
Two years ago, the NBA raised the maximum tampering fine to $10 million and also said that tampering could result in forfeiture of draft picks, suspension of team executives or even voiding of contracts.
Whether the NBA will be able to prove tampering remains in question, but Marks doesn’t believe the Lowry sign-and-trade deal will be voided even if the Heat is found guilty.
“I would say highly, highly unlikely that the trade will be voided and that Kyle is a free agent all of a sudden,” Marks said. “I think what will happen is if they’re found guilty, there will be some financial penalty and draft picks will be lost here. That’s kind of how I see it.”
Marks said a reasonable timetable for the NBA to complete this type of investigation is around two weeks, but the duration could vary based on the case.
Last offseason, the Milwaukee Bucks were forced by the NBA to give up a 2022 second-round draft pick after an investigation conducted by the league found that the Bucks had discussions with restricted free agent Bogdan Bogdanovic prior to the start of free-agent negotiations. The Bucks decided not to pursue Bogdanovic at that point, and he instead signed with the Atlanta Hawks.
In 2000, the Minnesota Timberwolves were fined $3.5 million for signing an illegal secret agreement with Joe Smith that manipulated the salary cap. The Timberwolves were also forced to forfeit five first-round picks, but some were eventually restored.
The NBA, the Heat and Lowry’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, all have not offered a comment since news of the investigation surfaced.
“I think if anything that they’ll get hit with maybe a second-round pick or draft picks or a fine,” Marks said of the Heat’s case. “This is not Joe Smith when they had an illegal contract and you’re losing everything. So they’ll be investigated and we’ll see what happens.”
SUMMER LEAGUE UPDATE
Center Omer Yurtseven, who recently signed a standard NBA contract with Miami to be part of its 15-man roster, will not play in Sunday’s Las Vegas Summer League game against the Denver Nuggets because of a blister on his right foot.
In addition, guard Gabe Vincent will miss Sunday’s game but is with the team. Vincent, who also recently signed a standard NBA contract with the Heat, represented Nigeria in the Tokyo Olympics this summer.
The rest of the Heat’s 15-man summer league roster is expected to be available to open its five-game summer league run in Las Vegas. Miami is coming off a 2-0 showing at the California Classic last week.
This story was originally published August 8, 2021 at 11:58 AM.
