Italian coach Ettore Messina has agreed to join Mike Brown's coaching staff with the Los Angeles Lakers, a source familiar with the negotiations said.
Messina will be listed as an assistant coach but will be behind the bench, not on it, and will serve in more of a consulting capacity, sources said.
Brown developed a relationship with Messina when he was head coach of the Cavaliers and Messina was the head coach of CSKA Moscow. Brown routinely flew to Italy, where Messina held CSKA's training camps, to pick up new ideas to use with the Cavs.
Senior writer Ric Bucher covers the NBA for ESPN The Magazine.