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
bit changed coming good job lower rip room screens setting took
We did a good job setting screens. We changed it a little bit on some of his runs. He did more change of pace. He'd change, run, stop, then he took off again. And Chauncey delivered. We set screens a little bit lower to get Rip a little bit more room coming off those screens to try and read.
aggressive anybody ben center dominating goes middle question
There's no question that Ben has been as dominating as a center in what he does as anybody in the league. I told him he's kind of like a middle linebacker in football. He patrols that middle and goes from an aggressive standpoint.
execute freedom half open second takes team
We executed pretty much, ... You have to be aggressive. If a team takes something away, you have to have enough freedom to go in and attack. And they didn't do that, but you can see in the second half they started to execute better and get some open looks.
carry good people tougher
We've had different people carry us at different times. That's what has made this a very good team, and has made us tougher to play against.
bell charlie contest continue ford game good guys limit normally overall philosophy played rebound shot shots three whatever
We have to know that they have other guys that are capable. Charlie Bell has played well. T.J. Ford had a pretty good game overall and we've got to continue to find those two. Just do what we normally do. Our philosophy is to contest whatever shot is taken, try to limit three-point shots and rebound the basketball. Those are three things we did.
against defense good job seen
That was as good of a job as I have seen against him. I don't think our defense has slipped. We're there.
closing good job nice
That was too good a look. But Maurice did a nice job closing out on him.
best close last minute pass seen
That was the best pass I've seen in the last minute of a close game.
against contest defense detroit played sets understood
That was Detroit basketball. The more we played against them, the more we understood their sets and we were able to contest their shots. If we play lock-down defense like we did tonight, we can play with these guys.
mentally normally physically quickly react step
That wasn't our night. Just physically a step slow, and mentally we just didn't react as quickly as we normally do. Just not as sharp.
almost band becomes guys high knowing level might negative obligation people rock time watch
That's the only negative ? the guys play so well sometimes it becomes too easy. But it's what I said before ? an obligation of entertaining, knowing that when you go into an arena, for some people that might be the only time they watch you play. As a professional you have an obligation to play at a high level ? it's almost like a rock band going on the road.
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.