Kevin Love To Stay In Minnesota?

Now that the Minnesota Timberwolves have finally hired Rick Adelman as their head coach the team’s next order of business will be signing All-Star forward Kevin Love to a long-term extension. Good news for Wolves fans, apparently Love is a huge fan of the Adelman hiring.

Love and Adelman have known each other for years, going back to the forward’s junior high school days in Portland. In addition to that, Adelman’s son Patrick played high school ball with Love.

Love claims that Adelman’s presence will play a huge factor in whether or not he signs an extension with the team.

“When I talked about the prospect of me re-signing, I always said one of the things we’d have to have is a great coach. If (the news of the hiring) is true, we’ve got a great coach.

We’ve always had a good relationship. Looking back to high school I always asked myself, ‘What does Rick think I need to improve?’ I kept asking him for advice whenever I had a chance to talk to Rick. I always thought it’d be very interesting and intriguing to play under such a well-respected coach, who I know well, what has been there and done that.

“He adds credibility to our team.”

Wow, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard a more glowing endorsement of a new coach. Love clearly wanted this hiring and is fully on board with it. Now Minnesota needs to lock him up.

Love would be eligible to sign an extension until October 31 if the current collective bargaining agreement rules hold true for extensions.

As recently as a few months ago we were hearing that Love was all but done with the T-Wolves. He had discussed a move back to Los Angeles where he played college ball for UCLA, and the Lakers had expressed interest in acquiring him. With Adelman now in place, Minnesota has the upper-hand on his future and is likely to lock him up for a significant chunk of time.

Hiring Adelman not only brought a fantastic coach with a stellar track record to Minneapolis, but it may have been the biggest factor that eventually keeps Love in town.