In the lane

NECESSARY VOICE: No matter how the situation plays out with the Detroit Pistons, there is no doubt that the NBA is a better place with Stan Van Gundy’s voice. And that voice had plenty to say the final week of the season about tanking. “When you have a third of the league trying to lose games, I don’t think that’s good for our product at all,” he said before coaching the Pistons’ season finale. “To me, it’s a lack of integrity in your league and lack of respect for your fans.” He also addressed the years-on-end tank-a-thon that delivered the Philadelphia 76ers to such a position of respect in this playoff series against the Heat. “Philadelphia is good and everyone is praising the process, how great it was. But the process is based on being as bad as you can be, historically bad for as long as you can,” the former Heat coach said. “If that’s the process and the accepted way to build a team in the NBA, then something needs to change.” UNTOLD STORY: So the Milwaukee Bucks went out and lost their regular-season finale 130-95 to the 76ers, eliminating the possibility of facing LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round, instead winding up with the injury-ravaged Boston Celtics, as the No. 7 Eastern Conference seed. Fair enough and smart enough. And, of course, the Bucks said all the right things afterward. And yet, as Matt Velazquez reported for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that didn’t mean the Bucks weren’t aware of all of the benefits of the night, including the Heat’s overtime victory over the Toronto Raptors that dropped the Bucks to No. 7. “No one in the locker room seemed upset with that turn of events,” Velazquez wrote, “with one player saying, ‘Way to go, Miami.’” All the Heat ask in return? That the Bucks win their series. In that case, if the Heat advance, they would have homecourt advantage against Milwaukee. BIG3 HEAT: The Big3 halfcourt league, which has a July 20 stop at AmericanAirlines Arena, held its draft for 2018 rosters this past week, with several former Heat players selected. Among draft selections for the circuit that includes all teams participating at each stop were former Heat players Chris “Birdman” Andersen, Quentin Richardson, Marcus Banks, Mike James and Robert Hite, the former University of Miami standout. Among other former Heat players committed to the league are Amar’e Stoudemire, Mike Bibby, Ricky Davis and Jermaine O’Neal. Tickets for the league’s 2018 summer season go on sale Friday. NO THUNDER: Of all the NBA’s coaching vacancies, the fit that seemingly would have made the most sense would have been Dan Majerle back to the Phoenix Suns. Only it did not end well there for the former Heat forward when he was an assistant coach and passed over the for the team’s interim vacancy in favor of Lindsey Hunter in 2012-13. Invited to interview for Jay Triano’s interim job, Majerle declined this past week, opting to continue to build the emerging program he is coaching at Phoenix’s Grand Canyon University. “I’m not ruling it out in the future, but there are still things I want to do here,” Majerle told the Arizona Republic.