Within hours of the NBA’s draft lottery on Tuesday, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov was meeting with New Jersey Nets president Rod Thorn to try and complete a contract agreement with the franchise’s top executive, league sources said. Sources say Thorn is expected to come to terms on a new two-year deal. Thorn’s current contract expires this summer. Prokhorov’s ownership group had been canvassing officials with several NBA teams to gauge comparable salaries for team executives. Prokhorov’s team was looking at the pay cut the Sacramento Kings gave general manager Geoff Petrie in his new contract, sources say. Thorn has been conducting the preliminaries of a coaching search, and that will gather momentum quickly once his own situation is resolved. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ys-thornnets051810