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Could John Calipari leave Kentucky for Minnesota Timberwolves?

By Josh Hill

Dec 13, 2014; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari coaches his team against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Rupp Arena. The Kentucky Wildcats defeated North Carolina Tar Heels 84-70. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 13, 2014; Lexington, KY, USA; Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari coaches his team against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Rupp Arena. The Kentucky Wildcats defeated North Carolina Tar Heels 84-70. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports /
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John Calipari is a college coaching legend, but his failure to replicate that success at the NBA level could lead him away from Kentucky and to Minnesota?

The Kentucky Wildcats might pull off the best season a college basketball team has put together in a very long time, but that won’t satisfy John Calipari. The man eats, sleeps and breathes basketball and he’s obsessed with winning. But he’s not a winner at the NBA level and that’s a drive that could see I’m return there in the near future.

What we all want to know is where would Calipari go in the NBA to build his winner? He’s not going to an established winner, as that’s a shortcut he’s not down to take. He could go to the Knicks, but they’re Phil Jackson’s project and Calipari likely wants one of his own.

As opined by Eddie Scarito, the Minnesota Timberwolves might want to make a run at John Calipari given his talent to build up young talent.

"Plus, if Calipari actually wants to leave Kentucky, he can do much better than the Knicks for an NBA gig. Flip Saunders may want to get off of the sidelines in Minnesota and Coach Cal has a bit of experience developing young talent…"

Now, this is a massive leap in logic to say that Calipari would leave the most successful college program in the country to take a job in the basketball boneyard of Minnesota. But what would Calipari’s legacy be if he took a job with a team like Cleveland or Chicago who are already on championship paths.

Calipari doesn’t want to be the missing piece in a franchise’s plan — he wants to be the only piece they need to be successful. That’s what’s so appealing about his position at Kentucky, as players come and go but the rule of Calipari is never broken.

If he were to take over a team like the Timberwolves, he could truly carve out the NBA legacy he so desires. He basically wants to do in the NBA what Pete Carroll did in the NFL. Carroll was a failure in the in the NFL his first go-around, but honed his skills as a legend at USC before becoming a coaching icon with the Seattle Seahawks.

Seattle is Carroll’s team through and through — that’s what makes his success at the NFL level uniquely his. That’s what Calipari wants, and he could do that by getting in on the ground floor with the Minnesota Timberwolves. They have a rash of young talent in Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine and draft picks that the Wolves could use to take Kentucky players that Calipari wants to carry over into the NBA.

It’s risky, but there is no easy road for Calipari to carve out the type of NBA legacy he wants.

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