Wednesday and Thursday brought the NBA news cycle back through San Antonio as the offseason begins to slowly ramp up prior to the 2018 NBA Draft.
Here is some of the latest San Antonio Spurs news:
ETTORE MESSINA/IME UDOKA
It’s been a week since ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that both Spurs assistants Ettore Messina and Ime Udoka interviewed with the Toronto Raptors for their head coaching vacancy.
While the Charlotte Hornets wasted no time in poaching James Borrego from San Antonio’s bench, the Raptors have done their due diligence in picking their next head coach.
Nick Nurse and Jerry Stackhouse are both still in the running for Toronto as well. The Raptors are at risk of losing one or both coaches to another organization depending on who they hire, so a decision could still be a ways away.
The news of Messina and Udoka’s interviews could be used as leverage in negotiations with the other two internal candidates, or it could also be Raptors president Masai Ujiri attempting to make a big hire.
DETROIT PISTONS
Meanwhile the Detroit Pistons, who once seemed to be zeroed in on hiring former Raptors head coach Dwane Casey, have expanded their coaching search to include former players Juwan Howard and Kenny Smith, in addition to Udoka, according to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports.
While it’s assumed that Smith is the leading candidate for the position, both Howard and Udoka have coaching experience on their resume which could give them the inside track to being hired.
MONTY WILLIAMS
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Wednesday night that the Philadelphia 76ers and head coach Brett Brown are in discussions with Spurs Vice President of Basketball Operations, Monty Williams, to become the Sixers lead assistant.
The 46-year-old Williams came to San Antonio after spending a season with the Oklahoma City Thunder as an associate head coach.
While his decision to come back to the Spurs came after the tragic death of his wife, Williams has been eager to get back into coaching for some time.
Nothing about Williams’ future is concrete yet, but it’s fair to speculate that San Antonio could let Williams rejoin Popovich’s bench if they lose Messina and/or Udoka over the following weeks.
RUDY GAY
It was announced on Thursday that Rudy Gay would be participating in the NBA Africa Game 2018 which will take place at Sun Arena at Time Square in Pretoria, South Africa.
Rudy Gay will be suiting up for Team World in the Team World versus Team Africa format.
So far Team Africa’s roster consists of Joel Embiid, Al-Farouq Aminu, Bismack Biyombo, Cheick Diallo, Evan Fournier, Serge Ibaka, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Pascal Siakam.
Playing for Team World along with Gay will be DeMar DeRozan, Harrison Barnes, Danilo Gallinari, Khris Middleton and Hassan Whiteside.
Full rosters of players, coaches and legends will be announced at a later date.
