Former NBA head coach and longtime assistant Igor Kokoskov has been hired by Project B as the startup basketball league’s head of player development, writes Alanis Thames of The Associated Press.
Kokoskov, who spent last season as head coach of Turkish powerhouse Anadolu Efes, has more than two decades of NBA experience primarily as an assistant. He also had a one-year stint as head coach of Phoenix. The 54-year-old Serbian, who has coached his home country’s national team, guided Slovenia to a EuroBasket title in 2017. Kokoskov’s most recent NBA stop was with Atlanta in 2024/25.
Kokoskov is the second recent major hire for Project B, which recently hired his former colleague, ex-Hawks GM Landry Fields, to run it’s men’s basketball division. As previously reported, the league – which has secured commitments from several notable WNBA players – wants to bring in current and former NBA players, as well as top young prospects from outside the NBA for its developmental program.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
Ben Golliver of ESPN lists his 10 most-interesting second-year players to watch in 2026/27. Two Spurs — Dylan Harper (No. 1) and Carter Bryant (No. 10) — bookend the list, with Joan Beringer of the Timberwolves (No. 4) and the top-three finishers for 2025/26 Rookie of the Year — Cooper Flagg (Mavericks), Kon Knueppel (Hornets) and VJ Edgecombe (Sixers) — rounding out the top five.
Several longtime NBA veterans are headed to the EuroLeague in 2026/27, with Jonas Valanciunas (Zalgiris Kaunas) being the most impactful move, per Pijus Sapetka of BasketNews. Other significant NBA-to-EuroLeague moves include Guerchon Yabusele (Panathinaikos) and Dario Saric (Anadolu Efes), Sapekta notes.
Unicaja and former NBA lottery pick Chris Duarte have mutually decided to part ways, according to a press release from the Spanish team (hat tip to Nikola Miloradovic of Eurohoops). Duarte, 29, was an All-Rookie selection with Indiana in 2021/22, but his role decreased in each of his four seasons, the last of which came with Chicago in ’24/25. Duarte, who starred in college for Oregon, is expected to sign with EuroLeague club Baskonia, per Juan Calderon of Spanish outlet Diario Sur.