Marc J. Spears of the Denver Post reports: The agent for Milwaukee assistant Terry Stotts confirmed Wednesday his client will interview this weekend for the Denver Nuggets' head coaching opening.
Stotts has no head coaching experience but has been a longtime assistant to George Karl at Seattle from 1993-98 and then with the Bucks. Agent Brett Adams said Stotts is expected to interview Saturday with Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe in Los Angeles.

Adams likened Stotts to Detroit Pistons coach Rick Carlisle, the 2002 NBA coach of the year in his rookie season after 12 seasons as an assistant.

"You have to look at the success of guys like Rick Carlisle with all the experience Terry's had with a successful program coaching with George Karl," Adams said. "There is no question that Terry is ready. There are guys in Terry's situation that could stay where he is at and take the reins from a guy like George Karl when he leaves. But Terry really wants an opportunity sooner than that. With what Kiki has done in terms of salary-cap moves, Denver can be a great opportunity in the next couple of years."

While Vandeweghe wouldn't comment on coaching candidates, he did say he plans to interview candidates this weekend. Vandeweghe also hopes to do some interviewing at the NBA predraft camp from June 4-7 in Chicago, but the schedules of candidates could make it tough. There is, however, a three-day window before and after the draft camp in which draft prospects are off-limits to teams, so Vandeweghe may be able to do some interviewing then.

"Our first priority now, of course, is the draft," Vandeweghe said. "But you have a little time with the moratorium before and after Chicago to maybe at least talk to some candidates, which I will do. Again, it is nothing to rush through. There are some guys that I really want to talk to that are involved in the playoffs. I don't want to start a process with guys and then put them on hold."

Adams also is the agent for Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins, also a Nuggets coaching candidate. Huggins is expected to interview but no date has been set.

In other Nuggets news: Vandeweghe and Nuggets guard Tim Hardaway's agent said they hoped to meet next week in Chicago. Hardaway averaged 9.6 points and 5.5 assists last season, but missed the final 15 games with a broken left foot. Agent Henry Thomas said Hardaway, who can be bought out of his contract before the draft, is ahead of his rehabilitation schedule and could take off his protective boot and begin playing in July.

As Dale Hofmann of the Milwaukee Journal reports, when the Dallas Mavericks fell out of the playoffs this week, it was like watching the withdrawal of a United Nations peacekeeping force. The setback was viewed as bad news in Mexico, South Africa, Germany and China as well as Texas.

On the other hand, National Basketball Association fans in northern California, Serbia and Turkey were pleased with the result, and who knew 10 years ago that there would even be NBA fans in Serbia and Turkey

You had only to see the Dallas offense riding Dirk Nowitzki while Hidayet Turkoglu was snatching every third rebound for Sacramento to understand that America's best basketball players are frequently from somewhere else. In this particular series, four Mavericks and three Kings had arrived from foreign shores.

Turkoglu is a Turk, and Nowitzki is a German and a considerable local embarrassment. The Milwaukee Bucks gave up his rights in 1998 for Robert "Tractor" Traylor in what ranks, pound for pound, as the worst transaction in franchise history.

Consider this: Every team that made this year's playoffs had at least one foreign-born player. There were 51 of them from 30 countries and territories when the season began, and the Bucks were among only three clubs in the league without at least one. The others were the New York Knicks and the Washington Wizards, both of whom will be joining Milwaukee at Sunday's raffle.

"You always try to get the best player who can help you, and these guys have proven they not only belong, but they can excel," said Bucks GM Ernie Grunfeld, who recently attended the European Final Four.

"Foreign players are very skilled. They shoot the ball well, and they have good size. Most of them pass the basketball well, and they handle it well."

No question passing the basketball well is a skill foreign to the Bucks' experience, but they should be willing to cope with the unusual. They do have Sam Cassell, after all.