Raptors Tab Malone

The Toronto Raptors will hold a press conference this afternoon to announce that the NBA expansion team’s first coach will be Brendan Malone, the longtime Detroit assistant.

Sources said that general manager Isiah Thomas, who played under Malone with the Pistons, offered the position to him after failing to reach an agreement with Bulls assistant Jim Cleamons.

Kevin Pritchard, the point guard on Kansas’ NCAA title team in 1988, became the first player to sign with the NBA’s expansion Vancouver Grizzlies.

Paul Silas, an assistant coach with the New Jersey Nets the past three years, was hired as an assistant to coach Paul Westphal of the Phoenix Suns.

Silas played with Westphal on Boston’s 1974 title team.