Flip Saunders- YOU'RE FIIIIIRED

[MikeJordan23 0]

Wolves Fire Saunders

Flip Saunder Underwhelmed by a 25-26 start, Minnesota fired coach Flip Saunders Saturday. The Timberwolves were expected to contend for the Western Conference title. Kevin McHale will take over as coach.

 

 

Kevin Mchale?????????

[Guest Failed Mascot]

McHale is a very smart basketball man. The problem with the Wolves is that both Spre and Cassell started dogging it because they didn't get their contract extensions. Both should be traded for players that want to win a championship, and at the same time they should bring in Gary Payton. He's doing real well on a shitty Celts team.

[Precious Roy 0]

Hhahahha. McHale taking over as coach is GENIUS! He's the GM, so the players can't give him any shit, unless they want to risk being shipped to Toronto

 

I never thought big Kev would fire Flip though, he was I believe the longest tenured coach in the NBA, and a close friend of McHale's back to their college days. Somebody had to take the fall I guess, but Sprewell and Cassell are really to blame for this team's failure.

[MikeJordan23 0]

McHale is a very smart basketball man. The problem with the Wolves is that both Spre and Cassell started dogging it because they didn't get their contract extensions. Both should be traded for players that want to win a championship, and at the same time they should bring in Gary Payton. He's doing real well on a shitty Celts team.

Plus I don't think they're that good anymore. They're both on their last legs.

[Matt Young 0]

I was watching ESPNews the second this story broke, but I didn't have the heart to post it. Flip's been a great coach, and as Mascot said, Spree and Cassell have been the main problems. If they played the way they're capable of playing, the Wolves would still be a top team in the West rather than trailing the hapless Lakers for the 8th playoff spot.

 

I love Kevin McHale, but I feel so badly for Flip Saunders. He didn't deserve this.

[Matt Young 0]

Oh, and I think he was the second longest tenured coach behind Utah's Jerry Sloan.

[Guest Failed Mascot]

If Orlando is still looking to cut payroll and get younger they could always trade Steve Francis for Sam Cassell, a first round pick and future second round pick.

[{''({o..o})''} 0]

Man, that just makes this season even worse. We'll miss you, Flip.

[Precious Roy 0]

Oh, and I think he was the second longest tenured coach behind Utah's Jerry Sloan.

Oh yeah, how could I forget old man Sloan?!!

 

Cassell's had a lot of injurys, but even in the begining of the season when he was healthy he was playing like shit, like his head wasn't in the game. All things considered, he's got a couple more productive seasons left, health permitting. He had the best season of his career last year, so there's no reason to believe his skills are eroding.

 

Sprewell on the other hand, is just plain dogging it. When he feels like playing hard (like against NY or GS) he goes out and gets 25 points, but he just flat out isn't playing most of the time, which if he's so pissed about not getting an extension doesn't make any sense to me, shouldn't he be trying to up his value around the league? He's the first guy to dog it in a contract year

[Guest Vitamin X]

Man NBA coaches aren't lasting long at ALL are they?

[nogoodnick 0]

I dont think it was right to fire Flip for his team quitting on him but thats the way the NBA works now. Hes a good coach and shouldn't be unemployed for long. I wonder if LA is interested.

[Guest Vitamin X]

No way, dude. He'll flip out in LA. *rimshot*

[The Czech Republic 0]

Evidently, he's still within the T-Wolves organization, just not as a coach.

[iggymcfly 0]

The timing for this move is retarded. They were in the conference finals last year, and it's not like they won't pick it up to make the playoffs.

 

If they finish with an 8 seed and get swept by San Antonio or something, than I could see the firing but at this point, there's no reason that the T-Wolves couldn't just turn it on, get a 6 seed, and then beat the Sonics and Suns to go right back to the conference finals.

 

Playoff-tested coaches shouldn't get judged on the regular season unless they actually miss the playoffs.

[Precious Roy 0]

I'm not going to question McHale's judgement. He's closer to that team than any of us will ever be, he's basically best friends with Flip, hired the guy when he had basically no NBA experience, he wouldn't have made this move without a very good reason. I think Flip must have just completely lost the team, KG included likely, and McHale had to make the move. The Timberwolves have gotten progressively worse as the season's gone on, 3-7 in their last 10, and there was no promise of Flip turning it around.

 

McHale coaching is the most bizarre part, I never thought I'd see that

[Vern Gagne 0]

Phil Jackson to Minnesota. He's got his superstar, and a trade for someone like Micheal Redd in the offseason and you have your #2. man.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Twin Cities are too small for Phil Jackson.

[Vern Gagne 0]

He's a North Dakota boy. Besides, he doesn't have an already built team in New York.

