Rick Adelman-New Minnesota Timberwolves Head Coach

The following is the "raw" version of a piece I wrote back in April about new Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Rick Adelman for a website that is now defunct, taking a look at his potential candidacy as head coach. He was officially announced as head coach on Wednesday.

The Houston Rockets and head coach Rick Adelman decided to part ways this week after four seasons with the team. The Rockets went 193-135 during Adelman’s tenure, including 43-39 during this past season as the team missed the playoffs. It has been reported the coach and team “mutually agreed to part ways.”


Adelman has a career record of 945-616 (a .605 winning percentage) as an NBA head coach, a win total that is good for eighth all-time. The highlights of his career include leading the Portland Trailblazers to two NBA Finals appearances in the early 1990’s and helping transform the Sacramento Kings into perennial Western Conference contenders in the early 2000’s. He has never won NBA Coach of the Year, but has finished second four times.


The Minnesota Timberwolves still obviously have Kurt Rambis as their head coach right now, but it is very possible he could be fired fairly soon as the team was just 32-132 during his two seasons at the helm.


As for Adelman, he will turn 65 in June and may not be interested in taking over the re-building project that is the Timberwolves’ franchise right now. That said, he has said he still has the desire to coach and may be interested in working with the pieces Minnesota has in place (Kevin Love, Michael Beasley, etc.).


In any case Adelman is likely be fairly highly sought after by any team that wants to make a head coaching change, due to his track record of solid success. If that is the case, he will certainly have opportunities with franchises that can easily be deemed as having a better immediate situation than the Timberwolves right now. It may come down to money, though Adelman may not be motivated purely by financial gain at this stage of his career. That may give the Timberwolves a chance to make a run at hiring him if they choose to, assuming they do eventually dismiss Rambis.