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
defense lock
We know when to lock down. Our defense hasn't slipped at all.
great league plays team teams
We have a team that plays on the edge. You have to have that. All the great teams in this league have been like that.
area defended kicked point soft
We have not defended how we need to defend. We've been too soft on the ball. ... They kicked out butts every which way. I would like to point to one area and say that we did something well, but we didn't.
conference developed few good gotten teams western
Part of it is teams that were not very good have gotten better, which makes for a much more competitive conference. What developed for a few years in the Western Conference has now come back to the East, where there aren't really any gimme games.
against close experience fourth gave good guys losing main overall played quarter team third trying win
Our main guys played really well in the third quarter. Then we gave our young guys some fourth quarter experience against a team trying to get a win after losing 10 straight. It would have been better if they would have got the win but overall they did some good things and got some good experience in a close game.
appreciate atlanta eye guys hard main matter rust score
Our main guys didn't have much rust because they've been playing. At least I've been able to keep an eye on them. The one thing you've got to appreciate about Atlanta is they play hard no matter what the score is.
evaluate five fortunate months past situation wait walk
I was really fortunate in the past five months to wait and evaluate situations. I was going to wait and find the right situation to walk into.
coming concerned effective identity lose sure
I was more concerned coming in with the defense. I feel in time, we're going to be able to do preparation to be effective offensively. Let's make sure we don't lose our identity defensively.
college five guys high hope kids league maybe opportunity people rare school standpoint talk team whether
I would hope there would be at least three, maybe more. As coaches, we talk about team play, how important it is. This is an opportunity from a league standpoint to show to people - whether it's college kids or high school kids or AAU kids - how important team play really is. It's a very rare opportunity you'd have as a league to maybe put five guys from one team in.
extremely high played
I would like to say we did something good, but we didn't. We had something to do with that, but it had more to do with how the Nuggets played. They played at an extremely high level.
played turn
We played like a well-oiled machine. And I think there's a sense that if it comes down to it, you can turn it back on.
change months regular season seven style
We don't change our style of play. A lot of teams, they play one way during the regular season and their style of play has to change once they get to the playoffs. When you play for seven months one style, and now you're going to change in a three-day span, you're not as prepared, you're not as comfortable.
compete daily earn floor guys noticed players
I noticed the same thing you noticed. I told him and I have told all of our players -- nothing is given. You earn your minutes. You earn what you get. What we're going to do is put guys on the floor that are going to compete on a daily basis.
nose putting
I just told the guys, we have to get dirty. We have to do what we do best, and that is putting our nose to the grindstone and going after them.