MINNEAPOLIS — He finally rose to his feet, eyes
trained on the ball with less than two minutes left in the game.
Emotion was absent from Rick Adelman's face. There was just the back-and-forth
movement of his gaze as his team played defense, his left cheek twitching with
each Philadelphia pass. He was coaching with his eyes, down 89-88, as if
willing his team to get the stop.
It did. With a Martell Webster steal and a pass from Luke Ridnour to Kevin
Love, the Timberwolves grabbed a 90-89 lead on the way to a 92-91 win, but at
that point Adelman was several scores, a stop and a foul away from relaxing. As
the coach charged with turning around a struggling program, Adelman's seconds
of calm are few at the Target Center.
But Adelman has achieved a measure of success this season, his first in
Minnesota, bringing his team to .500 on Sunday night. At 16-16, the
Timberwolves have their best record through 32 games since 2006-07, and in
defeating Philadelphia they snatched a win from a team that's going through a
similar rebuilding process.
When Doug Collins took over the 76ers before the 2010-11 season, he inherited a
team in a slightly better state than the 17-65 Timberwolves of last season. The
76ers were coming off a 27-55 record, and they needed a revival. Under Collins,
things started slowly. He opened the season with a 3-13 record but coached the
team to a 41-41 finish and a playoff berth. This season, they're 20-12, a
legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference.
It's something Collins has been known for, breathing life into foundering
teams. He improved the Bulls' record by 10 wins in 1986-87, his first season in
Chicago, and laid the groundwork for Phil Jackson's dynasty. Then in Detroit,
Collins turned a 28-54 team into a 46-36 one in 1995-96. And when he took over
the Wizards in 2001-02, he led the team to 37 wins, 18 more than the previous
season. But this might be his last run, and he's said that he wants to leave
Philadelphia with a championship.
"He's got a good basketball mind," Adelman said of Collins.
"He's very sharp, and I think he's a hard worker. I think when he gets a
team like this, very young . . . he's going to give them opportunities to
succeed."
What Collins has done in Philadelphia looks a lot like what people expect out
of Adelman in Minneapolis, and Adelman has a similar track record of
improvement. Every time he's taken over a team — in Portland, Golden State,
Sacramento and Houston — he's led it to a better record and built a resume
suited to the task of reviving the Timberwolves.
Collins must look at what Adelman is doing this year with a sense of relief.
Some of that work, the stress of teaching a team to win, is behind him, but for
Adelman, the job has just begun. From deeper into the process, Collins had
nothing but positive things to say about what Adelman is accomplishing.
"Rick is a great coach, and (President of Basketball Operations) David
Kahn, to be able to add Rick with this young team as they're building, he's
really done a great job," Collins said.
Right now, Adelman's Timberwolves are on pace to finish with a .500 record, as Collins’
76ers last season. In many ways, it's more impressive considering the
circumstances: a lockout, fewer practices, less time to implement his offense.
But a .500 record in the Western Conference of 2011-12 may very well fall short
of a playoff spot, much less the seventh seed that Philadelphia received last season.
But the season is only half-finished, and in a year like this, predictions of
the future are murky at best. For now, neither Collins nor Adelman can look too
far past tomorrow, and both know that they play a crucial role in not only the
mechanics of their team's games, but also their mindsets.
The 76ers are in the midst of a three-game skid, yet Collins said he's
remaining upbeat. He's proud of his players, of what they accomplished
seemingly out of nowhere in the first half of the season. He knows all too well
that losing tough games can poison a team's outlook, and he's determined to
prevent that. Adelman, too, is known to speak about his team like he's a
concerned parent, and right now, that approach may be what these two teams
need.
Timberwolves' assistant Terry Porter, who played under Adelman in Portland,
said the coach strikes a good balance between restrictions and structure, and
that's crucial to his impact with this year's Timberwolves.
"Every player, we want structure, just like kids need structure,"
Porter said. "Yet, if there's freedom and an opportunity to try to use
your skill set, you're excited about that. I think from that standpoint, he's
always been great."
So on Sunday night, it was a battle of who wanted it more, a fight between two
teams looking to prove themselves, one as a contender and the other as simply a
winner. Both teams are young — the Timberwolves' average age is 24.9, the 76ers’
is 26.4 — and neither has yet asserted itself as a perennial winner. Matchups
like that are made for excitement, and Sunday's game delivered.
The Timberwolves aspired for .500, the 76ers for their first win since Feb. 13.
The 76ers started strong and were consistent for three quarters, playing the
way a coach would want his team to play. The Timberwolves as usual struggled
early, relying on 14 first-quarter points by Ricky Rubio to keep them in the
game and 12 in the fourth from Love to get the win. Collins paced and Adelman
sat, and the game came down to its final seconds.
There was an irony to Sunday night's game, though. For all the pacing and
plotting, the encouragement and the plays drawn hastily on whiteboards, the
game in its final instant went beyond the power of any coach.
With the Timberwolves down by one, the Timberwolves called for a timeout, and
Love then got the ball on an inbound pass with less than four seconds
remaining. These are all things a coach can plan, placing his best scorer at
the high post on the left side, ready to receive the pass. But when Andre
Iguodala fouled Love with 0.1 seconds remaining, coaching in the moment became
irrelevant.
It came down to free throws, to a perfect shot and a dose of adrenaline, to the
mechanics and willpower that Adelman has drilled into his players all season.
The coach's work was finished. He could only sit back and hope that what he'd
shown and preached would pay off.
With two swishes of the net, it did, and a win like Sunday's provides at least
a temporary validation of the energy and hope Adelman has put into his team.
