The coaching carousel this offseason is personified by Jazz assistant coach Jeff Hornacek. The former Jazz player was a smart shooting guard next to Hall-of-Famer John Stockton, in the backcourt of some consistently excellent Jazz teams. But even with less than three years of experience on the Jazz bench, he's become a go-to interview for teams with a coaching vacancy. 

Brad Rock of the Salt Lake City Desert News opines on Hornacek's bonafides as a head coach somewhere in the league, while current head coach Tyrone Corbin is also in a state of flux, but appears set to return to the sidelines next season after a vote of confidence from general manager Dennis Lindsey. In a summer of discontent for 29 NBA teams (and the city of Seattle), there are still plenty of question marks, like Hornacek, with uncertain, yet bright futures. Like the next item on our list...

• Greg Oden continues to impress those who have seen him workout, with the latest being predraft workout partner and former Ohio State forward, Deshaun Thomas, who told the The Oregonian's Jason Quick the former number one pick, "looks unbelievable." We've already shared Mary Schmitt Boyer's assessment that Oden looks terrific. A number of Eastern Conference teams have already targeted the rehabilitating center and it appears only a matter of time before he's back in the league. 
• Speaking of comebacks, what are the Celtics going to do this offseason? Steve Bulpett at the Boston Herald did an informal survey of general managers at the predraft combine in Chicago on Friday, and they were as undecided as most observers. Some believe the Celtics may make another go of it with Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, while others think they could blow the whole thing up and trade their franchise mainstays since the summer of 2007 for younger players and draft picks. 
• The Thunder aren't undecided; they're title contenders now, and Barry Tramel writes at the Oklahoman that the Thunder are unlikely to make any splashy moves this offseason with about $66.12MM in salary for 10 players next season. The time for the young team to win is now.
• Also, the Oklahoman's staff answered four different questions about the Thunder's 2012/13 season, the most tenuous one being: was the Thunder's season a failure?

Earlier, we heard that Tyrone Corbin's job was safe after GM Dennis Lindsey showed public support for the Jazz head coach. Brad Rock of the Deseret News examines the situation a step further, noting that Utah had finished off the season winning nine of their remaining 12 games in addition to Corbin's ability to do so with much of the roster's status up in the air for next season and beyond. Here's more of what we've heard out of Salt Lake City tonight:

• Marvin Williams tells Bill Oram of the Salt Lake Tribune that he hasn’t thought about his 2013-14 player option, but made sure to mention that he loves playing for the Jazz, coach Corbin, his teammates, and the city (Twitter links)  
• DeMarre Carroll has made it known that he wants to return to Utah next season, writes Steve Luhm of the Salt Lake Tribune. 
• Luhm also notes that the team could take a closer look at point guard Jerel McNeal - a repeat 10-day contract signee late in the season - with Mo Williams, Jamaal Tinsley, and Earl Watson set to become free agents.
• Kurt Kragthorpe, another Tribune columnist, wrote that should both Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap leave via free agency this summer, the former would be missed more.  

Although there have been a handful of newly created head coaching vacancies in the NBA, don't expect the Jazz to join the list anytime soon. Despite Utah coming up just two wins shy of a postseason berth, general manager Dennis Lindsey offered a strong endorsement of head coach Tyrone Corbin, reaffirming that he's "our coach" and has full support from team ownership (Jody Genessy of the Deseret News tweets). Bill Oram of the Salt Lake Tribune (via Twitter) also noted Lindsey's support, hearing that Corbin is seen as the right person to lead the team and is growing as a coach. 

After being swept in the 2011-12 playoffs, the Jazz returned this season competitively in the hunt for a return to the playoffs. While Utah held the seventh seed in the Western Conference as far as mid-February, a 3-12 record from late February into late March pushed them to ninth - where they would ultimately finish the season. Still, as Oram mentions, Lindsey believes that Corbin deserves credit for working with nine impending free agents and four quality big men.

According to Genessy, team brass will wait until next week to evaluate this year's performances and shortcomings. 

