The Sonics will not conduct a massive audition for the single spot open on the roster and will bring just one player to training camp who does not have a guaranteed contract.

Jermaine Jackson, 31, a 6-foot-5 guard, will join Seattle on Tuesday when camp begins with the hopes of resurrecting a journeyman NBA career. Signed as a free agent in Detroit in 1999, he's played with five teams in five years. His final stop was with Milwaukee during the 2005-06 season.

The 15-man training roster: guards Luke Ridnour, Earl Watson, Delonte West and Jackson; forwards Nick Collison, Mickael Gelabale, Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Wally Szczerbiak, Kurt Thomas, Chris Wilcox and Damien Wilkins; centers Johan Petro, Mouhamed Sene and Robert Swift.

At the request of the Seattle SuperSonics, a different judge is being assigned to oversee the lawsuit the city filed against the team this week.

King County Superior Court Judge Glenna Hall was initially assigned to the case, in which the city is trying to keep the Sonics in KeyArena through the end of their lease in 2010. Hall has agreed to the team's request for a different judge.

Sonics' ownership group spokesman Louie Richmond would say only that the team believed a different judge would be better suited to the case.

The Seattle city attorney's office said it did not have a problem with Hall and said the Sonics are just judge-shopping.

The Seattle SuperSonics today named Paul Westhead an assistant coach on P.J. Carlesimo?s staff, Sonics General Manager Sam Presti announced. Westhead brings 30 years of collegiate and professional coaching experience to the Sonics bench.

?We are extremely fortunate to have Paul Westhead join our coaching staff,? Carlesimo said. ?He will be a great resource to our talented players, and also to his fellow coaches.?

Westhead joins the Sonics after spending the last two years as the head coach of the WNBA Phoenix Mercury, where he compiled an overall record of 41-27 (.603) and led the Mercury to their first WNBA Championship in 2007. Known throughout his coaching career for his teams? up-tempo style, Westhead?s 2006 Mercury team shattered the WNBA record for scoring by averaging 87.1 points per game, nearly 10 points higher than the previous mark held by the 2000 Houston Comets.

?I?m happy to join the Sonics staff,? Westhead said. ?P.J. and I have worked together and known each other for many years and I?m thankful for the opportunity.?

Paul Westhead, who is the only coach to win NBA and WNBA titles, appears ready to return to the league where he won a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1980.

The "Guru of Go" will meet with general manager Sam Presti and coach P.J. Carlesimo about an opening on the Sonics' coaching staff.

After Phoenix defeated Detroit to win the WNBA title Sept. 16, Westhead confirmed the Sonics offered him a job as an assistant.

The Sonics and Westhead are expected to conclude negotiations today, and an official announcement is expected soon.

Seattle city officials filed a lawsuit Monday to keep the SuperSonics from leaving town.

The lawsuit filed in King County Superior Court was a counter move to a Sonics' attempt to be released from their lease on KeyArena.

According to the complaint, "The Sonics promised to 'play all home games ... exclusively"' at the arena at the Seattle Center through Sept. 30, 2010.

"The city, with the help of some fine lawyers, is standing up to a pro sports team," city attorney Tom Carr said at a news conference. "Too often, pro sports teams have run over local governments."

Supersonics owner Clay Bennett filed paperwork Friday to have an arbitrator rule on whether or not the club could escape the last two years of its arena lease and relocate.

The team has sought construction of a new home arena and Bennett is from Oklahoma City, which drew rave reviews as a temporary home for the NBA Hornets after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

The Hornets are back in Louisiana and Oklahoma City is seen as a prime candidate for any franchise looking to relocate, which the Sonics would without a new arena, Bennett said.

Doug Christie worked out for members of the Portland Trail Blazers front office on Wednesday, his first audition while on the comeback trail.  

Christie was excited that the Blazers requested a workout and was pleased with how he showed his health and skills.  

?They told my agent that they were highly impressed and that I was the best on the floor,? Christie told RealGM.  ?They also said I was in excellent shape and ready to play.  I?m very happy with the outcome.?

Christie also has a workout scheduled with the Seattle Supersonics in the coming days.

?I?ve worked very hard to get back to 100% and I?m very excited with how I played in Jamal Crawford?s summer league here in Seattle this summer,? said Christie.  ?I?m very ready to get back out there on the court this season.?

The Muckleshoot Indian tribe is making a move to help keep the Seattle SuperSonics and Seattle Storm in the Puget Sound region.

A feasibility study paid for by the tribe and released on Monday showed promise for a possible multipurpose arena built on land owned by the tribe in Auburn, about 25 miles southeast of downtown Seattle.

The study, by consultants Brailsford & Dunlavey, said the proposed site -- next to the Emerald Downs racetrack -- could accommodate an 18,500-seat arena along with parking. It would cost about $450 million.

And, as an added carrot, the tribe has offered to donate the 26.5-acre site to whoever wants to develop the project.

"The tribe wants to do this as a contribution to the region. That is it," tribal spokesman Rollin Fatland said. "It's an altruistic move on the part of the tribe."

Mercury coach Paul Westhead is still considering a job offer from the Seattle SuperSonics as an assistant to new Sonics coach P.J. Carlesimo.

"I'm going to go home and think it out," Westhead said Sunday after the Mercury won the WNBA championship in his second year with the Phoenix franchise.

Westhead, who has been a Carlesimo friend for 30 years, confirmed that the Sonics spoke to him a few weeks ago. He said he informed Mercury management and players of the possibility when the Sonics approached him.

Westhead said he'll make a decision in a couple of days.

The mayor has enlisted former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton to help keep the Seattle SuperSonics and Storm in town.

Gorton, a Republican who represented Washington for 18 years, has experience with this sort of thing: He sued the American League to land the Mariners and later brokered an ownership change to keep them here.

It's not clear exactly what role he'll play, and he hasn't been formally hired, Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis told The Seattle Times for a report published Thursday. But at a lunch Tuesday with Mayor Greg Nickels and City Attorney Tom Carr, Gorton agreed to add his political and legal weight to the city's efforts to keep the Sonics at KeyArena through the end of the team's lease in 2010.

"We're lawyering up," Ceis said.