Rick Adelman Continues to Blast Minnesota Timberwolves for Poor Play

The Minnesota Timberwolves fell further out of the playoff hunt on Wednesday following a 111-108 home loss to the Sacramento Kings, and head coach Rick Adelman was not happy with his team's effort.

“We have to face facts that we’re a .500 team,” Adelman said, per Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune. “Right now we’re below .500 [18-20]. I told them, ‘If you think you’re a playoff team, why don’t you just forget it? Because you haven’t proven that you are. You haven’t gone out and really established yourselves yet.’ ”

The Kings came into Wednesday's game just 4-10 on the road.

The T-Wolves are just 5-5 in their last 10 games. They've lost to some good teams like the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder, but also blew a fourth quarter lead against the Phoenix Suns with poor late-game execution.  

Kevin Love is putting up video game type numbers, Kevin Martin is nearly averaging 20 points per game and Nikola Pekovic has been a horse down low by averaging 18.2 points and 9.1 rebounds.

Despite those facts, Minny's lack of team chemistry and 25th ranked defense (which surrenders 102.7 points per game) has led to a sub-.500 record.

This isn't the first time that Coach Adelman vented frustrations. He called out his team prior to the season as well.

According to the Star Tribune's Jerry Zgoda, Adelman said in early October, “They’ve got to figure out what they want to do as a team. I just told them, ‘What kind of season do you want?’ That’s really up to us to make what we want. They’ve got to figure out what they want to do as a team.”

He added, "We’re acting like we’re just going through the motions." Yikes.

Obviously there were red flags about on-court chemistry before the season even began, which is never a good sign.

The head coach isn't the only member of the Timberwolves organization airing grievances, though.

After the 104-103 home loss against the Suns on Jan. 8, Love called out his teammates for pouting on the sidelines. Per Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press via Twitter:

Many pundits predicted prior to the season that the Timberwolves would be a playoff team in 2014. That certainly hasn't looked probable thus far.

Adelman is trying to light a fire under his guys to get them out of their funk. The T-Wolves might be able to turn things around, but they have an uphill battle to climb if they're going to earn a playoff berth.