Rick Adelman is another possible candidate to take over the Minnesota Timberwolves' head-coaching position, according to a report by ESPN.com's Marc Stein. Adelman joins Don Nelson, the NBA's all-time leader in wins, in the Wolves' coaching search.
Adelman, 65, owns a 945-616 (.605) career record in 20 seasons, split among the Portland Trail Blazers, Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, and Houston Rockets, as a head coach. He compiled a 193-135 (.588) record over four seasons with Houston, despite having franchise cornerstone Yao Ming available for 137 of those games, and only five in the last two seasons. He's respected as an innovative offensive coach who gets the most out of his players on that end of the floor. Despite his reputation, the Rockets elected not to renew his contract following this season.
As Stein notes, Adelman is very familiar with Wolves star Kevin Love's game, having watched most of his senior season at UCLA while Adelman was between jobs. Further, Adelman's son played with Love in high school.
The Timberwolves' job opened up when Kahn finally elected to fire Kurt Rambis, who lost 132 games in his two seasons at Minnesota's helm. Adelman ought to command near top-dollar money, and may not even be interested in taking over a rebuilding team such as Minnesota. However, it's clear that hiring Adelman would be a real coup for a franchise that finally has reasons--with the emergence of Love and the arrival of rookies Ricky Rubio and Derrick Williams--for optimism.