Igor Kokoskov is leaving the Phoenix Suns to join Mike Brown’s coaching staff with the Cavaliers, a league source confirmed Wednesday. The move was first reported by ESPN.com and the Arizona Republic.

Kokoskov has been an NBA assistant for 13 years, including the past five with the Suns. He survived three coaches during those five years and was instrumental in assisting inexperienced interim coach Lindsey Hunter this season. He is viewed as a bright offensive mind and became Hunter’s lead assistant after Alvin Gentry was fired at midseason, handling the offense while Hunter ran the defense.

The Cavaliers have won the drat lottery for the second time in three years and will have the top overall pick in the June 27 NBA draft.

CHICAGO: Nerlens Noel will not be ready to start the season and is targeting a debut around Christmas, he said Thursday during the NBA combine. Noel said he is ahead of schedule in his recovery from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and is expected to go No. 1 in the draft despite missing the first two months of the season.

“Ever since the surgery, everything is going great,” Noel said. “I’m 100 percent confident, not just getting back to what I was, but stronger. Going through this time not playing basketball, I’ll just be working on things I need to polish. It will improve me in the long run.”

CHICAGO: If the San Antonio Spurs choose Deshaun Thomas in next month’s NBA draft, they might have a hard time reaching him to tell him. That’s because when the Spurs asked the former Ohio State star for his phone number Wednesday night, he refused to give it to them.

Thomas said teams asked him plenty of difficult and interesting questions during his interview process at the combine. But the most interesting, he said, was the fact the Spurs’ first question was for his cell phone number and his e-mail address. He gave them the e-mail, but not the phone number.