Vivek Ranadive is believed to be the most intrigued by the candidacy of Kevin McHale as the Sacramento Kings search for their next head coach.
McHale was fired at the start of this season by the Houston Rockets.
McHale has been cautious in his approach to the job as the Kings have gone through several coaches during the ownership tenure of Ranadive.
McHale has broadcasting opportunities available to him should he decide to remain out of coaching.
Patrick Ewing will interview for the Sacramento Kings' head coaching vacancy.
Ewing is currently an assistant coach with the Charlotte Hornets.
Ewing has become a more serious candidate in recent seasons as he's taken on more responsibilities. Ewing has been an assistant coach with Steve Clifford, Stan Van Gundy and Jeff Van Gundy.
The Kings are intrigued by the possibility of having Ewing coach DeMarcus Cousins.
Sacramento VP of Basketball Operations Vlade Divac has expressed to people a desire to have three finalists to bring to ownership for a final round of interviews.
Jacque Vaughn is joining the Brooklyn Nets as the top assistant to new head coach Kenny Atkinson.
Vaughn was head coach of the Orlando Magic from 2012 until 2015, posting a 43-121 record.
Vaughn spent the 2015-16 season in the San Antonio Spurs’ front office as a pro personnel director.
Sean Marks worked closely with Vaughn during their shared time together with the Spurs.
Host Danny Leroux (@DannyLeroux) and Kevin Pelton of ESPN (@kpelton) preview an exciting weekend of NBA playoff basketball from Spurs/Thunder (1:20), Warriors/Blazers (24:29), Cavs/Hawks (42:23), Pacers/Raptors (45:04) and Hornets/Heat (53:33). They also discuss Luke Walton becoming the next head coach of the Lakers (56:53).
Kevin Durant spoke highly of Gregg Popovich hours before the start of the Western Conference Semifinals.
Durant will be a free agent in the offseason.
“No matter how many moving parts they have on the team, he always stays consistent with what he does,” Durant said.
“Having a coach, a really good coach is probably the most important thing in this league. Because you can have all the great players you want, but if you have someone to orchestrate it, that’s what they have. They’ve got great players, but they also have a great coach to put them in positions that utilizes all their strengths as individuals and make it come together as a team.”
The Golden State Warriors plan on hiring a replacement for Luke Walton from outside the organization.
Walton has become the second member of the Warriors' coaching staff to get a head coaching job following Alvin Gentry with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Ron Adams is Steve Kerr's other top assistant and is not a candidate for other head coaching jobs.
David Blatt was a candidate to be an assistant coach with the Warriors in 2014 before he joined the Cleveland Cavaliers, but he isn't as certain of a target now.
Luke Walton agreed to a contract with the Los Angeles Lakers worth $25 million over five seasons.
Walton was the only candidate interviewed by the Lakers.
Walton emerged as one of the NBA's most coveted head coaches with how he led the Golden State Warriors on an interim basis when Steve Kerr was out.
Daryl Morey took responsibility for the Houston Rockets' disappointing season that ended in a five-game series loss to the Golden State Warriors as the eighth seed.
"This is on me," he said. "A lot of the guys we brought in didn't work out. That's on me. We're going to do better. We're going to get back to Rockets basketball. We're going to get back to winning."
Morey disputed the notion that he does not value chemistry.
"I think it's hugely important," Morey said. "I don't remember articles about how our chemistry was great last year. I don't remember articles last year that said how great our guys were together. That's a label people throw on a team when it's not going well. The reality is we didn't have enough guys playing together and playing well. Last year, we had a lot of guys playing well and playing together. It's the same group of guys. They had good chemistry. They just didn't play well.
"It's the convenient thing to say the chemistry is bad. We lost games. Everybody is trying to figure out why we lost games. The reality is our defense was a lot worse. That was guys not playing as well as we needed them to play."
Daryl Morey defended the Houston Rockets' season from criticism and also accused other teams of planting or influencing stories about the team.
Morey believes the stories are a free agent ploy.
"It's been disappointing - and obviously we're all disappointed - that people are painting the season we just had and trying to make it into a larger thing than it is, which is one season that was disappointing in a sea of a lots of seasons that were successful," Morey said. "Not as successful as we want, but for sure not the entire negative environment that people are trying to paint.
"It's smart for other teams to try to paint us in a negative way. It's a very competitive free-agent situation. All the articles you see out there are other teams I think very smartly trying to paint our situation as negative. Being kicked while you're down is a smart situation by teams leaking things, trying to put stuff out there to make us look bad."
There were stories about players not wanting to play with James Harden.
"I think that's very smart, strategic positioning," Morey said. "I had to address that last year when a certain owner was painting our team in a bad light. This year is no different. I think it's very smart that other teams are trying to paint our players in a bad light. … James Harden, I don't know who wouldn't want to play with him. A top-five player in the league, unbelievable passer, unbelievable scorer. … Everything we hear is that people only want to play with him."
The Los Angeles Lakers moved quickly on hiring Luke Walton as head coach after their interview with him on Thursday in Oakland.
The Lakers had plans to interview Ettore Messina at some point next week between Games 2 and 3 of the San Antonio Spurs' series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, but they canceled following Walton's interview.
Walton and Messina quickly emerged as the top candidates for the Lakers' job after they fired Byron Scott.
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