On Sunday night, news broke in the NBA that the Miami Heat are front-runners to land free agent point guard Kyle Lowry.
A sign-and-trade with the Toronto Raptors will reportedly happen, sending Lowry to Miami in exchange for Goran Dragic and Precious Achiuwa.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Last November, the Bucks had a similar deal in place to land Bogdan Bogdanovic from Sacramento in a sign-and-trade deal that would’ve sent Donte DiVincenzo, D.J. Wilson and Ersan Ilyasova to the Kings.
That deal was nixed by the NBA, which ruled that the Bucks jumped the gun in making the deal before the start of the free agency period.
How is this Lowry deal any different?
The framework is clearly in place a full day before free agency is actually set to begin.
The NBA needs to define what tampering actually means.
If you’re going to penalize teams for jumping the gun, that’s fine.
Do it.
But don’t selectively enforce it.
Luckily for the Bucks, last November was much ado about nothing.
Last time I checked, they’re still dancing around with the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Take that, Adam Silver.