And-Ones: Silver, China, Crawford, Draft, Owners

Commissioner Adam Silver said the year ahead is the time for decisions on changes to the playoff format and the draft lottery, and he expressed his support for expanded All-Star rosters as he spoke today on ESPN Radio’s NBA Lockdown show, writes Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Silver acknowledged that larger All-Star rosters could mean more money for players who have incentives in their contracts, Stein notes. The commissioner also spoke of the labor negotiations on the horizon for 2017, as Stein relays.

“I’d like to think that calmer heads will prevail and we’ll all realize that we have a great system here and that we shouldn’t screw it up,‎” Silver said in part.

Here’s more from around the NBA:

• Andray Blatche, Toney Douglas and Earl Clark are among the NBA veterans who are once more free agents after having signed to play in China this season, as Sportando’s Enea Trapani points out with a list of players finished with their Chinese obligations. The Chinese regular season ended today, putting a number of intriguing names on the market, though many others, like Will Bynum, who’s reportedly drawing interest from the Cavs and Wizards, are on playoff teams and might not be available until late March.
• Jordan Crawford is drawing strong interest from NBA teams in the wake of his experience in China, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. Crawford isn’t on Trapani’s list, since he suffered an eye injury and hasn’t played since November, but he would have returned to Xinjiang had the club made the playoffs, according to Charania.
• French swingman Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot will enter the 2015 NBA draft, sources tell Charania, who writes in a separate piece. The 19-year-old wouldn’t be automatically eligible until the 2017 draft, and unlike collegians, who are bound by the NCAA’s stricter timeline, he’ll have a chance to withdraw his name from this year’s event shortly before it takes place. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress lists him as No. 34 in his mock draft for 2016.
• The NBA will limit new ownership groups to no more than 25 members, none of whom will be able to hold less than 1% of the team, several sources told Grantland’s Zach Lowe. Existing ownership groups, including Milwaukee’s 37-person contingent, are allowed to remain as structured.