The NBA announced Friday that training camps for the New Orleans Hornets and the league’s remaining 29 teams have been postponed indefinitely because of the current lockout. The Hornets were scheduled to open training camp Oct. 4. In addition, the NBA has canceled all preseason games scheduled from Oct. 9-15. 

The Hornets’ first home preseason game is not scheduled until Oct. 18 against the Orlando Magic. But the Hornets’ preseason opener at San Antonio on Oct. 9, their Oct. 15 game at Cleveland and Oct. 17 against Oklahoma City in Wichita, Kan., have been canceled.

There has been no progress in negotiations between the league and the players association on a new collective bargaining agreement. The NBA’s lockout began July 1.

“We have regretfully reached the point on the calendar where we are not able to open training camps on time and need to cancel the first week of preseason games,” NBA Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “We will make further decisions as warranted.”

 

The New Orleans Hornets have granted the Lakers permission to interview Mike Malone for an assistant job on newly hired Mike Brown’s staff, according to league sources. 

Prior to the joining the Hornets, Malone spent five seasons as an assistant on Brown’s staff with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Brown is seeking to hire assistants that he’s work with before.

Malone, who could not be reached for comment Saturday,  is considered a defensive mastermind and was instrumental in helping the Hornets emerge as one of the top defensive teams in the league.

Malone has a year remaining on his contract with the Hornets that he signed last summer. Malone’s father, Brendan Malone, is an assistant with the Orlando Magic and former head coach of the Cavaliers.

After Malone surfaced as a candidate for the Rockets’ head coaching coaching vacancy last month during the playoffs, Hornets Coach Monty Williams said it was only a matter of time before teams pursued.

“He’s put the work in,” Williams said. “He hasn’t gone after jobs the way I’ve seen other guys do. He’s a prime candidate.”

The Hornets lost to the Lakers in six games during the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. Phil Jackson retired as the Lakers head coach after they were swept by the Dallas Mavericks in the second round.

Last week, the Lakers hired Brown to succeed Jackson. The Lakers extended a four-year, $18 million to Brown, who was fired by the Cavaliers after the 2009-10 season  when they failed to advance to the NBA Finals with All-Star forward LeBron James.

James left the franchise last summer after seven seasons, signing as a  free agent with the Miami Heat, which is in the NBA Finals against the Dallas Mavericks.

Just seven years removed from his NBA playing career, it hasn’t been unusual for first-year New Orleans Hornets Coach Monty Williams to run across current players who were once teammates or others Williams played against.

But Phoenix Suns forward Grant Hill and Williams, who played together with the Orlando Magic, share a bond so close that Hill and his wife, Tamia, named their second daughter after Williams’ oldest daughter, Lael.

So the last time these teams played March 25 at Phoenix, Williams and Hill engaged in running repartee between each other and game officials about Hill’s exaggerating falls to the floor.

“It is weird. It’s even more weird because we’re close friends,” Williams said. “We were actually yelling at each other last game because he’s flopping, and I was telling the ref he was flopping. So he comes down the floor, and he’s talking to the ref, but he’s really talking to me that he wasn’t flopping.”

Hill smiled at the recollection Friday night at the New Orleans Arena.

“I learned a lot from him,” Hill said. “Put it that way. I learned a lot from him. As he knows, when you get older, you’ve got to try to use every advantage you have.”

Hill said Williams is a caring friend and person on whom he leaned during injury-filled years in Orlando, when a recurring and degenerative ankle condition nearly caused a pre-mature end to his career.

“I’m a big fan of his,” Hill said. “We lived about four houses down from each other in Orlando. And he was there when it was a real dark time for me, when I thought about quitting. He and his wife (Ingrid) are unbelievable people. To have him as an example, and to hang out with him, learn from him. Obviously, I’m tickled to death how much these guys are responding and how much success he’s had as a coach. But I’m more impressed with him as a person and human being.”

“He’s very smart. He knows how to relate to guys. I think he cares about guys; I think he genuinely wants guys to do well on and off the court, and I think the guys respect that and certainly are aware of that and makes them want to go out and compete and play harder for him.”

Hill had 15 points for the Suns in the Hornets’ 109-97 win.

Williams, who began the year as the youngest coach in the NBA at 39, since eclipsed by Indiana Coach Frank Vogel, also has coached against Dallas’ Jason Kidd and Miami’s Juwan Howard whom he played against, and is currently coaching Willie Green, who was a rookie with the Philadelphia 76ers in Williams’ last season.

“I’ve had a number of guys I played against and played with and now coaching against those guys,” Williams said. “It’s weird because they obviously never thought they’d see me coaching, let alone being a head coach — and they’ve let me know it a number of times.

“It’s amazing. The bible says, ‘God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.’ I’m definitely one of those foolish things. I think there’s a little bit of respect for what we’ve done, but a little bit of a wow factor that I’m the one kind of heading it up. They laugh and crack their jokes. After a while, then they realize we’re trying to do a good job.”

NO NASH: Two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash sat out Friday night’s game for the Suns because of a right hamstring injury.

That put Aaron Brooks in the starting lineup at point guard for Phoenix.

“That probably frees them up a little more, and they’ll look for scoring somewhere else,” Williams said. “Aaron Brooks gave us a tough time last time (scoring 17 points in 15 1/2 minutes), but it also takes a two-time MVP off the floor. It obviously changes them, but that can’t change our focus.”

Brooks scored nine points with nine assists Friday night.

EYE ON THE BOARD: Williams steadfastly has held true to the mantra of not looking ahead.

But now that the Hornets have clinched a playoff berth, he conceded he’s doing some scoreboard-watching to see how the final seedings might fall.

Late Friday night, the Lakers were playing at Portland, which entered the night a half-game ahead of New Orleans in sixth.

Would be Lakers’ fan Friday night?

“Never, ever, ever, ever will I be a Lakers fan,” Williams said. “I’m just hoping Portland doesn’t play as well. Whatever that means.”