Rick Adelman To Become A Wolf

There’s little doubt you heard Derek Fisher advising players to get ready for the season. Fisher is denying that he sent texts to players reminding them to stay in shape because a resolution was working itself together, but it got many fans in a tizzy. We honestly won’t believe it until we’re watching games on opening night. Negotiations have a funny way of going sour right when everything seemed all good. Either way, we’d love to see the season start soon since fall is fast approaching. Just give us something more official than vague texts, tweets and quotes … Minnesota might finally have a coach. Yesterday afternoon, Kevin Love tweeted out: Houston, we have a coach. Then later into the night, it was confirmed that Rick Adelman has agreed in principle to coach the T’Wolves. This is huge for them. Adelman is one of the best coaches in the league, and gives the franchise instant credibility from the bench. Plus, Love is overwhelmingly happy, which will mean a lot when it comes time to sign an extension. Do you think Adelman was the right guy for the job? … More from Shaq on Dwight Howard: “I don’t have a problem. But my thing is if you want to call yourself me (Superman), then you’ve got big shoes to fill…I don’t envy him; he’s a great young player. But I’ve never seen him dog another center out. I tried to dog centers out. I went at David Robinson. If Dwight doesn’t win two or three championships, I’m going to be disappointed. He doesn’t have nobody. When I came in the league, I had to go through Alonzo Mourning, Arvydas Sabonis, Kevin Duckworth, Rik Smits. Now I can’t name any other centers besides Kendrick Perkins and Andrew Bynum. Who else is there? That’s it.” Tell ’em how you feel boss. In all seriousness we’d also be disappointed if Dwight doesn’t get some rings. But as Shaq suggested, his current team’s makeup won’t cut it. Besides the rings, do you think Howard will become a league MVP in his career? His three consecutive Defensive POY Awards don’t need further explanation and his offensive game, while still raw, has steadily improved. There’s no other center now – with Yao Ming gone – or in the foreseeable future seeing him at the throne. He’s been mentioned as a fringe nominee for MVP before and he hasn’t peaked yet. Imagine how much worse the Magic would be without Howard denying at the rim, securing possessions via rebounds and refining his low-post game? Seeing him win an MVP down the line isn’t out of the question when you consider everything he brings to the table … People are STILL arguing over who the greatest team of all-time is. Our guess? The 1986 Celtics … Who has the best roster in the unofficial “Lockout League” starting up in Vegas? … EuroBasket 2011 moved to the quarters recently with a rather notable exit in its wake. Germany, led by 2011 NBA Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki, lost to Lithuania 84-75. Dirk’s gang suffered elimination from the defeat and won’t get a bid to play in the 2012 Summer Olympics. The downfall has bigger ramifications for Dirk’s international career since there’s no telling if he’ll suit up for his home country in the future. Losing before the quarterfinals is a tough way to exit but at least he still has an O’Brien trophy to defend … Moreover, it seemed like it was all good just a week ago for France and Turkey. Parker and the Baguettes edged out Turkey and Lithuania. Then the team gave Tony and Joakim time off while the rest of squad withstood a 27-point whuppin’ from Spain. They’ve got a beatable opponent in Greece in the quarterfinals but they haven’t beaten the tougher squads in convincing fashion yet. You have to wonder if they can advance past the semis with their recent play against the stronger opponents. Meanwhile, Turkey’s out of the running thanks to the aforementioned loss, capping a three-game slide against Germany and Serbia. Oh well, looks like Hedo Turkoglu will have plenty of time for pizza and karaoke next summer … Luis Scola (32 points) led Argentina over Brazil 80-75 in the finals of the Americas Olympic qualifier … The first round of Dime’s Ultimate Movie Baller one-on-one tournament is nearly over and the results are almost complete. So far, Neon easily took out Kenny Tyler and his ghost brother, Tom Shepherd surprisingly won almost 75 percent of the vote over Saleh, Butch McRae won easily over the No. 1 Hoosier and Lewis Scott won boringly over Henry Steele. The two big surprises were these: Jesus Shuttlesworth straight murdered Travis Porter. Porter finished with under 5 percent. And the first major upset occurred when the Teen Wolf advanced past Scott McKnight. The results from the final two first round matchups will be announced tomorrow … And Deron Williams finally played in his first game in Turkey, dropping 14 points, eight rebounds and six assists in 18 minutes to lead Besiktas to a 93-91 win in the Bormio Tournament in Italy … We’re out like Nash’s popularity right now in Canada.

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