Does NBA have a problem with performance-enhancing drugs?

In light of the NBA’s “unprecedented” recent struggle with players taking performance-enhancing drugs, is it too early to officially call this a problem?

Does the NBA have a problem on its hands, in regards to performance-enhancing drugs?

The explanations would vary, depending on who you ask. But two weeks and three suspensions into the season, the league has to — at the very least — entertain the question.

Since the end of 2018-19, the league has issued 25-game suspensions to last season’s No. 1 overall draft pick, Deandre Ayton of the Phoenix Suns; Atlanta Hawks’ up-and-coming big John Collins; and the Brooklyn Nets’ veteran swingman Wilson Chandler.

At first glance, a mere three suspensions may not seem to be much; in roughly a 450-player league and there have only been 11 instances of a player being suspended for violating the NBA and NBPA’s Anti-Drug Policy since 2007.

Throw that side-by-side with any other professional American league and the NBA — the same NBA that was once synonymous with drug abuse, rigging games and fan-player violence — looks almost as humanitarian as they come. That said, it’s difficult to gloss over the specifics of this season’s specifics.

There’s two sides to the coin, particularly with Wilson Chandler’s suspension. On one hand, it feels unrealistic that a respected, established 12-year veteran would make such costly mistake … unless he wanted to stay ahead of the curve.

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According to a New York Times report, Chandler said his prescribed treatment had small doses of the prohibited SPED (steroids and performance-enhancing drug), a growth-hormone and muscle-increasing drug known as ipamorelin. Ipamorelin had only been on the NBA’s list of nearly 200 prohibited substances since 2016-17.

Swingman Jodie Meeks was also suspended for the same drug on the eve of the 2018 Playoffs.

Understandable as it may be, it goes against the common trend of what we have seen when players are suspended for performance-enhancing drugs.

With the exception of Rashard Lewis — who made the All-Star Game the year before his suspension — the vast majority of these players are suspended well after their primes. Hedo Turkoglu, for example, was a 26.9 percent shooter at age 33 for the Los Angeles Clippers. Lindsey Hunter was a 36-year-old fringe rotation guard for the Detroit Pistons.

To see Ayton and Collins — both of whom plan to appeal their suspensions — being issued discipline prior to their primes feels problematic.

In whichever case, the league is working at a rate of a suspension per month this season with the punishments to Collins, Ayton and Chandler. It leagues room for wonder: is the NBA simply getting smarter at cracking down, or have players been “juicing up” all along?

How do those closest to the NBA feel about a potential steroid problem?

A few around the Association have been relatively transparent as to whether they believe their fellow colleagues are using performance-enhancing drugs. In his autobiography Furious George, 1,000-win head coach George Karl insinuated that he absolutely believed players did so, but were smart enough to do so under the radar.

"“I’m talking about performance-enhancing drugs—like steroids, human growth hormone, and so on. It’s obvious some of our players are doping. How are some guys getting older—yet thinner and fitter? How are they recovering from injuries so fast? Why the hell are they going to Germany in the offseason? I doubt it’s for the sauerkraut.“More likely it’s for the newest, hard-to-detect blood boosters and PEDs they have in Europe. Unfortunately, drug testing always seems to be a couple steps behind drug hiding. Lance Armstrong never failed a drug test.”"

Karl’s hypothesis fits into an Aug. 29 column written by Michael McCann, Sports Illustrated’s legal analyst. Players — particularly in today’s lucrative, pay-all era — come from deep pockets. There, we find the idea of microdosing, once largely-connected with former American cyclist Lance Armstrong.

The idea of players have access to harder-to-detect drugs — and ones that can be timed to avoid detection when introduced by a specialist — is scary in itself. Even so, to say that the idea doesn’t exist is an interesting dynamic. And rocky as it may be, there’s a semblance of potential proof that players know of it.

In the middle of an Eastern Conference Finals tilt in 2011, the league’s Most Valuable Player Derrick Rose was reported as saying the NBA had a “huge problem” with performance-enhancing drugs in ESPN The Magazine.

The Bulls guard was asked: on a scale of 1-to-10, how problematic doping was in pro basketball, Rose reportedly offered this response:

"“Seven. It’s huge, and I think we need a level playing field, where nobody has that advantage over the next person.”"

Rose later reneged on the statement, citing the NBA’s extensive testing policy — which includes tests both scheduled and unscheduled throughout the season — which would make doping difficult. Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, players can apparently be tested for “reasonable cause” all over a month and a half.

What should we make of the potential appeals?

In whole, it has the feel of just another what if; It definitely feels like a positive that the NBA hasn’t had many documented instances of steroid use, but it certainly makes for quite the discussion.

From what we know, John Collins has confirmed he will appeal his suspension and Deandre Ayton plans to do the same. According to Mike Conti, the play-by-play voice for the Atlanta Hawks’ Radio Network, the appeal could be lengthy; if the suspension is served in full, Collins’ return wouldn’t be until Dec. 23.

Collins, a player many had pegged to challenge for an All-Star appearance this season, was suspended for testing positive for GHRP-2 (also called pralmorelin), which increases food intake and appetite.

For Collins’ appeal, McCann brought out that his best route might be to prove that his supplement was contaminated this time around. Listen to Collins’ statement in his press release and you get the impression that he is more or less oblivious. The Hawks big said that he took the supplement, one that “unbeknownst to me, had been contaminated with an illegal component.”

The Hawks will have a chance to acquire another player, while in the meantime working a small-ball lineup with Jabari Parker. One-game sample size it may be, but the experiment had success during the Hawks’ 108-100 victory over the San Antonio Spurs.

How sustainable that is remains the burning question. The Hawks were a 32-win team with Collins in the lineup a season ago, which might seem pedestrian. But remember, the Hawks finished 24-58 in 2018-19.

Without Collins in the lineup, the Hawks performed as a 19-win team (a hefty 21-game sample size). Collins also had the best on-off rating among players to play real minutes at plus-6.6.

Ayton is awaiting a decision on his appeal, according to Kellan Olson of Arizona Sports, but Adrian Wojnarowski reported the NBPA is preparing an arbitration case should the NBA deny the appeal request. Similarly, he said that he was unaware of what he put into his body.

The sophomore big has already seven games of his suspension, which leaves some question as to if he will be able to cut into the 25-game penalty.

Ayton’s suspension was linked to diuretics, which increase urine flow and produce the ability to mask the act of doping. Should he serve the whole suspension, Ayton would lose a shade over $2 million.

Life without Deandre Ayton in Phoenix won’t be nearly as painful a fall as we might’ve expected. In his absence, trade acquisition Aron Baynes has stepped up to the plate and produced at a Most Improved Player caliber rate.

Gerald Bourguet of The Step Back shed some light on this: Baynes’ presence on the floor accounts for a 24.4 points per 100 possessions increase, a fitting trend that’s followed the Australian big from Detroit to Boston and now Phoenix.

Regardless of whether the suspensions are appealed, the unprecedented amount of PED suspensions represents a poor look for the Association. All told, seeing a No. 1 pick be penalized for doping certainly makes this a problematic dynamic.

But it still feels as though the league is maybe one more suspension or two — particularly from a marquee star — before it’s given the “problem” label.

Given the league’s increasing desire to make basketball a global game, its willingness to nip these issues in the bud quickly feels commendable. Similar to its officiating scandal at the tail end of the 2000s, any negative buzz presents a drawback to that goal. Perhaps the best thing to say at this point? Only time will tell.