Flip Saunders
Flip Saunders
Philip Daniel "Flip" Saunderswas an American basketball player and coach. During his career, he coached the Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons, and Washington Wizards...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth23 February 1955
CityCleveland, OH
added angles defend dimension gives playing post quickness rely totally
When he's got his legs, what he can do, he can defend in the post with his feet. He can use his quickness and play different angles in the post and not have to rely on totally fronting and totally just playing behind. He gives you an added dimension defensively to do some things.
remember win
If we don't win the title, no one will remember that we were 35-5.
autographs cared face great help holder kids loss next player season sign smile sports talk tickets time took
I got to know him when he was a player and he had season tickets right next to our bench. I didn't know him just as a season-ticket holder but as a friend. It's a great loss to the sports world and Minnesota. He always had a smile on his face and cared about kids. He always took time to sign autographs and talk to kids and try to help them.
five judge practice somebody stellar team work
I don't judge somebody that's had five years of stellar work -- not only with the team but in the community, and how he has been in practice -- and judge him by one incident. You judge him on the long haul.
basically fourth games judge losses nine played three wins
I don't always judge things by wins and losses. I just go by how you play and the opportunities to win. We played 51 games, and out of those 51 we had nine losses and probably only three of those games where we basically didn't have opportunities to win in the fourth quarter.
faced fight teams
We've faced a lot of teams that have had that sense of urgency, so what has happened, teams have kind of jumped on us early. We've had to fight our butts off to get back in games.
afraid bigger certain might playing practice
We've done some things in practice where we'll play a bigger lineup, playing a two at the point. And even the development of (rookie Alex) Acker at practice, in certain situations, we might not be afraid to play him some.
biggest brought court deal far gave handle mitchell players porter practice prepare responsibility sam surrounded terry tried type veteran
We surrounded (Kevin). We brought in two veteran players in Sam Mitchell and Terry Porter that we thought were two very professional type individuals that would show him how to handle practice situations, what it was to be professionals, to prepare for practice, to prepare for games, how to deal as far as off the floor, not to put yourself in any awkward-type situations. And then we tried to communicate with him. Our biggest thing was we gave him enough responsibility on the court that he was able to perform, yet still improve.
capable playing team
To get 30 assists as a team after the way we started out - we started playing the way we were capable of playing offensively.
barometer concerned games half scoring shooting zero
He's a barometer a lot for us. ... I was not as concerned about him not scoring or shooting or not being aggressive, but his rebounding totals were way down. He had some games in the first half where he'd come in with zero or one.
bodies far gives guy inside question shot
He's a different presence. There's no question that without him, they didn't go inside as much. He gives them a low-block presence. He's more of a go-to guy as far as inside down the stretch. Defensively, he's a shot blocker. It just gives them more bodies up front.
great
He's a flat-out great shooter. You can never have enough of those guys.
bench both chicago game good minutes needed plays
Going into this game we needed the bench to give us both good minutes and good production, which they did. Chicago plays physical, they play hard. But to our credit, we can play that way.
impressed minutes nice starting
He's got size, and he's done a nice job. I have been really impressed with him. He's starting to get heat-of-the-battle minutes now and he's been productive. He's not shied away at all.