ESPN NBA

ESPN's Marc Stein has word that a buyout is almost complete. No word yet on what might be next for Larry Brown.

After back-to-back trips to the NBA Finals under Larry Brown, the Detroit Pistons will have a new coach next season, sources close to the situation told ESPN.com's Marc Stein.

The Pistons and Brown, sources said, moved closer Monday to a buyout of Brown's contract, which has three years left at an estimated $18 million.

Brown said as recently as Friday that he was "confident" about returning to the Pistons next season, having overcome season-long speculation about new jobs to lead Detroit to within one victory of back-to-back championships. Yet Brown, according to sources, could not guarantee that his health would hold up for a full season, which Pistons owner Bill Davidson had made a prerequisite for the 64-year-old's return.

This is playing out much like Ian Thomsen said it would more than a week ago. More news to follow...

UPDATE: SI.com's Ian Thomsen has caught up to the story and adds some significant details:

The announcement will become official in the next 24 hours as the two sides haggle over the final terms, but it appears that the terms of Brown's buyout will prevent him from coaching another team for the next year.

If he is desperate to coach the Knicks, then they would have to negotiate terms of compensation with the Pistons. But if he were to move to the Knicks within the next year, I'm told that Brown would also relieve the Pistons of their remaining financial obligations to him. The exact terms of the buyout aren't known, although Brown had three years and $21 million remaining on his contract.

The Pistons will almost surely announce, in short order, that they are hiring former Minnesota Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders.

UPDATE: Brown's agent, Joe Glass, has talked to the Detroit Free Press, and is continuing what seems to be a silly little game of pretending that Larry Brown wanted to return all along:

"Larry's not quitting," Glass said. "He wants to be the Pistons' coach on Oct. 3, but seeing that the Pistons supposedly have already talked to Flip Saunders, that doesn't look like it's going to be a possibility.

I don't know if Glass is trying to obscure the truth with this next quote, but he's certainly succeeded in obscuring sense:

"I would like to make it apparent that Larry Brown's health situation at this point is not a factor because he could, health-wise, come back at least as well as he did last year," Glass said. "The reports of a buyout or settlement being reached greatly disturb both me and Larry. Any monetary exchange would be because of a settlement that would sever the ties between both parties."

UPDATE: Joe Dumars tells the Associated Press (via FOXsports.com) that despite what you may have read the negotiations are not over yet.

"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."