Alvin Gentry will join the Hornets' coaching staff today, becoming the fourth and final assistant under head coach Tim Floyd.

Gentry will be introduced at a 10 a.m. press conference at the Alario Center, sources said.

Gentry, 48, has been an NBA head coach for parts or all of seven seasons, compiling an overall record of 177-226 with the Miami Heat, Detroit Pistons and Los Angeles Clippers. His most recent stint was with the Clippers and ended March 3, when he was fired as the Clippers struggled to a 19-39 record amid expectations that the young, talented team might challenge for a playoff berth in the Western Conference.

Gentry's first head coaching job was with the Heat, when he replaced Kevin Loughery during the 1994-95 season and posted a 15-21 record. Next was a three-year stretch with the Pistons; he replaced Doug Collins and led Detroit to a 16-21 record in 1997-98, went to the playoffs after a 29-21 record in the lockout-shortened season of 1998-99 and was fired after 58 games and a 28-30 record the next season.

The Clippers selected him as head coach before the 2000-01 season and won 31 and 39 games before floundering this past season. Gentry was replaced by Dennis Johnson.

With a successful draft under his belt, graded as best in the league by several media sites, Pistons President Joe Dumars now looks to the free-agent season.

It probably will feel like a mini-vacation.

Unlike last year, when the Pistons targeted and aggressively pursued Chauncey Billups, there is no urgent need to be filled. Heck, there really isn't even a shopping list.

"It's not like we have a dire need, where we just have to go out and find somebody," Dumars said. "At this point, where we are as a team, it's about finding the right person to add to the mix. I don't want to make any mistakes."

The Pistons are over the salary cap, so they won't be in the bidding for top-shelf free agents such as Jason Kidd or Jermaine O'Neal.

They have essentially two options. One is to use the mid-level exception, which is expected to be worth $4.8 million. With that the Pistons can offer a six-year deal worth more than $34 million, which is what Billups received. The other is through trades, either a straight trade or a sign-and-trade.

"Is there a chance the free-agent time could pass and we don't use our mid-level?" Dumars said. "Yeah, that could happen. It has to be somebody we all agree is right or we will pass."

Not a small person by any means, Joe Dumars was dwarfed Friday when he stood with 6-foot-7 Carlos Delfino, 7-1 Darko Milicic and 7-1, 265-pound Andreas Glyniadakis to pose for pictures.

Dumars, 6-3, welcomed the Pistons' three draft choices at the Palace, where they were introduced to the media.

Delfino held up jersey No. 24, Milicic No. 31 and Glyniadakis No. 55. Dumars, the team president of basketball operations, wore a shirt with no number.

Milicic, from Serbia-Montenegro, is the first European to be the Pistons' top pick in the draft. He went No. 2 overall Thursday night. The draft also marked the first time all the Pistons' picks came from overseas.

"We feel like we had a great draft last night," Dumars said. "A lot of times after drafts people will come out and say, hey, we got the player we wanted, but ask anybody that has dealt with us for the last month, they'd tell you we got the three guys we set out to get from day one.

It all fell correctly for the Pistons.

When the 25th pick of the NBA draft rolled around Thursday, the Pistons had their choice of several solid prospects. They could have gone big and drafted 6-foot-11 Maciej Lampe, or they had their choice of a couple of highly touted swing players -- Wake Forest's Josh Howard or Carlos Delfino.

The Pistons chose Delfino, a 6-6, 230-pounder from Argentina.

"We explored all those choices," said John Hammond, the Pistons' vice president of basketball. "But the guy we wanted all along was Delfino. We are excited to be able to get him."

Delfino, 19, averaged 10.9 points and five rebounds in three seasons in Italy. Hammond said Delfino's game was reminiscent of San Antonio Spurs' Manu Ginobili.

While the public praised Pistons President Joe Dumars for bringing in players chiseled in his image, he prepared himself for the day when an immature, controversial figure would come to his team.

A couple of years ago, Dumars wanted to bring in Philadelphia guard Allen Iverson, rap CD and all. He is not afraid to bring in a guy with a Dennis Rodman-like personality if he has Tracy McGrady-like talent.

Dumars' time may have come. Darko Milicic is not a thug. But he is an 18-year-old Eastern European who is about to enjoy American riches. He already gushed in ESPN The Magazine about how NBA players can have any woman they want.

Reports indicate that he was disliked by teammates, and he is coming over from Eastern Europe with a superstar attitude that might need to be checked at the door.

The Pistons selected Milicic with the No. 2 draft pick in Thursday night's NBA draft. They obtained a talented player. But did Dumars also take on his first real distraction as team president?

For most of the day Thursday, Darko Milicic did what every teenager does well: sleep.

He had to venture out from his Manhattan apartment once for a meeting with NBA officials to go over information about the night's big event, but otherwise, Milicic relaxed. It wasn't until he was standing on the floor of Madison Square Garden, until there was less than an hour to go before the draft, that the magnitude inherent to the day started to wash over him.

