Newton on Bucks’ radar for Asst. GM position

LOS ANGELES — The Minnesota Timberwolves are one of the ascending teams in the NBA.

Milt Newton deserves some of the credit.

Newton served as the Timberwolves general manger from 2013-2016 and was heavily involved in several major player-personnel decisions, including the drafting of Karl-Anthony Towns and Zach LaVine and a trade that sent Kevin Love to Cleveland and netted Minnesota Andrew Wiggins, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 draft.

But when the Timberwolves hired Tom Thibodeau as head coach and president of basketball operations, he hired Scott Layden to replace Newton.

The latter has since been a consultant for some NBA teams and now has emerged as a serious candidate for the Milwaukee Bucks’ vacant assistant general manager’s position.

Newton, who had been Washington’s vice president of player personnel before working in Minnesota, met with Bucks officials earlier this week in Las Vegas. Among the Bucks’ contingent was recently-hired general manager Jon Horst and head coach Jason Kidd.

Newton is one of several individuals under consideration for the assistant GM job, which became vacant when the Bucks fired Justin Zanik.

As reported earlier by WPB, Chicago Bulls consultant Jim Paxson interviewed with the Bucks for the position earlier this week. It has also been learned Glen Grunwald and Gerald Madkins are under consideration for the job.

Grunwald has had two stints as a general manager, first in Toronto from 1997 to 2004 and then with the New York Knicks from 2011-2013.

In Toronto, the Raptors went to three consecutive playoffs under Grunwald. He also engineered a blockbuster deal that landed the Raptors superstar Vince Carter.

Grunwald, who has a J.D. from Northwestern University and a MBA from Indiana University, is currently the athletics director at McCalester University in Hamilton, Ontario.

Madkins has worked in a variety of positions since joining the Los Angeles Clippers in 2012 as the team’s director of basketball operations.

In 2014, he was promoted to president of basketball operations and director of scouting. He continued his advancement in the Clippers organization by being named assistant GM in 2015, a position he has held ever since.

Prior to joining the Clippers, Madkins was a scout for New York and Seattle. He was then hired as director of scouting for Houston in 2008 and, two years later, was hired as New Orleans’ vice president of player personnel.

Summer school

Members of the Milwaukee Bucks’ statistical game-day crew are in Las Vegas, learning a new stats system that will be implemented league-wide this season.

The Bucks’ crew of Dave Schmitz, Ted David, Jim Burant, Glenn Gossfeld and Jared Justman has been working Summer League games throughout the week at the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in familiarizing themselves with the new system.