Mike Brown is the new coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Brown and the Lakers agreed in principle Wednesday to a four-year, $18.25 million deal, according to league sources.

The Lakers will announce Brown as the 22nd coach in franchise history. Brown, who is currently in Cleveland, will sign the contract later this week.

The development is a victorious comeback for Brown, who was fired by the Cleveland Cavaliersalmost a year ago to the day. Now, the 41-year-old Brown, the winningest coach in Cavaliers history, is leading one of the most prestigious and successful franchise in modern basketball history.

LeBron James and Dwyane Wade admitted they strongly considered signing with the Bulls.

"It was two mornings," Wade said at Friday's practice of waking up during the summer of 2010 envisioning himself with Chicago.

"I definitely had one or two mornings where I woke up thinking I'd be a Bull too, but ultimately I decided to come here," James said.

Wade grew up in Chicago and admired the Michael Jordan teams of the nineties.

"It was flattering," Wade said. "I grew up in the city and grew up with my dreams of becoming an NBA player with the Chicago Bulls. They gave a great presentation, great opportunity. I just felt that the Miami opportunity was better. That's what it came down to."

"I think it was very close," said Wade's agent Henry Thomas to ESPNChicago.com. "We obviously -- before the process started -- we talked about how we were going to handle it. Once we began and once the presentations were made, the Bulls' presentation was as good as any -- if not better.

"The decision became a lot more difficult than he imagined how it would be. Obviously for him the Chicago one was special because he grew up here. As a young kid, he idolized Michael [Jordan] and all those teams. I know when we went in for the presentation, they had a uniform with his name and number on it. As a kid growing up here you dreamed of having that uniform on. For that reason it was difficult."

When asked about his meetings with the Chicago front office, James spoke highly of them as well.

"It was definitely flattering," James said Friday. "It was a great meeting with that team and that franchise knowing the history. There was great things that they said but at the end of the day, I felt like this was the best opportunity for me to win a championship. It was a great experience."

In a 26-minute meeting with reporters Monday, Trail Blazers general manager Rich Cho was asked repeatedly about Oden's future.

The 7-foot center will become a restricted free agent on July 1, and the Blazers have from the end of the NBA Finals to June 30 to tender a qualifying offer to Oden. Cho said if Oden continues to work hard in his rehabilitation, he was "pretty sure" the team would tender the offer.

"All the indications from a medical standpoint are that it's come along well," Cho said of Oden's left knee. "I see him in here every day, working hard. He's getting a sweat up every day. He wants to come back, and come back and play well." Cho said Oden could become a key piece alongside LaMarcus Aldridge, who emerged this season as the Blazers' leading scorer.

"I think if you put him next to L.A. andGerald Wallace, we'd have one of the best front lines in the league," Cho said.

The Kings have cap space this offseason and Geoff Petrie hopes to be able to use it as he has been largely reliant on the draft in recent seasons. The collective bargaining agreement, however, will be a factor.

"That's going to play a factor, but I think for us to start building additional value with the roster, basically for the last two or three years, we've tried to draft it," said Petrie. "But for us to accelerate building value in the roster, we have to come out of hibernation in competing for free agents and trade for value … I think at some point that has to happen, and hopefully coming out of this next offseason, we'll get back to being able to do some of those things."

Petrie was asked where the Kings will look to improve.

"I think we need another creator, ballhandler. We need some more leadership on the court, either by the form of maturity or addition to the roster. Certainly we need to try to improve our three-point shooting, which fell off from a year ago. … We'll have to look to fill out our roster with another frontcourt player of some kind."