"I am a little nervous," he said while managing a smile. "I know where I am going, but in 15 minutes, my whole life change."

His life officially changed at 7:40 p.m., when the Pistons selected him with the second overall pick -- after running their allotted five-minute selection time all the way down to 12 seconds. Milicic hugged and kissed his father, Milorad, then donned a blue Pistons cap and ambled up on the stage to shake hands with NBA commissioner David Stern. Milicic, a native of Novi Sad, Serbia-Montenegro, became the highest European pick in any NBA draft.

"I'm very happy it's over," he said afterward. "I knew a month ago Detroit was interested in me, and I am ready for Detroit."

Wednesday night at the Manhattan penthouse apartment of his representatives, Marc and Natasha Cornstein, Darko Milicic stretched across a chair. Natasha rubbed his head.

"First I'm tired, next I'm excited," Milicic said. "Joe Dumars is great, I can't wait to play for his team. I'm really excited. I really, really like him."

Nineteen hours later it became official. The Pistons, beneficiaries of a bad trade by Vancouver for Otis Thorpe in 1997, had their 7-foot-1, 253-pound center-forward.

Milicic, 18, became the highest drafted European player when the Pistons took him at No. 2 Thursday night, after Cleveland chose LeBron James. Pau Gasol, a native of Spain, was drafted third overall by the Atlanta Hawks in 2001. (He was later traded to Memphis.)

Milicic is assured of more than $11 million over the next three years.

The news got even better for the Pistons later. Argentine swingman Carlos Delfino, a 6-7, 230-pounder whom Dumars coveted, became the Pistons' second first-round pick at No. 25.

With the last pick in the draft, No. 58, the Pistons picked up another European player. They chose 21-year-old Andreas Gliniadakis, a 7-1, 265-pound center from Greece. He's expected to stay overseas and play for the Greek national team.

Hours after lambasting former 76ers coach Larry Brown on a local morning radio show, Pat Croce, Brown's former boss, didn't shy away from his comments at all.

Reached by telephone last night, Croce, the former Sixers president, repeated what he said on WIP-AM (610). He blasted Brown for getting on Allen Iverson's tardiness at practice, and for "lying" when he said he "never had final say" as vice president of basketball operations in his six-year stint in Philadelphia.

"That statement alone was an insult to Billy King and to me," Croce said, referring to the current Sixers president. "I love Larry. I've always had a good relationship with Larry. But for him to come out and say what he said was completely false. It was wrong."

Croce also said Brown had attempted to miss practices himself.

"I had to call Larry to practice a few times," Croce said. "There were a couple of times I personally had to call him at home to come into work because he didn't want to come. There was a time when I had to address the team and let them know he wouldn't be in because he was contemplating whether or not he was going to quit."

Darko Milicic is in love.

He has spent the past few months living in New York, and, like so many others, has come to regard this city as like no other in the world.

It's an affair that soon will have to end, though. Shortly after 7 o'clock tonight, in what will come as a denouement to two months of expectation, the Pistons will draft Milicic with the second overall pick they received from Memphis to complete a 6-year-old trade. That means good-bye New York, hello Auburn Hills.

Milicic finished up one last day of pre-draft events Wednesday, starting with a trip to the southern tip of Manhattan to help ring open the New York Stock Exchange. A few hours later he was ensconced at the Westin Times Square Hotel to meet the media along with a score of other expected first-round picks. Only Milicic, No. 1 pick LeBron James and No. 3 pick Carmelo Anthony got their own individual news conferences, however.

Milicic, a native of Novi Sad, Montenegro, brought along interpreter Zak Ivkovic, but it was for comfort, not necessity. Milicic listened to every question in English, then promptly delivered his response in his native Serbian to Ivkovic, who then translated it into English during several classic examples of how a foreign answer that goes something like, "blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah," becomes "yes."

For Joe Dumars and his staff, tonight's real excitement starts about the time the last lottery pick goes in the NBA draft.

Dumars, the Pistons' president of basketball operations, made up his mind weeks ago that he would draft Darko Milicic with the second overall pick. What Dumars doesn't know is whom he will take with the 25th pick or who will be available.

The Pistons have their sights on one of three swingmen, in hopes of finding someone to help back up Richard Hamilton at shooting guard.

NBA teams usually try to bluff other clubs about their real interests, but that shouldn't be true in the Pistons' case. At the top of their list could be Travis Hansen, a 6-foot-6, 25-year-old from Brigham Young; Carlos Delfino, an athletic 6-7, 230-pounder from Italy; and 6-8 Boris Diaw-Riffiod from France, whose stock is rising.

The Pistons also own the final pick in the draft -- 58th overall -- and they figure to choose the best available player regardless of position.