NBA

Budenholzer's name is getting to be scorching hot in coaching circles and we would be shocked if he's not a head coach next season. He's been very important on Gregg Popovich's bench, but he deserves a shot at running his own team.

Drew is still technically coach of the Hawks but is operating under the impression that he is a free agent. He's already interviewed for the Bucks job and could interview elsewhere as the job market develops. The Clippers job became open when owner Donald Sterling declined to offer Vinny Del Negro a new contract. It remains to be seen if they'll have interest in Drew or whether this is simply Drew's way to trying to flag down every potential interview before all the head coach jobs are taken.

It might seem strange for a coach under contract to be interviewing elsewhere, but Drew told Hawks beat writer Chris Vivlamore that he and GM Danny Ferry agreed to allow Drew to interview elsewhere. Drew said he won't rule out returning to coach the Hawks but said he's "moved on from the situation" in Atlanta. Meanwhile, Ferry has already interviewed at least three candidates to replace Drew and there was a report the number is actually bigger than that. It seems only a matter of time until Drew is no longer officially employed by Atlanta.

Van Gundy and Budenholzer would the second and third candidates to interview with Hawks GM Danny Ferry along with Nate McMillan. Yahoo! Sports reported previously that Ferry is also interested in hiring CSKA Moscow coach Ettore Messina. It's unknown whether the Hawks have interviewed Messina, but the Journal-Constitution reported that Ferry has interviewed other unknown candidates. At this point, it seems clear that Ferry is casting a wide net but is playing his cards very close to the vest.

Messina is the coach of CSKA Moscow and has some street cred among NBA GMs. In fact, when Hawks GM Danny Ferry was in Cleveland, he had his coach Mike Brown travel overseas to study Messina's offense. The Hawks have also interviewed Nate McMillan this week and they're looking to replace Larry Drew.

The team said they'd like to work something out with Korver, and the sharpshooter said he "really enjoyed my year here in Atlanta." Korver gave a very strong endorsement, saying "I like the same basketball that he [GM Danny Ferry] likes. I'm very open to coming back here." Korver will be in high demand in free agency, and with the Hawks needing to remake their entire roster, it's unclear what Korver's future holds.

"It's great," he said. "I don't have any crutches. So I'm moving every day. I can't wait to start working in the gym." It sounds like Pachulia is aiming to be ready for training camp, but he'll need to clear several hurdles before that can happen. The doctors have told him he should be able to be ready for camp, so we'd expect he will be barring any setbacks. He's an unrestricted free agent.