The Phoenix Suns exhausted most of their draft picks over the last calendar year making trades to bring Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal to the desert. While understandable all-in moves, the Suns spent much of this summer after acquiring Beal working diligently to try and acquire some second round picks in order to have something available to them in the form of draft capital going forward.
Having picks is crucial to not only making trades, but also having the potential to add young players to the roster on cost-controlled contracts that are much less than a veteran minimum. James Jones made a number of moves to sell off some first round pick swaps and veterans like Cameron Payne in order to get the Suns back to having six future second round picks at their disposal. Unfortunately, that total will be dropping down to five future seconds as the Suns will lose one after the league found them guilty of tampering this summer.
No, it wasn’t in acquiring Beal or Jusuf Nurkic or one of their household names. Instead, they had impermissible contact prior to free agency opening with…Drew Eubanks.
The following has been released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/S6eazRctxs
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) October 25, 2023
Eubanks is a nice backup big man, averaging 6.6 points and 5.4 rebounds per game last season in Portland, and he is back to backing up Nurkic in Phoenix. However, that is not usually the caliber of player you see teams tamper to get, but it does make sense given the timeline of how the Suns operated this summer. Some were surprised when the Suns pulled their qualifying offer on Jock Landale prior to the start of free agency, but they quickly signed Eubanks (among many other free agents) shortly after free agency opened. That process likely got them on the NBA’s radar, and sure enough the league determined they were in contact with Eubanks prior to when they were allowed to and now are short a second round pick for it. For most teams, that wouldn’t be a considerable penalty, but in Phoenix where second round picks are extremely valuable right now, it actually is.
