Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert got one Brown -- new head coach Mike Brown -- added to the payroll in recent days. Will he have another to add in the coming weeks?

Larry Brown has told two league sources that he plans to take the Cavaliers' offer to become their next team president. According to the sources, who spoke to ESPN.com on Monday evening, Brown said he would accept the position after the Pistons' season is over.

Brown is still under contract to Detroit, which trails the Miami Heat 2-1 in the Eastern Conference finals, and sources say he will continue to maintain publicly that he won't decide his future with the Pistons until 72 hours after their season is over. Given that timetable, pressing medical issues, his history of unpredictable decisions, and the fact he can't formally sign a contract with the Cavs until he resigns from his job with the Pistons, Brown's future in the NBA won't be certain until he attends a news conference for the Cavaliers to formally announce his hiring.

ESPN.com talked to a Cavs source who refused to confirm or deny whether Brown had given them an answer.

Brown, however, assured the Detroit News on Monday night that nothing is official.

"I'm telling you, there's no deal in place," Brown told the paper.

Reached earlier Monday by The Associated Press as he watched a movie with his daughter, Brown refused comment other than to say: "If I'm healthy, my goal is to be the coach of the Detroit Pistons. That's the only thing that's really real."

In recent days, Brown has said repeatedly that he intends to check into a hospital after the season is over because of a serious medical condition. The condition has developed as a result of midseason hip surgery he underwent, and Brown wants a medical evaluation. However, sources maintain that while Brown's medical condition might keep him from coaching again, they do not believe it is serious enough to keep him from working as a team president.

Still, the sources claim that Cavaliers ownership pushed Brown to give them an answer this weekend before they lost out on other top candidates for the job. After hearing Larry Brown's answer, events leading to Mike Brown's hire were set in motion.

Pacers senior vice president David Morway, who had been the frontrunner to get the Cavaliers' GM position before Cleveland began flirting with Brown, had given ownership until Monday evening to make a decision before he had to withdraw from consideration. On Monday, Morway found out that the Cavs were going in another direction.

"I'm in a great situation in Indiana working for Donnie Walsh and Larry Bird, and have no desire to leave unless an unbelievable opportunity came along," Morway told ESPN.com. "When I first interviewed, I was told that the general manager position would have full authority over basketball-related decisions and report directly to ownership.

"However, over the course of the last week, they indicated that they were exploring hiring a high-profile team president that would have full control of all basketball decisions. After talking with ownership, it appears that's the direction they are going and as a result, I am no longer a candidate for the GM position.

"I appreciate the interest they showed in me and wish them the best of luck in the future."

Morway refused to confirm or deny that Brown was being targeted for hire by the Cavs.

Signs, however, are everywhere that Brown is coming aboard. Newly hired head coach Mike Brown is the protégé of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, a close friend and confidant of Larry Brown.

Mike Brown also has reportedly contacted Randy Ayers, a former Larry Brown assistant and former coach of the Sixers, about an assistant coach's position.

The Cavs also recently interviewed Wizards director of player personnel Milt Newton for the vacant GM position. Newton played for Brown at Kansas and is another close friend who might be targeted to take over the day-to-day operations of the Cavs.

how long before the asshole starts telling anyone who'll listen:

"Running the Cavaliers is the LAST front office job Ill ever have."

Who the hell makes that statement when your team is defending a championship??

in defense of larry, didnt the piston organization give the cavs permission to talk to him now?

in defense of larry, didnt the piston organization give the cavs permission to talk to him now?

If you're Larry Brown/Cleveland, why wouldn't you wait until the end of the season to ask for permission? I don't understand why this had to be done now.

I'm curious to see if the Pistons' fans boo him tonight.

im just saying, its not like larry walked up to the folks in cleveland and asked for a job, they (cleveland) had to go to the pistons and ask permission to speak to LB and his agent

on a side note, they are saying (implying) that king james isnt too happy about this, so brown may not get it

I don't know if Cleveland "had" to ask Detroit. They are probably supposed to, but that doesn't mean they did. Anyhoo, we'll have to wait and see how it all shakes down.
Regardless, as a Piston fan I am furious that Brown would be worrying about another job while in the middle of a playoff run.

im just saying, its not like larry walked up to the folks in cleveland and asked for a job, they (cleveland) had to go to the pistons and ask permission to speak to LB and his agent

on a side note, they are saying (implying) that king james isnt too happy about this, so brown may not get it

tampering my friend, tampering

I know it would be tampering, it's happened before, it wouldn't suprise me to see it happen again. Like I said though, we'll find out soon enough if Detroit gave permission or not. Dumars is a standup guy and will likely tell the press the truth.

I don't know if they're entitled to compensation.

This changes from sport to sport (and certain people have clauses in their contracts related to this), but teams usually don't get compensation if the departing coach is taking something other than a coaching position.