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
bottom deep offense team
Bottom line, we are a multi-dimensional team that can play different ways. We can play inside, we can play deep perimeter and we can play mid-range. We can do different things and that's what makes our offense so effective.
four last sets
We've had, what, four sets of back-to-backs here in the last 15 days? It's been a grind.
deserving question wait
We'll have to wait and see what happens. There's no question that he's deserving and that he's going to be an All-Star someday.
aggressive both ends entertainment extremely games people team watch win
We also are in the entertainment business. I've always been one to go out and win games but also entertain, and I think we've become a team now that a lot of people like to watch play, because we play extremely aggressive at both ends of the floor.
against bryant kobe lakers matter
Tonight, it didn't matter if he had 50, 40, 20 or 10. The idea was for us to win. It wasn't Kobe Bryant against us. It was the Lakers against Detroit.
ability defensive guys lock longer playoffs reason shots successful teams
The reason in the playoffs that defensive-oriented teams are successful is because the longer you play someone, you become more comfortable with how guys are getting their shots and what they're doing. You have the ability to lock down more from a defensive standpoint.
cause defending hope hot strengths takes team unknowns year
There are no unknowns at this point. But from their standpoint, the X-factor is that they are a team that takes as many three-pointers as anybody. If they get hot like they can, they can cause you a lot of problems. But, one of our strengths all year was defending the three. Hope that continues.
guys pay places plan shooting shots starting
We've been doing a lot of shooting, and I think that's starting to pay off. Guys are starting to understand. Most of the shooting we do are in places where we plan to get shots in our offense, so the more you do that, the more you take those shots, the more comfortable they get, and I think that's what's happened.
contested lose shots slow taking
We weren't aggressive. We were taking half-(hearted) cuts, so when you take slow cuts, you're not going to lose anybody. All the shots were contested shots.
games guys playing rest tired
We have been playing a lot of games home-road-home-road, so I think we were a little tired tonight. We'll have to give some guys a rest down the stretch.
good last night options ran success three
We ran about three different options last night and had some pretty good success with some of them.
autographs cared face great help holder kids loss next player season sign smile sports talk tickets time took
I got to know him when he was a player and he had season tickets right next to our bench. I didn't know him just as a season-ticket holder but as a friend. It's a great loss to the sports world and Minnesota. He always had a smile on his face and cared about kids. He always took time to sign autographs and talk to kids and try to help them.
five judge practice somebody stellar team work
I don't judge somebody that's had five years of stellar work -- not only with the team but in the community, and how he has been in practice -- and judge him by one incident. You judge him on the long haul.
basically fourth games judge losses nine played three wins
I don't always judge things by wins and losses. I just go by how you play and the opportunities to win. We played 51 games, and out of those 51 we had nine losses and probably only three of those games where we basically didn't have opportunities to win in the fourth quarter.