Hammond, who's bringing Jeff Weltman with him from Detroit (Sonics assistant GM Scott Perry will return to the Pistons where he worked for seven seasons) has a connection with Brown dating back to the Clippers when he assisted him on the sidelines. They also were together in Detroit.

Sources say their relationship is strained, yet they have spoken within the last 72 hours.

"Don't let that fool you," a second source underlined. "John is considering either Skiles or Carlisle, no one else."

It appears the Bulls will be the Bucks' main competition for a new coach, but all signs suggest the Bucks could have their man by this weekend.

"If I had to do it all over again," Krystkowiak finally said Monday night after being asked if he had the freedom to coach the Bucks the way he wanted, "things would be different.

"Some were self-inflicted. Some were external."

That begged the questions: What exactly was self-inflicted? And what were the external forces that forced Krystkowiak to coach one way while wanting to do it another?

Krystkowiak wasn't going to go there.

"No sour apples here," he said. "I want to focus as much on the positive as I can."

"I can’t put into words how much Coach Peterson has helped me," Sessions said. "Whatever I need, he is there for me. We watch game film together, he helps me during practice, we work on all the little things. Coach Peterson cares about me as a player and a person."

Sessions, the 56th pick of last year’s draft, became quick friends with Peterson because of his willingness to learn. "I realized early he really has a teachable spirit," Peterson said. "He gravitated to me. He wanted to get better. ... If you sit him down and talk to him about something, he will work on it. He doesn’t have that attitude where he says, ‘I know. Leave me alone, I’m playing.’"

The Bucks plan on providing Yi with a summer conditioning program, yet they're not sure how much good it will do considering Yi's busy off-season schedule.

"We'll give him something that he can follow but the challenge with all the international competition this summer, with all the practices and with all the games, is he's not going to have a chance to get that much stronger," Krystkowiak said. "It's going to be maintenance again, just to try and maintain his strength. He's not going to have two months off where he can go and lift and start getting his muscles bigger. . . . You can't do that with all the exercise."

Asked if it was something that could set Yi back next season in the NBA, Krystkowiak said, "Potentially."