If the league punishes the bulls with this stiff penalty it would be them showing clear bias turning a blind eye to certain deals and negotiations and picking on others which will create a bad reputation with a lot of owners and gms. The league is opening the door for a ton of "well what about that situation " etc to take place.
I do see some light at the end of the tunnel it can be heavily argued that the deal was made at the deadline and just simply pushed through at the start of free agency . league would be basically playing stupid if they don't think players and teams have deals already agreed upon before free agency. It's basically saying we know you all do it just don't be so obvious about it.