The first day of the postseason is almost in the books, with the Thunder trying to avoid being the fourth home team to lose. Here’s a roundup of notes from around the league:
- Rick Buchanan oversees the NBA’s drug-testing program, and he defended the league’s process to Sam Amick of USA Today. “[The NBA’s protocol] is as good or better than the programs in the other leagues, but we’ve kind of been given a bit of a hard time about that,” Buchanan said. “And then we have a positive [testing] situation, and a penalty, and the questions then go in another direction, which is, ‘Gee, isn’t this harsh?’…We can’t seem to catch a break.” The player’s union came out strongly in opposition to the suspension of Nick Calathes handed down yesterday.
- Following this week’s owners meeting, Adam Silver said that the league is prepared to make raising the age limit for draft entry its top priority, per Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. Silver and the owners also discussed a variety of ways to ease the transition from college hoops to the pros, including lowering the college shot clock and providing financial incentive to stay in school.
- Changing the lottery format to increase the incentive for all teams to field competitive teams was also an item of discussion, with plans including the draft “wheel” and a postseason play-in tournament on the table, the ESPN scribe adds.
- Charles F. Gardner of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel thinks that the Bucks could turn around their franchise and parallel the success stories of the Thunder and Bobcats, but opines that the rebuild will take years and require patience.
- Andrew and Aaron Harrison are waiting for NBA feedback before they decide whether to enter this year’s draft, the twins’ father tells Mark Berman of MyFOXHouston.com (H/T Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv). “I just sent the paperwork in two or three days ago,” said Aaron Harrison, Sr. “I talked to a gentleman at the NBA and he said he would get it to me as fast as possible and then we’ll go from there. It’s important. You’re trying to find out what the prospects are for them and where they’ll be drafted and all those things.”