Flip Saunders Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Wolves Rumors: Garnett, Wiggins, Brown

February 20th, 2015 at 12:51pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Wolves reportedly want to re-sign Kevin Garnett for another two years when his contract expires this summer, and he’s expected to take them up on that, a source told Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. Minnesota insisted on Thaddeus Young instead of a first-round pick in the Kevin Love trade, and after dealing Young for Garnett on Thursday, coach/executive Flip Saunders guaranteed that Garnett will have a greater effect on the Wolves than the first-round pick ever would have, Zgoda tweets. Saunders said he tried to engage the Nets in conversations regarding the Love trade to see if he could acquire Garnett then, but Brooklyn resisted the idea, as Zgoda also relays (on Twitter). There’s more on Garnett amid the latest from Minnesota:

Wolves owner Glen Taylor acknowledged the return of Garnett as a player bodes well for KG’s chances of becoming a part-owner, notes Andy Greder of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Twitter link). “It’s just that he’s a player. But I think that opens up that possibility,” Taylor said. Still, there were some hard feelings when Garnett and the Wolves parted ways in 2007, and Taylor and the star haven’t said more than hello since, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press.
The choice Andrew Wiggins made not to sign with Klutch Sports, the agency that represents LeBron James, played a key factor in the Cavs’ decision to put him in the Love trade, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com said on SiriusXM NBA Radio (Twitter link). Wiggins is a Bill Duffy client.
The two-year deal that Lorenzo Brown signed with the Wolves on Thursday is a minimum-salary affair that’s non-guaranteed for next season, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (on Twitter).

Flip Saunders On Wiggins, Muhammad, Dieng

January 23rd, 2015 at 6:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Flip Saunders, the Timberwolves’ president of basketball operations and coach, sat down for an interview with Britt Robson of MinnPost.com to discuss the state of the team and the progress of some of its younger players this season. The entire interview is worth a read, and here are some of the highlights…

On the development of rookie Andrew Wiggins:

“When we made the [Kevin Love] trade, there is no question that we switched somewhat, although we thought if we kept Ricky [Rubio] together with those guys we could be a blended team [of veterans and young players]. So based on where we were, and where everyone thought Wiggins was — coming out of college in Kansas people thought he was inconsistent and that you didn’t know what you were going to get out of him — I think over the last month or six weeks we are way ahead of where I thought we would be. Andrew wants to be good and will accept criticism. He has gotten to the point now where he knows when he is making a mistake. That is the difference between him and Zach LaVine at times. Zach still doesn’t know at times that he is making a mistake when he makes mistakes.

On which kind of role he envisions for Wiggins in the future:

“We want him to be like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Scottie Pippen. Because they are all two-way players. A lot of those guys were their team’s best offensive player but also their team’s best defensive player. And their tenacity, the team goes through it. Wiggins is in a much more difficult situation than what Kevin Garnett had here [as a younger player]. Because Garnett had some vets that were going to be there for awhile and really locked in and we just don’t have the same type of guys. So we never asked KG to carry us offensively [early in his career]. We have had to ask that of Wiggins. My biggest thing, the one thing KG could always do, he could always create shots at the end of games — that’s tough when you are a power forward. Wiggins will be able to create shots for himself or for somebody else and be able to do that off the bounce.”

On what other players have been bright spots this season:

“Shabazz Muhammad. There is no question that Muhammad — Wig probably misses him a little bit now, because with those two guys in there you are always creating some type of mismatch. There will have to be a smaller guy on one of them. But if you look at where Muhammad was at a year ago compared to where he is now, he is one of the top five guys [in the league] in terms of most-improved player. Then there is the development of Gorgui Dieng. He has proven he is a solid guy and one of the top young big players in the league. And Zach [LaVine] is a lot better now than he was the first week of the season and through training camp.”

On if the team would seek to bolster its guard positions:

“I’ll put it this way: If we can get backcourt help that is someone we feel could be in a long-term situation with us, we would do that.“

Northwest Notes: Nelson, Robinson, Saunders

January 14th, 2015 at 10:37am CST by Chuck Myron

This season’s first 50-point scoring performance came from an unlikely source, as Mo Williams dropped 52 on the Pacers to help the Timberwolves to a rare victory Tuesday. The 32-year-old who’s on a one-year deal is still averaging only 12.4 points per game, even with the 52 taken into account. While we wait to see if Williams can stay hot and boost his stock, here’s more from around the Northwest Division:

