Suns under investigation for prohibited early free agency contact with Drew Eubanks, lose 2024 2nd round pick

It’s been a while since free agency began and the Phoenix Suns quickly filled out most of its roster with some surprisingly good quality vets on minimum-salary contracts. According to Marc Stein, the NBA thinks they may have moved too quickly in at least one case.

As Stein indicated, if the Suns are ruled to have violated free agency rules in this instance, they would likely be penalized by having to forfeit a second round draft pick. For most teams, this wouldn’t be a huge deal but the Suns are notoriously draft pick poor after the series of trades they made since the 2022-23 trade deadline and don’t own a single one of their own 2nd round picks until 2031.

Presently they have six 2nd rounders acquired from other teams in 2024 (2), 2026, 2028 (2), and 2029. Two of those are also heavily protected and unlikely to convey which makes them unlikely to be chosen by the NBA if they decide to go this route in handing out a penalty.

According to a Hoops Rumors article, if the NBA rules against the Suns, the pick they will likely have to forfeit is Denver’s 2024 2nd rounder which will likely fall in the high 50s. The other 2nd round pick they have in 2024 was acquired from the Spurs in the Cameron Payne trade and is protected for selections 31-54 so it will very likely not convey. The Suns do still have a 1st round pick in 2024 but both Washington (1st right to swap) and Memphis (2nd right to swap) have rights to swap their 1st round picks for it.

UPDATE:

As confirmed by The Athletic’s Shams Charania, they have indeed lost their 2024 second-draft pick.

The Phoenix Suns responded with a statement pertaining to the investigation and its results: