Before the season San Antonio, New Orleans and Boston were viewed as title contenders. Detroit had been to the Eastern Conference finals six consecutive years.

Six months later, one could argue only one of that quartet will be a contender next season.

As the first round was wrapping up Saturday night, Boston was the only one of the four still playing, and the overtime-drained Celtics were getting all they could handle from the No. 7-seeded Bulls.

The Celtics have no shot at repeating. Boston, though, is the one team that could return to elite status next season.

Boston's postseason hopes evaporated when Kevin Garnett was sidelined by a knee injury. With a healthy Garnett, the Celtics' defensive and emotional leader, Boston should stack up with any team in the league next season.

Granted, the Celtics are aging. Paul Pierce will be 32 next season, but his play in the Chicago series is proof he's still an All-Star caliber player capable of coming up big in big games.

Garnett, 33, must prove the knee injury won't be chronic, but he still has several productive years left. Ray Allen, 34, is slowing down but once again is reminding everyone he is the league's top perimeter shooter.

San Antonio has a similar "Three Amigos," but the Spurs looked like a tired, old team whose title run is over.

For the first time in the Tim Duncan era, the Spurs didn't advance to the second round of the playoffs with a healthy Duncan. Using the term healthy is debatable.

Duncan, 33, didn't look like the same player down the stretch or in the first-round exit to Dallas.

Manu Ginobili, who turns 32 in July, is an old 32 because of his off-season international competition. Now he has a chronic ankle injury to deal with.

Tony Parker, 27, is in his prime, but the Mavericks series was a reminder it takes more than one star to advance in the playoffs.

The Pistons' meltdown began the day they traded Chauncey Billups to Denver. Allen Iverson and Rasheed Wallace are free agents.

Rip Hamilton, 31, and Tayshaun Prince, 29, remain. Detroit has tons of salary cap room to regroup, reportedly targeting Chris Bosh and other high-profile free agents in 2010.

But Detroit's run is over. The Pistons will be fortunate just to make the playoffs next season unless they sign some key free agents this summer.

New Orleans has a good young core, but owner George Shinn is expected to shed salary. The Hornets probably will trade Tyson Chandler and would love to unload Peja Stojakovic's $30 million salary over the next two years.

Chris Paul is an elite player. But after losing games by 29, 15, 58 and 21 points to Denver in the playoffs, the Hornets will be lucky just to make the playoffs in upcoming years, much less be a title contender.

This season was a reminder how quickly things can change.

MOCK DRAFT

Not a deep class NBA general managers are grumbling the depth in this year's draft will be a significant drop off compared to last season, when more than a dozen players earned starting roles as rookies.

The reason for the decline is several potential lottery picks chose to return to school - Ed Davis (North Carolina), Greg Monroe (Georgetown), Al-Farouq Aminu (Wake Forest), Willie Warren (Oklahoma), Cole Aldrich (Kansas) and Donatas Motiejunas (Lithuania).

One Western Conference general manager was quoted on ESPN that "things are so bad that guys normally on the first-round bubble will be on the lottery bubble this year. This is a dangerous time. You start talking yourself into guys."

The draft, scheduled June 25 in New York, will feature several quality point guards but few NBA ready big men.

Listed below is a consensus top 20 compiled from several NBA mock drafts:

1. PF Blake Griffin, Oklahoma 2. PG Ricky Rubio, Spain 3. C Hasheem Thabeet, UConn 4. SG DeMar DeRozan, USC 5. SG James Harden, Arizona St. 6. F Jordan Hill, Arizona 7. PG Brandon Jennings, Italy 8. PG Stephen Curry, Davidson 9. SG Tyreke Evans, Memphis 10. PG Ty Lawson, No. Carolina 11. PF James Johnson, Wake Forest 12. F Earl Clark, Louisville 13. PG Eric Maynor, Va. Commonwealth 14. SF Gerald Henderson, Duke 15. PF DeJuan Blair, Pittsburgh 16. PG Jonny Flynn, Syracuse 17. SF Terrence Williams, Louisville 18. PG Jrue Holiday, UCLA 19. PF Patrick Patterson, Kentucky 20. PG Jeff Teague, Wake Forest

SALES REPORT

Kobe has most popular jersey

Kobe Bryant tops this year's list for the most popular NBA jersey, regaining the title he held in 2006-07 before Kevin Garnett surpassed him last season.

The list is based on sales at the NBA store in New York City and NBAstore-.com from the start of the season through April.

LeBron James and Chris Paul finished behind Bryant. The most popular teams were the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics.

Most popular players

1. Kobe Bryant, Lakers 2. LeBron James, Cavaliers 3. Chris Paul, Hornets 4. Kevin Garnett, Celtics 5. Allen Iverson, Pistons 6. Dwyane Wade, Heat 7. Paul Pierce, Celtics 8. Nate Robinson, Knicks 9. Pau Gasol, Lakers 10. Dwight Howard, Magic 11. Derrick Rose, Bulls 12. Ray Allen, Celtics 13. Steve Nash, Suns 14. Shaquille O'Neal, Suns 15. Carmelo Anthony, Nuggets

Most popular teams 1. Los Angeles Lakers 2. Boston Celtics 3. New York Knicks 4. Cleveland Cavaliers 5. Chicago Bulls 6. New Orleans Hornets 7. Phoenix Suns 8. Miami Heat 9. Detroit Pistons 10. San Antonio Spurs

INSIDE SCOOP

Fans tune in to see Cavs

→Thanks to LeBron James' star power, Cleveland averaged an 8.8 rating on Fox Sports Ohio. It was the highest regular-season local TV rating since Michael Jordan and the Bulls averaged an 8.9 in Chicago 12 years ago.

→Utah coach Jerry Sloan underwent knee replacement surgery on Thursday. Sloan, 67, has one year remaining on his contract. He plans to return next season but left the door open to retire early.

→Commissioner David Stern, wearing a hard hat, vest and a pair of boots, recently toured Orlando's new arena, which opens in 2010. Stern promised Orlando will host an All-Star Game and said the arena has a "wow" factor.

→Detroit general manager Joe Dumars said coach Michael Curry will return for a second season despite a 39-43 record and a quick first-round playoff exit. Dumars said multiple changes made it difficult to place much blame on Curry.

→Patrick Ewing said earlier this year he would "ride off into the sunset" and retire if he didn't land a head coaching job, but Ewing has signed on to remain an assistant coach with the Magic next season.

EARLY ENTRIES

Testing the waters

The NBA announced last week that 103 players, including 74 from college and 29 international players, have filed for early entry for the June 25 draft.

Players can withdraw their names from the draft but must notify the league of their decision in writing no later than June 15. College players can't hire an agent if they want to pull their names out of the draft and retain NCAA eligibility.

The NBA Draft combine is scheduled for May 27-31 in Chicago.

This is the final year under the current system. An NCAA panel last month voted to give non-seniors who enter the draft only until May 8 next year to decide whether to keep their names in the pool or return to school. The new ruling was designed to help college coaches finalize rosters, giving them time to replace departed players before the spring signing period expires on May 20.

Another significant rule change is early entries who aren't drafted only have 30 days after the draft - late July - to declare whether they're returning to school.

WORD ASSOCIATION

'David Stern'

Thunder players and other NBA players and coaches each week address an NBA topic. This week's subject - Commissioner David Stern.

Nick Collison: powerful leader

Byron Scott: great commissioner

Kevin Durant: businessman

Scott Brooks: best ever

Jason Kidd: great leader

Jeff Green: very smart

Mark Cuban: the commish

Kobe Bryant: the man

Greg Oden: good guy

Robin Lopez: fair

Grant Hill: good leader

Earl Watson: creative businessman

Derek Fisher: extremely smart