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Thank you very much for coming out today. It was very nice to get some sleep last night. I am happy to be here and introduce Flip Saunders as our new head coach of the Detroit Pistons.
I had a couple of questions yesterday and today about Flip and why he should be the next coach of the Detroit Pistons. First and foremost, he is one of the better and younger coaches in this league. We were looking for an excellent coach and that is what he is. Secondly, when have a team like we have right now, it is very important that you are handing that team over to someone who is qualified and is going to have respect for day one. I feel, without a doubt, for the very first day that he walks in to coach this team, those guys will respect him. They know he has a track record and they understand that he knows how to get it done. I am very comfortable, Mr. D is very comfortable, and we are all very comfortable handing the keys over to Flip. We know that he is up to the challenge. We have played against him and his teams. Whenever you played a Flip coached team, they were always prepared, they always executed, and they always played hard. That is a criterion that we look for.
With all the qualities, we are very excited to make him the next head coach of the Detroit Pistons. It is a very happy day for all of us here and I would like to introduce the next coach of the Detroit Pistons, Flip Saunders.
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I would like to thank Mr. (Davidson), and Joe (Dumars), and John Hammond for making this happen. I look at this as a great opportunity and a great challenge. When you have been in the league for 10 years, you have an opportunity to evaluate organizations and evaluate team and it is no question that the tradition and the success that Detroit has had has made me look at this organization as one of the premier teams in the league.
This is a very tough business for coaches and even tougher for families. I told my wife of 27 years when we got married that I would show her the world. She didn't know I was going to take her to Tulsa, Rapid City, South Dakota, Sioux Falls, and La Crosse, Wisconsin. I want to thank my family because they are my strength.
I was very fortunate n the last five month to have an opportunity to wait and evaluate situations. I made decision along with my family and my agent that I was going to wait till I got the right situation to walk into and have an opportunity to win and win big. That is what we have here in Detroit.
Someone I respect very much in this league told me about five years ago, "There are 30 teams in this league that all say they want to win championships, but when it really comes down to doing whatever it takes, there are only about a hand full of teams that are willing to do that." The Pistons have shown that they are one of those teams. They have great ownership in Mr. D. The foundation of an organization and a team is built with character and that is what Mr. D brings to the organization. It starts at the top and it filters all the way down to the bottom. I tell my players, "There are a lot of teams in the league who have the talent to win games, but only a few have the character and attitude to win championships.
A solid management with Joe and John and his staff have done what it takes in the past five years to create a team that has great chemistry, great work ethic, know what it takes to win, and goes out and does it. You have seen in the last two years, when the trade deadline came, they were very active on getting Rasheed (Wallace) and Carlos (Arroyo) to try and push this team over the hump.
When people talk about the Pistons, they talk about players who play with a chip on their shoulder. They go out and they compete and play hard. As a coach, that is what you want. You want players who have that passion and go out and compete and play to win.
It is nice to get out and see a different part of the Palace. Every time that we have come in here it has been an unbelievable place. It is not just a game; it is an event. Last but not least, these are the best fans in the NBA. They come here and cheer their team on and it has always been difficult to come in here and play with the enthusiasm that these fans bring. One last thing, this is not my team, this is not Joe's team, this is not Mr. D's team, this is Michigan's team.
I am excited to be here and have an opportunity to coach these players and to join the Pistons family.
On the pressure to win when taking over a new team, the difference in taking over Detroit, a the team in the Finals the past two seasons, over another team:
“I have been in situations where I have taken bad teams and moved them in the right direction. And, when you do that some times, there is no pressure. As a coach, where I am at in my career, my being here (coaching in the league) for 10 years, I have one thing in mind. That is to win championships. And, I coach for the love of the game, the players, the camaraderie of the players, and I coach because of the challenges. Would it have been easy for me to take another job and maybe not have as much? Yes, but my last four years in the league, when I stepped out there on Oct. 3rd in training camp, I thought we had a legitimate chance to win a championship. And, that is what it is about. Pressure is what you put on yourself. My expectations of this team and teams I coach are a lot higher usually than anybody else’s. And, so I don’t feel any pressure walking into a situation. I know the situation that we have but I know one thing, I want to go play 82 games and Playoff games with the team and the roster that Joe (Dumars), John (Hammond) and Mr. D. (William Davidson) have assembled.”
