As most of you probably saw, it had been rumored a few days ago that K-Love could soon be playing in the Turkish Basketball League on a team with Luol Deng and Deron Williams, during this never-ending and absurd NBA lockout.  It was definitely a legit rumor from Adrian Woj of Yahoo Sports, but it turns out that it just wasn't going to end up happening.  Apparently Love didn't feel great about that opportunity, but he didn't rule out playing elsewhere during the lockout:

Think Mr. Love would want to come play at one of our houses on an adjustable basketball goal?  Maybe put that baby down to 9 feet so that he'd really be able to show off his hops?  Someone Tweet him up.

Also in Ricky Rubio T-Wolves news...

There have been two superb pieces about Ricky Rubio in the past two days.  Definitely make sure to check them out if you are wondering what he's been up to lately.

- Again from Adrian Woj at Yahoo Sports: Free at last, "Ricky Rubio ready to start NBA career."

- And from the solid Sam Amick at CNNSI.com: "With little fanfare, Rubio takes 'little step' on road to the NBA."

- Saving the best for last, We've got Rubio highlights from Drew Gooden's charity game.  Here are the top ten plays below.  Rubio makes it twice, and also has the #1 overall play of pure, studly awesomeness:

The interwebz are blowing up, and it appears to be true that the TWolves are hiring Rick Adelman.  Hoooray, a real coach 4THEWIN!

Tweets about the TWolves hiring Adelman

Kevin Love: "Houston We Have a Coach"

He's the best possible coach we could hire for the short AND long-term.  It will be great to see what a truly elite coach can finally do for a team like ours.  Let's just hope that something doesn't change and this ends up going south; as that would be monumentally disappointing.

For some pictures of our (hopefully) new coach, please click "Read More" and the jump...

Per Jerry Zgoda the Wolves talked to Sam Mitchell on Monday and today's interview of Larry Brown will be the end of the road. 

At this point it seems likes ages ago that the first round of interviews happened but here is the list of names supposedly in the mix:

Larry Brown

Sam Mitchell

Rick Adelman (though it seems like he's removed himself)

Mike Woodson

Terry Porter

Bernie Bickerstaff

Don Nelson

The Vegas odds on Kahn and Taylor finishing interviews and making a decisive decision on who the next coach will be are 300-1 right now. If you want to give them money take that action.

Lynx Addendum:

Box Score

The Lynx's 9 game win streak ended last night. It was a close game to the end but the Lynx couldn't get a bucket to fall in the last minute.  The bench (i.e. Wiggins) had a grand total of ZERO points for the game. Weak. Maya Moore and Augustus where fantasic. Given that it wasn't on TV that is about all I can extrapolate from the box score. 

I normally wouldn't dream of paying attention to the Lynx but a number of external factors have come into play.

1.  NBA - Dead right now

2. Twins - Not much better

3. Vikings - Destroying lives, business as usual

4. No Olympics/World Cup or other remotely interesting sport that happens on an interval. 

Then you add a very very odd phenomenon of the Lynx some how ending up with the all time best college basketball player on their team.  I'm as confused as you are.  It'd be great if some folks would join me in following this team (atleast passively, boxscore style) because here are the facts as I know them

1. This team traded a very good pick for Lindsey Whalen. 

2. Simone Augustus is good but always hurt, this year she finally isn't

3. Maya Moore is apparently very very good.

4. Candice Wiggins is our Jason Terry off the bench. It isn't clear to me if she has the 2011 WNBA championship trophy tatooed on her bicep but I wouldn't be surprised, plus she is the hottest player in the WNBA. Between Ricky and Candice the MN basketball teams need a section in the next SI Swimsuit issue. 

5. The team is 15-4 on a 8 game winning streak and they just managed to win a game that involved Maya Moore missing very shot she took 

If you know more please enlighten me. 

From Jerry Zgoda

The Timberwolves' coaching search just got very interesting.

According to league sources, former Houston coach Rick Adelman will be the fourth candidate to interview with the Wolves when he comes to town tomorrow to see David Kahn and owner Glen Taylor.

