PORTLAND – The Maine Red Claws will begin their fourth season on the road, Nov. 23 at Canton and Nov. 25 at Fort Wayne, before opening their home schedule Nov. 30 at the Portland Expo against the Los Angeles D-Fenders.

The Red Claws and the rest of the NBA Development League teams announced their 2012-13 schedules Thursday.

The Red Claws will play a 50-game schedule — 24 at home, 24 on the road, and two at the NBA D-League Showcase Jan. 7-10 in Reno, Nev.

Nineteen of the Red Claws’ home games will fall on weekends, with Sunday games slated for the afternoons.

“It works really well. People like weekend games the most,” said Red Claws President and Chairman Bill Ryan.

Two other home games are Monday afternoons, on New Year’s Eve and Martin Luther King Day, Jan. 21.

This is the Red Claws’ first season as a single affiliate with the Boston Celtics. Previous seasons featured ties with the Celtics as well as the Charlotte Bobcats and Philadelphia 76ers.

The Red Claws’ agreement with the Celtics calls for the NBA team to act as Maine’s general manager, hiring the head coach and making personnel decisions.

Austin Ainge, the Red Claws head coach in their first two years, is now the Celtics’ director of player personnel.

Ainge said the Celtics’ relationship with the Red Claws will be similar to that of a major league baseball team and minor league affiliate, with one exception.

“We won’t have exclusive rights to all the players,” Ainge said, “only those under contract with the Celtics.”

Ainge said the naming of a new head coach is “very close. We actually have our guy.”

Last year’s head coach, Dave Leitao, resigned after the season. The Red Claws finished  21-29 last season and failed to make the playoffs for the third consecutive season.

The Celtics will begin assembling the Red Claws next month with an invite-only tryout Sept. 22 at the Celtics’ workout facility in Waltham, Mass.

The NBA D-League draft will be held in late October, around the time of NBA teams’ final cuts. While the Celtics are taking over general manager duties, Ryan said he is taking more of a day-to-day role with the team in the wake of the resignation of Jon Jennings, the team’s general manager and president for its first three years.

Jennings is focusing on the development of The Forefront at Thompson’s Point, a proposed facility that would include, among other things, an arena that could eventually serve as the Red Claws’ home.

Ryan said Dajuan Eubanks has been promoted to executive vice president and will assume more duties.

The team is currently selling season tickets. Ryan said single-game tickets will likely go on sale in late October.

Staff Writer Kevin Thomas can be reached at 791-6411 or at:

kthomas@pressherald.com

Twitter: @KevinThomasPPH