[Patt] The Bulls aren’t going to lose out on Lonzo Ball, so there’s some speculation that the tampering punishment could be worse, assuming there is punishment. Cody Westerlund of 670 The Score says “there’s a belief in some NBA circles that the Bulls could be docked a first-round draft pick.”

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The Chicago Bulls struck right away at the start of 2021 free agency, coming to terms with Lonzo Ball on a four-year, $80 million sign-and-trade deal within the opening minute. The Bulls had been trying to acquire Ball going back to the 2020-21 trade deadline, and all signs had pointed to them getting their man in free agency.

Because of how quickly the deal involving Ball and the New Orleans Pelicans came together, the NBA launched a tampering investigation. Kyle Lowry’s sign-and-trade deal with the Miami Heat also got caught up in an investigation.

That was nearly two months ago at this point, and the investigation is ongoing as training camp begins. Last year’s tampering investigation into the Milwaukee Bucks for the botched Bogdan Bogdanovic trade talks took about a month before the punishment was doled out. The Bucks were docked a 2022 second-round pick, with the failure to wind up with Bogdanovic playing a role in the decision.

The Bulls aren’t going to lose out on Ball, so there’s some speculation that the punishment could be worse, assuming there is punishment. Cody Westerlund of 670 The Score says “there’s a belief in some NBA circles that the Bulls could be docked a first-round draft pick.”

Chicago is out two first-round picks from the Nikola Vucevic trade and another one from the DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade, but one came back in the Lauri Markkanen sign-and-trade. Perhaps that pick (2022 lottery protected first from the Portland Trail Blazers) will be taken away from them, but that still remains to be seen. It would obviously be ideal to not lose that pick and be able to use it as a trade chip.