HANG TIME NEW JERSEY BUREAU – Exactly 90 days after the Minnesota Timberwolves’ season ended, GM David Kahn has announced a decision regarding his head coach. The Wolves announced Tuesday that they have relieved Kurt Rambis of his coaching duties.
The timing of the announcement is curious, to say the least. Hang Time head honcho Sekou Smith has been blogging about Rambis’ status regularly since April, and the idea that he wouldn’t be back for the 2011-12 season has been out there for quite awhile.
Yet Kahn chose to wait until now to make the official announcement. And in doing so, he’s lost the opportunity to interview some of the best available candidates, guys like Mike Brown and Dwane Casey, who have already been scooped up by teams that decided not to let their current coach twist in the wind for three months. The timing will also make it difficult for the Wolves’ next coach to fill out his staff with available assistants.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo!, who first broke the news of Rambis’ dismissal, writes that candidates to replace Rambis include Bernie Bickerstaff and Kelvin Sampson.
But Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle tweeted Tuesday afternoon that the Rockets have hired Sampson and J.B. Bickerstaff (Bernie’s son) as assistants under Kevin McHale.
With the Detroit Pistons still yet to name a new coach, former head guys Lawrence Frank and Mike Woodson are still on the market as well.
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John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.