The Nuggets gave Jameer Nelson assurances about minutes and style of play to help him overcome his initial hesitation to head to Denver, TNT’s David Aldridge reports (on Twitter). The Celtics shipped Nelson to the Nuggets late Tuesday in exchange for Nate Robinson.
Robinson had tired of his sharply limited playing time prior to the trade and was at times a distracting force in the locker room for the Nuggets, according to Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post. The guard, who’s reportedly reached a buyout deal with Boston, is seeking a chance to showcase his talent as he approaches free agency this summer and would prefer to sign with a contender, Dempsey writes.
Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor hasn’t spoken with Flip Saunders about whether Saunders will coach the team again next season, as Taylor tells Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Twitter link). Saunders and Taylor reached a deal that’s “open-ended” in terms of length this past offseason when Saunders, who also serves as the team’s president of basketball operations, agreed to coach the team.
Taylor recently rebuffed interest from a suitor looking to buy the Wolves, as he also tells Walters (Twitter link).
The Oklahoman’s Jenni Carlson, Darnell Mayberry, Anthony Slater and Berry Tramel speculate on the future of Reggie Jackson, possible deadline moves for the Thunder, and more.

Western Notes: Suns, Wolves, Bryant, Kanter

December 14th, 2014 at 9:15pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Suns can blame their lackluster defense for their current four game losing streak, opines Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. New addition Isaiah Thomas feels the team’s mentality is reason for the current slide. “We’re just not bringing it every night, plain and simple,” said Thomas. “I don’t know what it is but we’re not bringing it. We’re not playing with that attitude like,’We need this win.’ That’s got to change or we’re going to dig ourselves a hole.” Even with Phoenix’s current struggles, the team resides in eighth place in the Western Conference with a record of 12-12.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

The Kings assigned Eric Moreland to the Reno Bighorns of the D-League, according to the RealGM transactions log. Moreland, who has been yo-yoed a bit this season, was with the Kings for just one day on this latest stint.
Although Wolves president of basketball operations Flip Saunders doesn’t agree with Magic Johnson’s plea for the Lakers to lose in order to secure a high draft pick, he understands the benefit to the strategy, writes Michael Rand of the Star Tribune. “I’m never a proponent to just say tank games or lose games. You’re letting players off the hook. Depending on who you have out there, you might not have to worry about it. … I know what Magic is saying, and I’m sure it’s how most people look at it: If you’re not going to be a playoff team, you’re better off getting as high a (draft) pick as you can,” said Saunders during an interview with Rand. Minnesota currently sits in last place in the Western Conference with a record of 5-17.
Kobe Bryant may be on the verge of a huge milestone, being only eight points behind Michael Jordan to become the NBA’s third all-time leading scorer, yet he had bigger plans for the season when he signed his two year $48.5MM extension, writes Mark Heisler of the Los Angeles Daily News. Heisler opines that Bryant’s quest for another title is a lost cause due to the team’s current roster and Bryant’s expected retirement at the end of the 2015/16 season. The team certainly thinks this contract will be the last for one of the greatest Lakers of all time. “All indications are to me, from him, that this is going to be it,” GM Mitch Kupchak said. “If somebody’s thinking of buying a ticket three years from now to see Kobe play, I would not do that.”
Center Enes Kanter is making huge strides this season for the Jazz, writes Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. Kanter, who is set to become a restricted free agent after the season, enjoys playing under first year head coach Quin Snyder.

Flip Saunders On Love Trade, LeBron, Goals

November 7th, 2014 at 2:58pm CST by Chuck Myron

The return of LeBron James to the Cavs had the greatest reverberations of any offseason move, but the most persistent storyline over the summer involved one of his new teammates. Kevin Love trade talk was a near-daily feature on Hoops Rumors for months on end, and the man at the controls was Wolves president of basketball operations Flip Saunders, who also spent time looking for a coach before deciding that he was his own best candidate for the job. Saunders reflected on the trade to Tim Bontemps of the New York Post, who shares Saunders’ remarks in his weekly column on leaguewide affairs. The entire piece is worth your time, but here’s a look at Saunders’ most notable revelations:

On how he viewed the chances, as of July 1st, that he would trade Love:

“It was 50-50. We had made up our minds … we knew what we wanted, and I was very comfortable coaching Kevin and [dealing with] everything else. A lot of times, it boils down to the players … it boils down to money. If you can pay somebody $20 or $30MM more sometimes, when it comes down to it they might flinch, but they might end up staying.”

On the effect LeBron had on the trade:

“We were in a situation where if LeBron doesn’t go to Cleveland, do we trade [Love]? Probably not. He’s probably still here. But the way it worked out, LeBron went there, and a lot of pieces started to fall into place for Cleveland and it became a very logical thing for them to try to make a push to try to win a championship to get a guy that, ultimately, is one of the two best power forwards in the league, and that became a reality for them.

