UPDATE 5:45 pm: It’s official, Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune has two sources confirming what has been expected — Rick Adelman is the new head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Expect and official announcement from the team soon.
That’s twice now that Kevin Love broke on twitter that the Wolves hired a new coach. The team can’t chastise him for it this time, they can’t even talk to him.
Adelman is a great fit for this team. The experience he brings to the Timberwolves will help bring along Ricky Rubio, and it will force Kevin Love to play some defense. Adelman will bring some accountability.
Now, Adelman is also a power broker in the league who has talked about wanting a front office job — did David Kahn just hire his replacement? Maybe. But now right now because Kahn has won this summer with a series of good moves. Minnesota will be better next season for what he did this summer.
3:10 pm: Two years ago, Kevin Love created a firestorm when he tweeted the news that Kevin McHale was going to be the Timberwolves coach before anybody else knew.
He may have just done it again.
We know that Rick Adelman is in talks with the Timberwolves and then Kevin Love tweeted this Monday afternoon:
Is that official? Not exactly tweets Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune:
Love is the franchise player on this team and had been consulted on the coaching search prior to the lockout. However, nobody from the team could have told him or his agent of the hire without risking the wrath of David Stern and a massive fine (there will be no contact with players is one of the lockout commandments). That said, it’s not that hard to get word out through intermediaries if someone really want to.
I want to see more confirmation, but it looks like Adelman is your new Timberwolves coach. Which I think is a great move, even if everybody doesn’t agree with that assessment.