Adelman all along has looked like the dream hire who'd solve a lot of the Wolves' problems, if he's interested.

Well, it looks like he is now, at least enough to listen.

So with two very high-profile coaches coming into town this week, could expectations be any higher? Will hiring anyone other than Don or Rick be anything but an abject disaster? I mean, these two come in and we will probably end up with Sidney Lowe. I guess it is bound to happen.

Enjoy your weekend and stay cool. 

According to the illustrious Jerry Zgoda, Kurt Rambis's firing will be announced at 2 p.m. today. 

Ricky Rubio will be a free man!!!!!!!

Source

Uh-oh... some discouraging news today from The Star Tribune:

Timberwolves forward Michael Beasley was cited for marijuana possession after being pulled over for speeding in Minnetonka, police said Wednesday.

The traffic stop occurred about 3 a.m. June 26 on Hwy. 12 near Carlson Parkway, said police Capt. Scott Boerboom. Beasley was driving 84 miles per hour in a 65-mph zone, Boerboom said.

Officers who stopped Beasley, 22, smelled marijuana in the car and found slightly more than a half-ounce in the vehicle, Boerboom said.

A police report said the marijuana was found under the front seat. Beasley said the marijuana belonged to a friend whom he had just dropped off, according to the report.

Beasley, who was not under the influence, was cited and released, the captain said. Beasley lives in Orono, west of where he was stopped.

Timberwolves team spokesman Mike Cristaldi said Wednesday that the team cannot comment about Beasley's troubles because of "the current labor situation." A management lockout has the league shut down.

In February, Beasley was cited in Hennepin County for driving 70 mph in a 55-mph zone. He paid a $117 fine in that case.

In July 2010, after Beasley's trade to Minnesota from Miami, Timberwolves basketball boss David Kahn said in a radio interview that one of his new player's problems in Florida was that he "smoked too much marijuana." The NBA responded by fining Kahn and the team $50,000 each. The league called the comments "inappropriate."

Kahn, also in the interview on 1500 ESPN, suggested that Beasley would be a changed man once he arrived in Minnesota.

"He's a very young and immature kid who smoked too much marijuana and has told me that he's not smoking anymore," Kahn said, "and I told him that I would trust him as long as that was the case."

In August 2009, Yahoo! Sports reported that Beasley had checked into an unidentified Houston rehabilitation hospital.

In 2008, Beasley was chosen out of Kansas State second overall in the NBA draft by the Heat. Soon after, he was fined $50,000 by the NBA for being in a room where marijuana was found at a rookie symposium.

***

He wasn't under the influence of anything, which is good. But overall though, it was 3AM and he was speeding with drugs in the car, so yeah... doesn't bode well for his "maturity issues." Ugh. I also wonder if this will change his role/place on the team going forward, especially now that we have Derrick Williams?

And just when you thought Beasley's trade value couldn't get any lower...

Well we can't trade him now after this (and drafting Derrick Williams.) We might as well keep him around and see what happens.  Will this humble him enough to accept the role as a Super Duper 6th man?  That would be ideal for everyone.  And after this, at least it won't cost us $8-$10 million per year to re-sign him (presumably.)

At least he is a good teammate, no one has ever said otherwise about that.

Come join us in the TWolves Blog Forums, where discussion about this (and much more) has been raging all day long.

No NBA fan is excited about the lockout, nor are any of the players. Money is something that will always get in the way of professional sports, and it's something we'll all have to deal with.

It's possible that the Wolves could "deal with" the situation better than others.

Obviously everyone would prefer to see the Wolves players develop in a game situation, but it might actually be for the better if some of the guys who will be the core of this team to hone certain aspects of their games.

no comments

Well... for anyone that's still around out there, come join us chatting and hanging out in the TWolves Blog Forums. Not like there's anything better to do right now. 

Aaaaaaaand the lockout begins. Per ESPN:

NBA players are locked out, possibly jeopardizing next season.

Union chief Billy Hunter said Thursday afternoon that owners had locked out the players after failing to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.

"It's obvious the lockout will happen tonight," he said.

Obviously this is disappointing news. Let's hope they can settle this and avoid affecting next season!