The chatter about two-time NBA Developmental League coach of the year Bryan Gates potentially joining Kings coach Paul Westphal's staff that has been around for a while, resurfaced via Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski yesterday.
Sure enough, the Idaho Stampede coach met with Westphal in Las Vegas to discuss an assistant post on Tuesday. Westphal told The Bee's Jason Jones in Vegas that he would be adding one more coach to the staff, although he did not indicate who that would be. And while my sources tell me that former Clippers assistant/director of player development Neal Meyer is also in the running (as well as at least one other candidate, I believe), Gates is already looking the part.
I didn't notice this until a day after it came out, but our own Jose Luis Villegas captured this shot of Gates already looking the part of Kings assistant at summer league Monday while watching the action with Westphal and other Kings folks. He's the one in the light blue shirt on the left.
And for what it's worth, Meyer is working with Cleveland this summer league in Vegas and is a candidate to be added to the staff of Cavs head coach/fellow University of San Diego alum Mike Brown. Meyer worked with new Kings assistant Jim Eyen with the Clippers previously.
HAWES ON MISSING SUMMER LEAGUE: "It's...more of a suggestion-type thing rather than a requirement."
So third-year center Spencer Hawes missed summer league, and we'd been hearing a number of reasons for why that was the case.
But thanks to Bob Nakutin from Hoquiam, Wa., who e-mailed to alert us that the rumor about Hawes keeping his commitment to attend a kids camp was true. Hawes was the featured guest at Hoquiam High School, where his mother, Lisa Reynvaan Hawes, was a 1974 graduate. Per this story from "The Daily World" in Aberdeen, Wa., we discover Hawes' whereabouts and hear his take on missing summer league. I'm not too sure this will clear his name with the Kings higher-ups. - Sam Amick
