• Tiago Splitter's lifeless semifinal performance (7 points, 6 rebounds in 22 minutes) might have affected his standing on some draft boards, but potentially far more damaging is his contract status at Tau.

The 6-foot-11 Brazilian has a buyout clause that would enable any NBA team that drafts him in June to pay for his release in summer 2008.

But if the team does not exercise that clause next year, Splitter will be unavailable for another two years, so not until the start of the 2010-11 season, by which time he will be 25.

Then there is the Scola domino effect. If Tau were to allow Scola to join San Antonio in 2008, it would be more reluctant than ever to cooperate in facilitating the departure of its other prize asset.

As one scout puts it, all of this leaves Splitter "in limbo." Interest in the player has to be weighed against when an NBA team can actually get him and how much his release will cost. That is why Splitter will appear as a lottery pick on some draft boards and as low as 15-20 on others.

• Relations between the Euroleague and NBA remain constructive, but a couple of minor points of conflict lurk on the horizon.

Euro giants CSKA and Benetton Treviso are traveling to China for an exhibition tournament in October, and Euroleague is working on deals with the Japanese and Korean leagues -- an "expansion" into the Far East that mirrors the NBA's own.

More relevantly, Euroleague wants to discuss potential changes in draft regulations that will prevent what is widely known in Europe as "the Darko effect."

Serbia's Darko Milicic played only sparingly in Detroit after the Pistons selected him second overall in the 2003 draft. European team and league executives worry about the harm caused to players like him who are drafted or signed by NBA teams, then left at the end of benches or in the Development League, when they would be better served remaining in Europe, where they would be allowed to develop more slowly.

"We have no problem with competing for players in the open market," said Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu. "Our worry is, when they are ready to go into that market. The draft is not the problem, the problem is the age at which our players declare for it.

"If we can keep players with high buyout clauses -- as happens with Scola and Navarro -- or if we are competitive enough to pay the players what they could earn in the NBA, then that is good for us. If not and the player goes, then it is good for the player."

One possible proposal: NBA teams should be allowed to send players back to Europe after they have played in the league and still retain their rights (currently, teams lose their rights in such a case) in return for some financial remuneration.

In this scenario, Milicic, after a rookie season in which he averaged 4.7 minutes over 34 games, would have been allowed to return to his team in Serbia, the Pistons would have supplemented his salary there and, in return, been allowed to bring him back to the NBA when he was ready.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?id=2861992

I say we should go for a great 2 Guard. A PF like S. Williams would be good, except if he cant stay out of trouble in college, what's going to happen to him in the pros?

Let them keep their own players. America is filled with big men that could get the same treatment Splitter would need. Stay out of Europe and come the many American leagues out there for talent.

Tiago Splitter is considered a decent NBA prospect, but teams have been scared that it may be nearly impossible to get him out of his European contract. ESPN Insider Chad Ford has word from Splitter's agent, Herb Rudoy, that in fact Splitter has an escape clause in the summer of 2008, when he can be bought out for $1 million. Not bad for a worst-case scenario.

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-24-41/Wednesday-Bullets.html