AKRON, Ohio – The Cavaliers have offered Jeff Van Gundy their vacant head coaching job, according to several NBA sources.
Team owner Gordon Gund has agreed to give the former New York Knicks coach a five-year contract believed to be worth $25 million after negotiating with his agent Jim Ornstein this past week, the sources said. Van Gundy is mulling the offer, waiting to see how the coaching search plays out for the Houston Rockets, with which he is also a candidate. Van Gundy said Thursday he is only 50 percent sure he’ll return to coaching next year.
No official announcement on his decision is expected by the team until early next week. But the Cavaliers probably are in no mood to wait considering the number of coaching vacancies in the league and may press Van Gundy to make a choice quickly so the team can move on.
General Manager Jim Paxson used a similar tactic to land former coach John Lucas two years ago when Lucas was being courted in Cleveland and by the Portland Trail Blazers.
Van Gundy interviewed with the Rockets on Monday, but sources in Houston report he’s not the top candidate, falling behind former Philadelphia 76ers coach Larry Brown and former Portland coach Mike Dunleavy.
, both of whom also have interviewed.
Brown may be more interested in the fresh opening with the Washington Wizards, who fired coach Doug Collins on Friday.
The Cavaliers’ second choice is former New Orleans Hornets coach Paul Silas, who isn’t waiting around, either. After getting a second interview with Paxson on Thursday, Silas was in Houston meeting with the Rockets on Friday. He is also expected to get interest in Philadelphia.
The 76ers have whiffed on their first three candidates, being denied access to Trail Blazers coach Maurice Cheeks and having Van Gundy and University of Kentucky coach Tubby Smith pull their names after interviews in the past two days. It may spur the Cavaliers to vigorously pursue Silas if they can’t land Van Gundy.
LeBron James, who will be the team’s top pick in next month’s draft, had given an endorsement to Brown earlier this week because the two had a prior relationship. But Brown didn’t get much interest, if any, from Paxson and Gund.
There were rumors that James may not prefer Van Gundy because of his penchant to run a methodical, slow style of play. A source close to James said Friday that he doesn’t favor Silas or Van Gundy and looks forward to playing for either.
Van Gundy is still under contract with the Knicks until July 31, although he is no longer being paid after terms were reached on a severance package. The Knicks granted the Cavaliers, Rockets and 76ers permission to interview Van Gundy, and any compensation the Knicks would expect in return for signing him is expected to be minimal. He also has one year left on his contract as an analyst for TNT.
He interviewed with Paxson by telephone, then met with Paxson and Gund for five hours in San Antonio two weeks ago. He had a second interview with the team Tuesday.
Van Gundy, whose father is a college coach and brother is an NBA assistant, coached the Knicks for five full seasons and parts of two others, and was the third-winningest coach in Knicks history with a 248-172 (.590) mark.
He resigned 19 games into the 2001-02 season, saying he had lost his focus and wanted to spend more time with his family. His interest in the game renewed this season while he was on the sidelines working for TNT.
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Tom Reed contributed to this report.
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