Phillip "Flip" Saunders (born February 23, 1955)
is an American
head coach of the
Washington Wizards. He previously coached
the
Detroit Pistons and the
Minnesota Timberwolves.
High school/college player
Saunders was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
He was an All-America
basketball player at Cuyahoga Heights High School in
suburban Cleveland
. In his senior season, 1973, he was named
Ohio's Class A High School Basketball Player of the Year, leading
the state in scoring average with 32.0 points per game.
At the
University of
Minnesota
he started 101 of his 103 career contests and as a
senior teamed with Ray
Williams, Mychal Thompson,
Kevin McHale (who was part of the
Boston Celtics legacy of the 1980s,
and more recently, has been the Minnesota Timberwolves' vice
president of basketball operations). Together they led the
Gophers to a school-best 24–3 record.
While at Minnesota, he was a teammate and roommate of retired NFL
head coach
Tony Dungy
Coaching career
College
Saunders began his coaching career at
Golden Valley Lutheran
College where he compiled a 92–13 record, including a perfect
56–0 mark at home, in four seasons. In 1981, he became an assistant
coach at his alma mater, Minnesota, and helped guide the Golden
Gophers to the
Big Ten
championship that season.
After five seasons at Minnesota, he became an
assistant coach at the University of Tulsa
where he worked for two seasons before heading to
the pro ranks.
Minor League (CBA)
Saunders would leave after seven productive seasons as a head coach
in the
CBA, where
he ranks second with 253 career victories.
He began his CBA
career in 1988–89 with the Rapid City
(South
Dakota
) Thrillers,
where former Kings and Warriors head coach Eric Musselman served as the team's general
manager. Musselman's father,
Bill
Musselman, had recruited Flip when Bill was head coach at the
University of Minnesota.
Saunders
then later moved to the La Crosse
(Wisconsin
) Catbirds for
five seasons (1989–94), where he won two CBA Championships, before
coaching in 1994–95 with the Sioux
Falls Skyforce. He also served as general manager
(1991–93) and team president (1991–94) of the Catbirds. Saunders'
impressive CBA tenure included seven consecutive seasons of 30 or
more victories, two CBA championships (1990, 1992), two CBA Coach
of the Year honors (1989, 1992) and 23 CBA-to-NBA player
promotions.
Minnesota Timberwolves (NBA)
Saunders joined the NBA's
Minnesota Timberwolves on May 11,
1995 as
president, working under his
former Minnesota teammate,
Kevin
McHale. On December 18, 1995, Saunders was named head coach of
the Timberwolves, replacing
Bill
Blair.
This happened shortly after McHale had taken over the basketball
operations for the Timberwolves. He then added the coaching duties
to his GM responsibilities after the team had gotten off to a 6–14
start. The Timberwolves went 20–42 the rest of the year, but the
emergence of young
Kevin Garnett as a
front-line NBA player was a huge plus over the second half of the
season.
He guided with difficulty the Timberwolves to their first-ever
playoff berth in the
1996–97
season, his first full season as an
NBA
head coach, and to a franchise-record 50
victories in
1999–2000
which was duplicated in
2001–2002.
After the Timberwolves' success in the
2003–04 NBA season, in which they
made the Western Conference Finals, they struggled in the
2004–05 season, winning fewer
than half of their games. On February 12, 2005, Saunders was fired
and replace by then-Vice President of Basketball Operations
Kevin McHale as head coach. Many fans
believed that the firing was unwarranted, citing instead the
contract troubles of
Sam Cassell and
Latrell Sprewell as the reasons for
the team's failure. However, many also acknowledged that Saunders
had already coached eight seasons in Minnesota, and perhaps a new
voice was needed.
Detroit Pistons
Saunders replaced
Larry
Brown as coach of the
Detroit
Pistons on July 21, 2005. Under Saunders, the team set a new
franchise record for wins during the regular season, finishing with
a 64–18 record.
Saunders coached the Eastern Conference
All-Stars in the 2006 NBA
All-Star Game in Houston, Texas
.
Despite the successful season, however, Saunders has been a target
of criticism for the Pistons' playoff performance, in which the
Miami Heat pushed them to 6 games in the
2006 Eastern Conference Semifinals. The worn-out Pistons eventually
lost the Eastern Conference Finals to the Heat. Saunders has
received criticism for the poor defensive showing by the Pistons in
the East finals. This has been speculated as a deciding factor in
Ben Wallace's decision to sign a free-agent contract with the rival
Chicago Bulls in the 2006 offseason. The 2007 playoffs also ended
in disappointment for Saunders and the Pistons as the Cavaliers
rallied from a 2–0 deficit to win the next four games and the
Eastern Conference title.
Upon entering his third season as Pistons coach, Saunders became
the longest-tenured Pistons coach since
Chuck
Daly's nine-year tenure (1983–1992).
Saunders was fired June 3, 2008 after the Pistons lost to the
Boston Celtics in the
2008 Eastern Conference Finals; Detroit
president of basketball operations
Joe
Dumars said the team needed a "new voice".
Washington Wizards
On April 14, 2009, Saunders reached an agreement to become the new
coach of the
Washington Wizards.
The deal reportedly is worth $18 million over 4 years.
Playoff struggles
For seven consecutive years, Saunders failed to get out of the
first round of the playoffs. In the
2004 NBA Playoffs, the Wolves advanced to
the Western Conference Finals. However, he came up short, falling
to the
Los Angeles Lakers 4-2 in
the Western Conference Finals.
In 2005–06, Flip became the head coach of the
Detroit Pistons following the complex
departure of
Larry Brown,
who left to coach the
New York
Knicks. The Pistons were coming off back-to-back NBA Finals
appearances including one NBA Championship in 2004. The Pistons had
the
NBA's best record in 2006, had four
All-Stars in their starting lineup, and were the heavy favorite
going into the playoffs to capture the NBA Championship. However,
they lost the Eastern Conference Finals to the Miami Heat, 4 games
to 2.
The Pistons lost
Ben Wallace in the
off-season to the
Chicago Bulls, but
added playoff veteran
Chris Webber, who
came to Detroit out of his desire to win a championship. In the
2006–07 season, the Pistons had the best record in the Eastern
Conference, but lost in the Eastern Conference Finals 4–2 to
LeBron James and the
Cleveland Cavaliers. In the 2007–2008
season, the Pistons finished with the second-best record in the
league, but lost to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference
Finals, 4–2. Saunders is known as an offensive guru, and because of
this he was not welcomed in Detroit. His defensive schemes as a
coach came into question, and thus his tenure as Pistons head coach
was very much scrutinized.
Personal
Saunders is married to Debbie. They have a summer home located in
Medina, Minnesota. Their son, Ryan, was a 6-foot-1 guard for the
University of Minnesota, Flip's alma mater.
According to Saunders,
he was about away from the I-35W
Mississippi River bridge
collapse on August 1, 2007.
Coaching record
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