TIMBERWOLVES: Flip Saunders: Pushing The Right Buttons

Season after season, Flip Saunders develops a winning team.

by Troy Young

In nine years with the Timberwolves organization, this could be Flip Saunders' finest hour.

In nine years of managing personnel, coaching Xs and Os, dealing with boys, dealing with men, handling me-first personalities, calming turbulent waters, listening to excuses, and offering positive reinforcement, we are finally seeing the results.

After helping to raise a franchise from the doldrums of inadequacy up into the NBA neighborhood of the elite and masterful, here Saunders is, with the same goal he tightly gripped his fingers around in 1995 and hasn't let go of since. "Everyone talks about first round," Saunders said. "We've got 10 new guys. They don't worry about that. Our goal is to win a championship."

That goal was more of a dream on Dec. 18, 1995, when then-general manager Saunders replaced Bill Blair as coach. Under Saunders that season, the Wolves finished 20-42. A year later, his first full season as head coach, the Wolves were 40-42 and qualified for the postseason for the first time in franchise history.

Strangely, their postseason fate hasn't changed yet. But even though playoff success and championships ultimately define the character of an organization, it hasn't defined Saunders. Recent NBA history has dictated that Saunders is one of the best.

"I think the first couple of years with the security of myself, Steph (Stephon Marbury) and Googs (Tom Gugliotta), he just coached," Kevin Garnett said. "As the team sort of disintegrated a little bit, he got a little edgy at times. He's regained that composure. He's a reaction coach, and that's the beauty part about him. He tries to think and take into consideration other players. He has given players room to sort of micromanage ourselves."

Saunders has never been afforded that ability more than now.

The Wolves are equipped with a roster full of talent, hope and determination, a group who can legitimately argue the NBA Championship should be theirs. With mainstays Troy Hudson, Wally Szczerbiak and Gary Trent, the team added Sam Cassell, Ervin Johnson and Latrell Sprewell through trades, plus free agents Trenton Hassell, Michael Olowokandi, Fred Hoiberg, Mark Madsen and Oliver Miller, to the crib of 2004 MVP candidate Kevin Garnett.

Perhaps Saunders' greatest challenge this season wasn't figuring out how to manage so many new players. Maybe his biggest chore was to make a three-pronged super stardom attack of Garnett, Cassell and Sprewell work.

Cassell is not the type of player who quickly comes to mind when naming players who would be a perfect fit for Saunders' system. Not a problem. "Are there times when I'm biting my lip? Yes," Saunders said. "Sam came here with a reputation for pounding the ball. And are there still times when he does too much of that? Yes. But I have to look at the overall picture — he's doing so dang well you have to live with it."

Sprewell plays with the same liberty and creativity that Cassell has enjoyed for most of his career. Again, not a problem. "It's my job to create the trust factor with Latrell where he knows he's going to be in there with the game on the line," Saunders said. "Because I want him to know that I have faith that sooner or later he's going to make one play that will help us win, and he's done that several times already."

Saunders' players marvel at the success of a team that is attempting to win its first Midwest Division championship in franchise history. "Flip is a guy who understands where you're coming from," Cassell said. "When I first got here, I wasn't comfortable in his system. I didn't know how to fit in, I didn't know when to be me and when not to be me. He told me it's going to get better, and the whole season isn't going to be like this."

After a slow start, Saunders told the team to be themselves. Naturally, bringing in 10 new players last fall created plenty of uncertainty. Players were unsure of their roles, uncertain of expectations. Then Saunders did his best Dr. Phil imitation.

"When he brought everyone together and said, 'Just go out and do what you do,' that's when Sam started playing great, that's when Spree started playing great and we started clicking," Hoiberg said. "Flip really got everyone on the right page."

Getting players on the right page has been his job since he started his coaching career at Golden Valley Lutheran in the late 1970s. Golden State coach Eric Musselman, who — when he was a 24-year-old CBA general manager — once hired Saunders to coach Rapid City (S.D.), marvels at Saunders' system. "How many players are new in Minnesota?" Musselman asked. "But they fit the system. They're consistent."

Only Utah coach Jerry Sloan has been with his team longer. San Antonio's Gregg Popovich and Dallas' Don Nelson are not far behind Saunders; all coach in the Midwest Division. Not surprisingly, Saunders said, all are annual contenders.

"We've got four guys who are all eight years and above," Saunders said. "Is it a coincidence that those are four of the top teams in the league, and have been that way? I don't know. I know that having continuity definitely helps."

That Saunders is one of the NBA's best coaches is widely accepted. That Flip needs (and deserves) to add postseason success to his resume is also indisputable.

"Flip has been a very good coach for a long time," Wolves vice president Kevin McHale said. "Now he has to get a playoff run and take it to the next level. He started off and has gotten us better and better. We just haven't had any success in the playoffs, and hopefully that's coming. Overall, you can't say enough about what Flip has done here."

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