[Precious Roy 0]

Redd is a free agent, it's possible Minnesota could sign him with the money off the cap from Spree/Sam, but I'm not sure quite how their finances shake down.

 

Ray Allen is obviously the big prize this off-season, but with KG's contract they probably can't afford him, and Seattle is gonna go all-out to keep him.

[iggymcfly 0]

Marc Stein's got an interesting story on it on ESPN. I'm not gonna link it, but I'll post it and if you want to check up on me, you're more than welcome.

 

Coaching upheaval reflects desperation

 

Now we know. Now we all know how truly ugly it was up at the North Pole, as Kevin Garnett has been known to call Minneapolis.

 

First, KG's Timberwolves did Saturday what they never wanted to do in the middle of a season, firing Flip Saunders.

 

Then owner Glen Taylor asked Kevin McHale to do what McHale really never wanted to do.

 

Coach.

 

That's how desperate the Wolves have become just to make the playoffs, in a season that was supposed to see them contend for a championship. League sources told ESPN.com that the Wolves initially committed to make the change they didn't want to make earlier in the week, but management held off after a quality win Wednesday over Denver, hoping it was a sign Saunders' players hadn't totally tuned him out. By Friday, after an 18-point loss at struggling Utah, Taylor and McHale decided they could no longer stomach Minnesota's half-speed effort.

 

It doesn't matter to Taylor that McHale has no coaching experience. It doesn't matter that McHale, at Saturday's news conference, didn't hesitate to admit that the audience wasn't "looking at a guy who thinks coaching is the creme de la creme of occupations."

 

Even though McHale is only an interim solution -- he won't be on the bench past the end of the season -- Taylor saw McHale as the only voice in the organization with a chance to make these Wolves respond. Given the $70-plus million Taylor has invested in one of the league's deepest rosters, ranking Minnesota's payroll among the league's five richest, McHale had to say yes.

 

Not that he's any lock to spark a turnaround.

 

McHale will undoubtedly command more accountability from the players than Saunders did, but health and age could continue to be trouble spots even if the Wolves finally start playing as hard as they should.

 

That's because Garnett, according to sources, probably shouldn't even be playing these days. In what can't be a surprise to anyone, he has been playing on a seriously sore knee without complaining to anyone … or even talking about it. It's unclear if he's even well enough physically to be last season's KG -- the league's MVP, remember -- and anchor a second-half rally for a team that's worn down and getting almost nothing inside.

 

It's also true that attitude isn't the only category where Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell have fallen short of last season's standard.

 

As discussed in this cyberspace earlier in the week, the steady dwindling of energy at Target Center started with Spree and Sam. They sulked when management didn't meet their preseason demands for new contracts; both felt they deserved rich extensions and KG-sized input with the organization because KG never got past the first round without them. The sulking and jealousy, after role players Trenton Hassell and Troy Hudson were re-signed, soon afflicted others.

 

Since McHale is viewed in some precincts as the guy who made Spree and Sam mad to start with, attitudes won't necessarily improve instantly. And even if they do with McHale in charge, Spree and Sam won't be getting any younger. Sprewell is 34, and Cassell is 35 and coming off offseason hip surgery. Again we say: Minnesota's initial extension offer to Sprewell ($21 million over three years) was more than generous, given the state of his game these days. And we fully understand Minnesota's reluctance to extend Cassell, even after his first All-Star season, given his increasing lack of mobility on defense.

 

So nothing has changed here, no matter who's coaching. Painful as this season is proving to be for the Wolves -- for Flip more than anyone -- even cratering all the way out of the West's top eight would be better for them than had they awarded contract extensions to those two.

 

Reason being: Taylor and McHale can start over this summer and try again to build around Garnett, in part because their commitment to Spree and Sam wasn't extended.

 

Starting over has to start with a coaching search now, and who knows? Maybe the Wolves will decide to join the Knicks and Lakers in the Phil Jackson Sweepstakes. Maybe the Wolves will try to rescue Sam Mitchell from Toronto.

 

Either way, starting over has to appeal to McHale more than his new gig.

[Matt Young 0]

Just imagine where the Wolves would be right now if they could manage to keep at least 1 or 2 other high level players with KG for more than a year or 2 at a time, happy and motivated. We've seen far too many promising lineups disbanded over the years due to ego issues and underacheiving, and once the team finally makes it out of the first round- 2 wins shy of the NBA Finals, no less- this happens.

[Vern Gagne 0]

OMG...listening to the radio this morning you would thought Red Auerbach in his prime was fired. Flip was lucky he was such good friends with McHale, or he would of been fired long before Saturday. 7 times not getting out of the 1st round wouldn't cut it most places.