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
ben game goes guys happen instead league looked might nine points rebounds rip seems six
I looked back at that. What always seems to happen is, the guys will play well, and they'll have one stinker game that week. They'll have one game where Chauncey might have 11 points, six assists. Or Ben might get nine rebounds instead of 18. Rip might have 13 points instead of 23. And in this league so much, it goes down to statistics.
knew time
I knew it was time then to get him out. All of them.
knew rookie run year
I knew he would play. He's a competitor. That's why he's going to run away with the rookie of the year this year.
continue few next shake
I'm pretty comfortable right now. There're still a lot of things that can happen. You always continue to look and see what's available, and I think you wait. There will be things that shake out here in the next few days, I'm sure.
lose
I like these games. I don't want us to lose what our personality is.
guys hang last playing teams tired week whether
I haven't thought over the last week we've been very sharp. We've let teams hang around. That's why I've said, whether guys are tired or whatever, we're not playing with the zip and the sense of urgency.
charles four game giving great guys halftime helped played playing run second talk thank
I have to thank Charles (Barkley) for giving a great halftime talk when he said the game was over. I thought we were playing too perfect, but in the second half we played exceptionally well. When our four guys (four All-Stars from Detroit) were in we started to run some plays, and I think that helped us.
bit higher mental missing player
In the back of their minds, there's a little bit of a mental letdown. The other team, when they're missing a player they always get a little more juiced up to play because they know they have to play at a higher level.
bad east grind night team took tough tougher trust west
If you took a team from the West and made it play in the East on a nightly basis, they would find out how tough it is. It's such a grind. The East is tougher mentally. It's a grind night in and night out. . . . Trust me. The East is not as bad as they make it out to be.
players tone
Because what teams, coaches, players try to do is set the tone for referees when they come in.
cities early games grind knew leading playing road tough trying
Before the season, we said there were going to be two tough stretches -- being on the road so much early and this one, where we are playing 10 games in 10 different cities leading into the break. We knew it would be tough. We're just trying to grind our way through.
maybe voted
He's still a young guy. He's going to be an All-Star (one day). Who knows? Maybe he'll still get voted in. We'll have to see what happens.
barometer ben both energy forward guard heart positions soul three works
He's the barometer for their team. He is the heart and soul of their team. He can play three positions (shooting guard and both forward spots), and he works so hard. He is kind of like their Ben. Ben is our energy guy, and Shane is theirs.
aggressive contested ends shots starts staying taking talk time turn worse
He starts to get hesitant. He'll turn down shots the first time and then all of the sudden, he ends up taking a shot that's a worse shot than he had the first time. Or a contested shot. So with him, I talk to him about staying aggressive offensively.