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
early everybody fresh given high playing ready reason year
You know, early in the year everybody was questioning his minutes. But given his history, there was a reason we weren't playing him a lot. We wanted to get him fresh and ready for now, and you see he's playing at an unbelievably high level.
hearing last night occupied played reasons sit sleeping
One of the reasons I played him a lot, I thought it was better for him to be occupied than to sit and think. And considering his circumstances, not sleeping much last night after hearing about it, he played pretty good.
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.
bought drive everybody forward guys looking playoffs reasons team trying
Everyone has their own reasons why they do things. All I know is this is my team right now, and the guys have bought into what we're trying to do. The playoffs are what drive everybody in this league, and we're looking forward to what's going to happen.
biggest came reason team
The biggest thing is going to be now he's on a team that's a championship-type team. It's just that mind-set. But I think that's the reason he came here, because that's what he wanted to get into.
against ball both defense defensive game great lock minnesota movement offensive player reason side success
It's going to be a great challenging game for both teams. They are a great defensive team, but the reason we had some success in Minnesota was because of offensive ball movement and player movement. They want to lock you down on one side of the floor. If you can get the defense moving, you can have some success against them.
became dimension gave reasons somebody tony
Tony is a high-energy guy, and that's one of the reasons that when he became available, he was somebody we really wanted to look at. We thought he gave us a different dimension from what we had on the roster.
four games holding prior reason straight teams tough
The one reason we have been in the games prior to this was because of our defense. We had four (actually three) straight games of holding teams in the 70s. That's pretty tough to do in this league.
beat breathing contest great job jump looks position produce reasons rip team teams top
Rip did a great job and Redd didn't have a lot of breathing room. One of the reasons we aren't a big fouling team is that we don't produce a lot of steals. We don't jump out and we don't gamble. We play position defense. That's why so often our man-to-man looks like a zone. We try to make teams beat us over the top and contest every shot.
extremely great guys high johnson playing reasons stepped
He's playing great right now. I said one of the reasons they're playing so well right now is because of the play of Johnson and the play of (Danny) Granger. Those two guys have stepped up and they're playing at an extremely high level.
area ball bit couple improvement involved less move pass people quick reasons runs shots though took won
We took, I thought, too many quick shots. We took 50 shots with one pass or less out of 75 shots, which for us is way too many. And that's one of the reasons we only had 17 assists. Even though we won by 18, they made a couple of runs at us, and I think we have a big area of improvement to get more people involved offensively and move the ball a little bit more.
people reason remember talking tigers win won
People have been talking about 35-5 and the Tigers a lot lately, but the reason that people remember it is that they won the championship. If we don't win the title, no one will remember that we were 35-5.
bench benches comfort fifth fourth guys minutes reason situation tendency
It's natural. We're in a very different situation than a lot of teams. A lot of teams, the reason they play their bench is because they don't like their fourth and fifth guys that much. I like my fourth and fifth guys. That's why our bench doesn't get the minutes some of the other benches get. You have a tendency to go to a comfort level.
best east forward guess played power reason record votes
Not only because of the votes but with how he's played. Right now, he's been the best power forward in the East with how he's played through the first 40 games. Look at what our record is and how he's played, and I guess you'd have to give me a reason why he shouldn't.