04/25/24
July 13, 2011
Minnesota Timberwolves Fire Kurt Rambis: The Minnesota Timberwolves have fired head coach Kurt Rambis, who led the team to a horrendous 32-132 record that ended with a 15-game losing streak. "Rambis appeared at times to be coaching on autopilot during that final 15-game losing streak," writes Tom Powers. "Management had to prod him to get off the bench and show some involvement during the games."
posted by rcade to basketball at 08:14 AM - 5 comments
Problem in Minnesota isn't the coaching, it's the ownership. Bad decision following bad decision soon to be trumped by a worse decision. Although it is hard to imagine anything worse than banking the future on Ricky Rubio.
My guess is they canned Rambis for selecting Derrick Williams in the draft over another european bench warmer that the owner had the hots for.
posted by cixelsyd at 12:54 PM on July 13, 2011
Problem in Minnesota isn't the coaching, it's the ownership.
I dunno. Kevin Love spent a lot of the first quarter of last year trying to get more than 30 minutes, despite the fact he was putting up dazzling numbers. That's not an ownership problem, that's a Rambis not utilizing his talent very well problem. That and his...passive...approach to the end of the season.
Although it is hard to imagine anything worse than banking the future on Ricky Rubio.
I can think of plenty worse scenarios than banking on the future of Kevin Love, Wes Johnson, Derrick Williams and yes, Ricky Rubio. There's a lot of young talent that's been amassed on this team, and if they can find a trading partner to take Michael Beasley (and get a usable part in return), add some veteran help, they could improve pretty significantly next year with the right coach.
Rubio's untested and will take some time to adapt to the american game, but the skillset is there. He doesn't have to be the #1 guy with Love and possibly Williams in the mix, so I don't understand why it's such a bad thing to have a slick, young PG in your pocket.
posted by dfleming at 05:35 PM on July 13, 2011
My guess is they canned Rambis for selecting Derrick Williams in the draft over another european bench warmer that the owner had the hots for.
Doesn't David Kahn, the President/GM, do the drafting?
posted by holden at 11:16 AM on July 14, 2011
Problem in Minnesota isn't the coaching, it's the ownership.
My guess is they canned Rambis for selecting Derrick Williams...
The GM does all the drafting and personnel decisions but the ownership and the coach get blamed? Kaaaaahhhn!
posted by tron7 at 11:41 AM on July 14, 2011
Finally.
It's a shame how the Timberwolves were doing to Rambis what the Miami Dolphins basically did to Tony Sporano. Shopped around for another head coach while still having a head coach under contract. The only difference is that at least Sporano is still employed.