"The Timberwolves' search for their next head coach continues to further focus on Rick Adelman.

ESPN.com, citing an unnamed league source, on Monday reported Adelman -- the former coach at Portland, Golden State, Sacramento and most recently Houston -- will return to Minneapolis on Tuesday to meet with Wolves owner Glen Taylor.

That would be Adelman's second trip to Minnesota in a week.

He interviewed with the team last Tuesday. The ESPN report said that interview didn't allow him to meet with Taylor in person then because of the owner's "health issues."

Tuesday's trip would make Adelman the first of seven known candidates to be brought back for a second visit. The others: Don Nelson, Sam Mitchell, Mike Woodson, Larry Brown, Bernie Bickerstaff and Terry Porter.

Adelman's proven success -- a .605 career winning percentage, highest of the seven candidates -- and his relationship with Wolves forward Kevin Love has made him look like the job's frontrunner ever since Kurt Rambis finally, officially was fired last month.

Love and Adelman have known each other since Love's junior high school days in suburban Portland, Ore., where Adelman and his family have lived since he coached with the Trail Blazers in the 1980s. Love played on the same Lake Oswego High School team with Adelman's son, Patrick.

Love told reporters while competing in a California pro beach volleyball tournament last weekend that he hasn't talked to Adelman during the search process."