On how long he’s been thinking about the Pistons job:
“I think you kind of evaluate everything. Situations that were open, I sat down with the family and we evaluated everything. I was very fortunate that I really didn’t have to take a job because I was getting paid for another year so when a job opened, if it wasn’t the right fit, I said “that’s not the job I’m going to take” and I was prepared to, basically, not coach this year if it came down to it. When the situation here became available, Joe (Dumars) and my agent, Mark, they’ve burned the phones in the last 24-36 hours and everything has been moving very rapidly here in the last couple days. As a coach you just kind of sit back. You have a pulse of the whole league. As I said earlier, you evaluate every decision that’s made with a franchise, every free agent that’s signed and every trade that’s made. You evaluate all the other teams.”
On if the defensive identity of the Pistons will change under him:
“That’s a unique question because our practices probably consist of 60% defense. My teams are teams that play intelligently, number one, and play efficiently. Defensively, if you talk to other teams, other opponents, we were probably the best zone-defensive team in the league. A team takes the personality of the players. This team is inbred to be a defensive team because of the personality of the players it has. Initially, Ben Wallace being, I think the first player to be the All-Defensive Player-of-the-Year for four of the last five or whatever he’s been. They’re going to play at that level. This team is going to defend. I can assure you and assure anyone that has any questions about whether we’re going to defend or not that we will defend. That is something that I’m going to demand of the players and something the players are going to demand of themselves. That’s not something that’s going to be up for debate. What’s helped me a lot in my career, really, I mentioned the CBA, having coached three different teams and we have ever-changing rosters, is I have become very used to adapting to players; the strengths of players. I think the strength of a coach is your ability to adapt to the tools that you have. As a coach, I’m looking forward to working with this team defensively. ”
On if he’s talked to any of the Pistons players, especially Chauncey Billups and what is his relationship with Billups:
“I talked to Chauncey. We had about a 45-minute discussion and we have a very good relationship. Chauncey is a person I’ve always respected. Didn’t really want to lose him when he left but we were in a situation at the time where we had Terrell Brandon who was getting paid a significant contract and so a decision was really made as to how much money can you put into your point-guard position. Chauncey is a big-game player; a guy that can make big shots. A lot of people probably don’t realize this but Chauncey; probably his biggest playoff series was his last series in Minnesota. We played against Dallas and I think he averaged 24 or 25 a game in that series. I have a good relationship with Chauncey and Chauncey told me about the team and about the organization. He assured me that I was going to love it here, that the team was committed to winning, that the staff from top to bottom all has the same goal and I think that’s important. As a group or organization, you have to have a passion for winning, you have to have belief in what you’re going to do, everyone has to be on board and that’s what this team has. I haven’t had a chance to talk to the other players. Joe just gave me cell numbers so I’m sure I’m going to be burning up the cell to talk to the players and try to get out there and meet a lot of these guys as soon as I can. I know that they’re going to take some time off in the summer but I know that October comes pretty quick especially when you make a long run in the playoffs like these guys have in the last couple years.”
On the challenge of having to adjust to a team with more balance than teams he’s had:
“We had KG (Kevin Garnett), and I take pride in the fact that I coached him for 10 years. He started out as a 19-year-old rookie and plays the way he does but he’s a very unselfish player. My teams play team basketball. I take pride in the fact that we’ve been in the top three in assists probably in the last eight or nine years. We move the basketball, we share the ball and we make the right plays. Rasheed is very similar to KG as far as his personality of sharing the basketball, not taking bad shots and not shooting through double teams. When you have a team that’s a high assist team and a low turnover team and you stress team play; that’s what we do. People will see we rely a lot on ball movement and player movement. We try to score out of our defense if we can but execute offensively. It’s been very effective. Over the last 10 years our teams were second in the league in wins decided by three points or less and were second in overtime wins and a of that is our ability to execute down the stretch and not have just one player to go to. That’s what this team has. This is a team that is better as a whole than we are as individuals and that’s what you want to have to win championships.”