The NBA has its first official playoff matchup cemented in the postseason schedule, as the Bucks' loss to the Bobcats tonight guaranteed them a first round dance with the Heat. Now that Boston is a lock for seventh place, five of the remaining playoff seeds in the Eastern Conference are still yet to be determined. We've got plenty of miscellaneous links to share tonight, and you can find them below: 

• Kurt Kragthorpe of The Salt Lake Tribune thinks Tyrone Corbin will face plenty of scrutiny next season from the Jazz front office. Corbin appears likely to keep his job regardless of whether the team captures the final playoff spot this year.
• Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times figures on at least six coaching vacancies in the offseason, with the Pistons most likely to have one of them. Woelfel hears Rockets assistant coach Kelvin Sampson is already drawing serious consideration from a couple of teams. Sampson was recently linked to the Bucks, where coach Jim Boylan appears on unsteady footing.
• According to Paul Franklin of The Times of Trenton, Lakers assistant coach Eddie Jordan is expected to be announced as the new head basketball coach at Rutgers University. Tom Luicci of the Star-Ledger heard about the possibility earlier this afternoon (Twitter link). 
• Dirk Nowitzki believes the outcome of the Mavericks' attempt to retool this summer might determine the effectiveness of Mark Cuban's decision to break up his 2011 championship team, observes Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com.
• Even without a superstar, the well-balanced Pacers appear to be primed as a dangerous post-season matchup, writes Zach Schonbrun of the New York Times. 
• Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register tweets that Kobe Bryant will likely seek advice from soccer star and friend David Beckham, who also suffered an Achilles injury but returned after six months. Dan Woike (also of the OC Register) says that Clippers guard Chauncey Billups - who also suffered the same injury last season - is also willing to lend his support (Twitter link). Lastly, the LA Times' Sam Farmer and Broderick Turner gathered some thoughts from NFL star Terrell Suggs, who shed some light on the process of recovery.

Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors contributed to this post. 

Marc Stein's final ESPN.com Weekend Dime of the season doubles as his awards ballot, and he has LeBron James winning MVP, of course. More intriguing are his selections in some of the tighter races: George Karl for Coach of the Year, Kevin Martin for Sixth Man of the Year, Tim Duncan for Defensive Player of the Year and Jrue Holiday for Most Improved Player. Stein also has plenty of news from around the league, as we round up: 

• Before the season, the Hawks offered Josh Smith a three-year extension for the maximum amount, which would have been about $45MM, but Smith made it clear he wanted to hit free agency. That's no surprise, since an extension would have meant a smaller annual salary than he can sign for as a free agent, per collective bargaining agreement rules. The Hawks, wary of letting Smith walk, aggressively pursued trades, according to Stein, but wound up keeping him when an offer from the Bucks wasn't to their liking.
• Bucks GM John Hammond is publicly heaping praise on coach Jim Boylan, but Stein hears Boylan has little to no shot of retaining the job, based on the team's late-season slump.
• Doug Collins may join the Sixers front office or simply become an adviser to the team if he decides to step away from coaching.
• Justin Holiday's deal with the Sixers includes a team option for next season, and it appears the deal is partially guaranteed for $50K, becoming fully guaranteed if he's not waived by August 15th.
• The Nets also have a team option on Kris Joseph's deal for 2013/14.
• A source insists to Stein that the Jazz will retain Tyrone Corbin for the final year of his contract next season, regardless of whether the team makes the playoffs.
• Jermaine O'Neal, 34, is leaning strongly toward playing again next season. He signed a one-year, minimum-salary deal with the Suns last summer. 

• Earlier today, HoopsWorld's Steve Kyler answered some of his followers' questions on Twitter, saying that he doesn't think the Lakers aren't looking to move Dwight Howard before the deadline, Mike D'Antoni's job isn't necessarily safe right now, and that the Grizzlies aren't currently looking to make a deal with the Celtics (All Twitter links).
• Luke Ridnour has been a productive and dependable stop gap for the Timberwolves in spite of all the injuries he's handled this year, notes Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune. 
• Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro wants Lamar Odom to be more aggressive on the offensive end, according to Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. Another 6'10 forward has been making waves in Los Angeles, albeit for the purple and gold. In another article, Ben Bolch examines Earl Clark's breakout year as a starter for the Lakers. 
• Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin tells Bill Oram of the Salt Lake Tribune that he wants to groom Gordon Hayward into a player who can be counted on to close games. 
• Mavericks owner Mark Cuban says there's no doubt in his mind that Dirk Nowitzki will be an All-Star again, writes Eddie Sefko of SportsDayDFW.  
• Jason Smith has played with a reckless abandon that has earned the attention and respect from his teammates and the Hornets coaching staff, observes John Reid of NOLA.com. 
• Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post makes a case for why Warriors guard Stephen Curry was the biggest snub of this year's All-Star game. 

