Pistons' Dumars denies deal is in place to buy out Brown

Larry Brown and the Detroit Pistons appeared to move closer to parting ways Monday.

"We have not agreed to anything with Larry and there is no buyout yet," team president of basketball operations Joe Dumars told The Associated Press. "Both sides are still talking."

Brown's agent and Dumars spoke Monday, attempting to reach a resolution after weeks of negotiations about the Hall of Fame coach's future. Two years ago, Detroit signed Brown to a five-year contract worth about $25 million, plus incentive bonuses.

Brown and his agent, Joe Glass, did not immediately return phone messages.

Brown and Glass met with Dumars and Pistons owner Bill Davidson last week, but there was not clear answer whether Brown would return for a third season.

Other than traveling to suburban Detroit for the meeting, Brown has been resting, on doctor's orders, at his vacation home in New York since he checked out of a hospital earlier this month.

Brown has said if doctors deemed him healthy enough, he wanted to return next season to coach the Pistons, and he insisted he wouldn't lead another NBA team from the sideline. Still, there have been reports that the New York Knicks would not hire a new coach until they knew for sure that Brown was not available.

The Pistons have said they would welcome Brown back, if he was willing to return.

SuperSonics hire Weiss

The SuperSonics hired Bob Weiss as coach Monday, promoting the 11-year assistant who worked under former coaches George Karl, Paul Westphal and Nate McMillan.

This will be the fourth NBA head coaching job for the 63-year-old Weiss, who agreed to a three-year deal. He coached the San Antonio Spurs from 1986-88 (going 59-105), the Atlanta Hawks from 1990-93 (124-122) and the Los Angeles Clippers in 1993-94 (27-55).

Weiss led the Spurs to the playoffs once and reached the postseason in two of his three years with Atlanta.

He has been a popular figure with Seattle players and was endorsed for the top job by Sonics star Ray Allen, who recently agreed to a five-year, $85 million contract.

Van Gundy gets assurance

Stan Van Gundy is still the coach of the Miami Heat, and that apparently won't change anytime soon.

Van Gundy said that he and team president Pat Riley met for 3 1/2 hours on Sunday, during which Van Gundy was assured that "I will be coaching the Miami Heat this coming season."

But Van Gundy acknowledged on a call with Heat beat writers Monday that he was a bit unsettled by rumors suggesting Riley -- who coached in the NBA for 21 seasons, including from 1995-2003 with Miami -- wanted his old job back and was ready to push his former top assistant aside.

"I feel much more confident in the situation," Van Gundy said. "It was a good meeting; we discussed a lot of things. I feel more confident in my job and where he is coming from. A lot of things were cleared up. From my standpoint, it was a good meeting and I'm certainly in a much better frame of mind."

-- From wire reports