Paul Silas To Sign Extension As Bobcats’ Coach, According To Report

Paul Silas is near a deal to remain the coach of the Charlotte Bobcats through the 2011-12 season, according to Yahoo!‘s Adrian Wojnarowski. Silas took over for the departing Larry Brown in late December. Since Silas took the reigns, the Bobcats have gone 15-12. They were 9-19 when Brown resigned.

Silas had previously coached the Hornets (when they were still in Charlotte and in their first season in New Orleans) and was LeBron James’ first NBA head coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Bobcats are fighting for a playoff spot with the Philadelphia 76ers and the Indiana Pacers, who are themselves thriving under a replacement coach in Frank Vogel. Vogel, however, was an internal hire when the franchise decided to fire Jim O’Brien. Silas was retired when the Bobcats made him their new head coach.

Former Knicks banger Charles Oakley and Warriors assistant coach Stephen Silas will join new interim coach Paul Silas at the helm of the Charlotte Bobcats, according to reports. Oakley confirmed his move on his Twitter account. The elder Silas took over the team Wednesday as Larry Brown resigned and his entire staff was dismissed.

Oakley has never coached in the NBA. He retired from the Houston Rockets in 2004, though in recent years claimed he could still play in the league. He has been pushing for an opportunity as an assistant coach, and is considered Michael Jordan’s best friend. Jordan owns the Bobcats.

But David Arnott of SB Nation blog Rufus On Fire says that Larry Brown’s Bobcats tenure accomplished what it set out to do.

This season, Brown either had too much garbage to deal with, or the gold had tuned him out. Paul Silas is not a dissimilar coach -- he’s tough-nosed and a teacher, first and foremost -- so it will be interesting to see if he can right the ship. If not, expect the trade deadline to mark the beginning of another Bobcats do-over.

Paul Silas has been named the interim head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats, the team announced Wednesday. The announcement came just hours after news broke that Larry Brown had resigned from his position and that his entire staff had been fired.

Silas coached the Charlotte Hornets through the team’s relocation to New Orleans in 2002. He later coached the Cleveland Cavaliers, and was LeBron James’ first NBA head coach. He has a lifetime 355-400 record in the NBA, with many of those losses coming as the coach of the San Diego Clippers in the early 1980s. SIlas was also a great player in 1960s and ‘70s, making two All-Star teams and five All-Defense teams.

Paul Silas and Patrick Ewing have emerged as two top candidates for the Charlotte Bobcats’ head coach position vacated by Larry Brown, according to Yahoo!‘s Adrian Wojnarowski. Former Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Woodson is also under consideration.

Brown resigned Wednesday as the Bobcats got off to an awful 9-19 start a year after making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Bobcats owner Michael Jordan also reportedly fired Brown’s entire coaching staff, leaving a void in succession to the head coach spot.

Larry Brown resigned from the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday. With him goes his entire staff, according to FanHouse’s Sam Amick. That leaves the 9-19 franchise is precarious position, and has lead to speculation about who Michael Jordan will hire to coach the team.

Amick also reports that the Bobcats expect to have Brown’s replacement in place by Thursday. Charlotte doesn’t play again until Monday, so the team has some time over the Christmas holiday to put a new staff together. In a release, Jordan said the search of Brown’s successor will begin immediately.

That makes it sound like Brown may have been fired by Jordan, but officially, the team has said that he has resigned. It remains unclear who will replace Brown on the bench, especially because the team has reportedly also fired all of Brown’s assistants, according to Fanhouse’s Sam Amick. Amick also reports that Brown’s successor will be announced tomororw.

Brown compiled an 88-104 record in two-plus seasons as the Bobcats head coach after taking over in 2008. He has 1,098 career NBA wins with nine different teams, none of which he has coached for more than four years.