The Thunder have an eight-game lead on the Nuggets in the Northwest Division, but that says more about Oklahoma City's brilliance this season than it does about their competition in the Northwest. It's the only division with four teams above .500. The Timberwolves, at 16-20, might be a winning team, too, if not for all their injuries. Before news broke that the league will allow Minnesota to sign an extra player to compensate, we rounded up several Wolves rumors. Now we'll do the same for a couple of their Northwest Division rivals.

• Nuggets coach George Karl said last year's trade of Nene Hilario "had to be made," explaining that, among other factors, the team needed him to be more assertive, as Michael Lee of the Washington Post details. "The situation came down to, when you’re reshaping a team, it’s better to go younger and that’s the choice management made and I was supportive of that," Karl also said.
• JaVale McGee was the younger player the Nuggets received in that deal, and in a separate piece, Lee rounds up Karl's comments about what JaVale McGee needs to do to earn minutes in line with the team's expectations after signing him to a $44MM deal this summer.
• Cavs small forward C.J. Miles said over the summer that comments he made suggesting a disconnect between Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin and his players were taken out of context. As he prepares to face his former team, Miles added that he has "nothing but love" for his former boss. Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal has the story.

The Jazz have extended head coach Tyrone Corbin's contract an additional year, exercising their 2013/14 option on his contract, the team announced today in a press release. The move will keep Corbin under contract through the next two seasons.

"Greg Miller, Randy Rigby and Kevin O’Connor made an excellent choice when they selected Tyrone Corbin to lead this team. I have been very impressed with Ty’s leadership skills, as well as his openness and collaborative nature," said Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey in a statement. "He inherited a young team under difficult circumstances and did a remarkable job last season of developing our players and advancing the team to the playoffs. He has shown poise, steadiness and an overall passion for the franchise’s well-being that I am confident will serve the Jazz well moving forward"

Although Corbin had occasional issues with players such as Raja Bell and C.J. Miles last season, he led Utah to a solid showing on the court. The Jazz had a 36-30 record and earned a No. 8 seed in the Western Conference in Corbin's first full year as the team's head coach.

The James Harden trade continues to make news, as Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman weighs in with a lengthy list of observations while Ken Berger of CBSSports.com deems the trade a success for the Thunder, the Rockets and Harden. Berger holds it up as an illustration of the bold, proactive moves that small-market teams must make to stay competitive. As the rest of the NBA digests what the move means, here's more news on the Thunder and their Northwest Division rivals.

• The swap likely results in a trade exception worth $2,445,480 for the Thunder, an amount equal to Cole Aldrich's salary, as Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors observes. The Rockets seem to be in line for an exception worth $2,354,236, based on a portion of Kevin Martin's salary. Both exceptions expire one year from yesterday, as noted on our list of trade exceptions for every NBA team.
• The Thunder and Blazers could be interested in former NBA forward Joey Dorsey, whose status with the Greek club Olympiacos is in limbo, reports Wendell Maxey of Ridiculous Upside.
• Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post believes the Nuggets overpaid for JaVale McGee, putting the onus on the need to rectify the move by giving Ty Lawson an extension worth no less than $48MM over four seasons.
• Will Conroy's contract is partially guaranteed for $100K, and according to Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune, he'll likely remain on the Timberwolves roster until Ricky Rubio proves he's healthy.
• It's the first season with a full training camp for Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin, who could use a successful year to influence the Jazz to pick up the team option on his contract for 2013/14, as Steve Luhm of The Salt Lake Tribune observes.