The NBA is investigating the Thunder and the Sixers for potential violations of the league’s participant participation coverage, sources inform Shams Charania of ESPN.
Based on Charania, the NBA is trying particularly on the Thunder’s March 7 recreation towards Portland, by which the staff sat its complete beginning 5: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (relaxation), Chet Holmgren (decrease leg contusion), Jalen Williams (wrist sprain), Luguentz Dort (patellofemoral soreness) and Isaiah Hartenstein (nasal fracture re-injury). Cason Wallace (proper knee contusion) additionally missed the sport, which wasn’t a part of a back-to-back set.
Whereas Holmgren sat out Oklahoma Metropolis’s March 5 contest too, the opposite 5 gamers who missed the Portland recreation had been accessible on each March 5 and March 9.
Gilgeous-Alexander is the one Thunder participant who meets the “star” criteria as outlined by the player participation policy, however there’s a precedent for groups being penalized for sitting a number of “non-star” starters in the identical recreation — the Nets had been hit with a $100K fine final season for making an identical transfer.
Nonetheless, Rylan Stiles of SI.com and Bobby Marks of ESPN are among the many reporters to query the need of investigating the Thunder for his or her method to the Portland recreation, provided that they’ve had a strenuous post-All-Star schedule and nonetheless received the sport by 18 factors. Marks means that the league needs to be targeted extra on lottery-bound groups who could also be flaunting the coverage in an effort to enhance their draft odds.
The Jazz, one such lottery-bound staff, had been fined $100K two days in the past for a participant participation coverage. The Sixers, who’ve additionally seemingly pivoted to prioritizing lottery place in current weeks, dominated out 11 gamers for Friday’s recreation towards Indiana.
Based on Charania, the league is trying on the Sixers because of the current absences of Paul George (knee/again/finger) and Tyrese Maxey (again/finger). George has missed the previous 5 video games, whereas Maxey has been out for the previous six, although head coach Nick Nurse mentioned after Friday’s loss that Maxey ought to return in some unspecified time in the future throughout Philadelphia’s upcoming six-game street journey, by way of Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports activities.
The league might decide that the absences of George, Maxey and the remainder of the inactive Sixers gamers are legit, but when the membership is set to have violated the participant participation coverage, it may face a nice of $250K. That’s the quantity for a second violation, and the 76ers already obtained a $100K nice earlier this season.
