Report: Kurt Rambis done in Minnesota after season, team denies

UPDATE March 14, 9:53 am: As should be expected and is basically standard operating procedure in these cases, Minnesota officials denied everything about the report, according to the Pioneer Press. GM David Kahn particularly smacked down the idea that Kelvin Sampson was a planned replacement.

Kurt Rambis was much more direct.

“I don’t comment on things I haven’t read, and I never comment on things that cowards say,” Rambis said before heading to the team’s charter flight to Oakland. “If somebody wants to say something and attach their name to it, that’s another matter. Rumors are out there all the time. Anybody can start a rumor, but if they don’t attach their name to it, they’re a coward.”

March 12, 1:01 pm: Minnesota already has 50 losses this season and will likely finish with 60 or more when all is said and done. Which is a little better than the 67 lost last season but let’s not pretend we’re in the ballpark of reasonable.

It means that coach Kurt Rambis will likely be let go at the end of the season, according to Ken Berger at CBSSports.com. The decision will come at the end of the season but some within the organization are pushing hard for a change.

With a young roster clearly lacking in veteran leadership, some members of the Minnesota brain trust believe the team needs a more vocal, energetic coach on the sideline. Rambis is cut from the Phil Jackson cloth of letting his players police themselves, and also has been at odds with (Kevin) Love for long stretches. A coaching change is something Love would not oppose, sources say.

From almost day one there has seemed to be no cohesion between management’s vision and Rambis’ vision. They hire him to run the triangle offense in Minnesota, then use their two lottery draft picks that summer to bring in two ball-dominating point guards — the one thing the triangle offense does not require. Minnesota was in a place where they needed to gamble on young talent to fill out a roster, regardless of position, but again that is a bad fit for how you want to build a triangle-based team.

Rambis was slow to recognize what he had in Love — benching him for stretches at the start of this season even though he was their best player — and he seemed unable to get guys to really buy into the system fully.

Bucks assistant Kelvin Sampson is the frontrunner to get the job next season, Berger says. He may be a better fit, but unless he gets more talent to expect many more wins would be a mistake. The talent question hinges on Ricky Rubio, the Spanish point guard. Minnesota staff are insistent he will play in the NBA next season, but the threat of a lockout makes it seem more likely he would spend one more season in Europe before coming over (he has to announce his intentions on his Euro deal this spring, long before a deal will be struck between the owners and players).

Rambis’ name may come up when Phil Jackson walks away from the Lakers at the end of this season. Lakers assistant Brian Shaw remains the front-runner for that job, however.