On his post-trade goals:

“Then, for us, it became [a situation in which] we wanted to try to maximize what we wanted to do. With Love leaving, I don’t want to say we were in a total rebuild … more of a retool situation. We wanted to get young, athletic talent that we thought had the potential where, in three years, that we could hit home runs and they could be a team that makes a run like the Oklahoma City Thunder and develop like that.”

And-Ones: Wolves, D-League, Cherry

November 2nd, 2014 at 9:23pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Being both the coach and president of basketball operations for the Wolves put Flip Saunders in a unique situation regarding Ricky Rubio‘s extension, writes Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press. “Dealing with the GM, it’s always tough,” Rubio said. “But if you only see him in the office, that’s good. But then you have to see him in the practice, it’s a little tougher. But I think Flip handled the thing very well. He was not different, but when we’re out on the court, we were only talking about basketball. We didn’t talk about business in the practice facility. That helped me to feel comfortable.”

Here’s more from around the league:

The Kings‘ D-League affiliate, the Reno Bighorns, who selected Brady Heslip with their first round pick, were deemed the biggest winner of the D-League draft by Keith Schlosser of SB Nation. Schlosser also notes that Marquis Teague will learn more discipline running the floor by playing for the Thunder-affiliated Oklahoma City Blue.
Will Cherry‘s two year, minimum salary deal with the Cavaliers is partially guaranteed, notes Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group. The exact amount of the guarantee is not yet known.
Though he signed a three-year, $15MM deal with the Kings this offseason, Darren Collison‘s original goal was to return to the Clippers, and the player said that being a starter wasn’t a priority in his decision, Jovan Buha of Fox Sports reports (Twitter links). Collison also said that Sacramento was the first team that contacted him, but that he felt that the club’s priorities were finding a big man and help on the wing, Buha notes.
Collison did admit that there was some miscommunication between him and team president Doc Rivers regarding his level of interest in re-signing with the Clippers, Buha tweets. For his part, Rivers said, “I wanted to keep him [Collison]. I thought he would have been perfect for here forever. But I know math a little bit,” tweets Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times.
Willie Reed, who was recently waived by the Nets, has signed a guaranteed contract for the remainder of the season with Hapoel Eilat of the Israeli league, David Pick of Basketball Insiders reports. The 6’10” Reed averaged 4.0 rebounds in 16.6 minutes in two preseason games for Brooklyn.

Chris Crouse contributed to this post.

Western Notes: Rockets, Lin, Coaches, Kanter

October 19th, 2014 at 10:30am CST by ChrisCrouse

The Rockets have not settled on their opening night roster yet, writes Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. “That’s why we’re experimenting,” coach Kevin McHale said. “There are still a lot of unknowns. We have a lot of guys who haven’t just taken a spot where you say, ‘I’m really comfortable. This guy has really taken the backup spot.’ We have a lot of guys still fighting for spots.” Houston brought 20 players to camp and has not made any official cuts, although it would seem the team is down to 18 players for 15 roster spots with Robert Covington and Akil Mitchell not having been with the team for the last week.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

Jeremy Lin is humbled by the offseason trade that sent him to the Lakers, writes Mike Bresnahan of the The Los Angeles Times. Lin said, “When I first got there [Houston], I was supposed to be the guy and they were supposed to kind of hand the torch to me. And I ended up getting traded away basically for nothing. Actually, they had to give a draft pick to convince someone else to take me. Pretty much given away for nothing. Definitely not how I envisioned it.”
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich loves the play of JaMychal Green, tweets Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News. The unfortunate thing for Green is that the Spurs don’t currently have an opening-night roster spot for him, Monroe adds.
Wolves head coach Flip Saunders is praised by local high school and college coaches for his open-door policy, writes Andy Greder of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “We are a very close fraternity as far as coaches, and what you want to do is make sure you’re open,” Saunders said.
Jazz forward Enes Kanter has as much to gain this season as anyone on the team, opines Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune. Kanter will head into restricted free agency next summer if the Jazz do not reach a deal on an extension with him by the October 31st deadline.
In a roundtable preview for the Kings, SB Nation’s Tom Ziller predicts that Sacramento will pull off a major trade this season, citing GM Pete D’Alessandro‘s aggressive track record and abundance of assets at his disposal.

Cray Allred contributed to this post.

And-Ones: Wolves, Martin, Allen

August 29th, 2014 at 7:36pm CST by Zachary Links

Wolves president Flip Saunders hopes the Wolves new players’ athleticism will translate into improved defense, Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press writes. Saunders said, “I’m hoping that the biggest change is going to be defensively. Always a key in your ability to guard is your athleticism. The quicker you are, the longer you are, the better chance you have to be a good defensive team.”

Here’s more from around the league:

Doc Rivers was in contact with free agent guard Ray Allen earlier this summer, and Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com (on Twitter) expects the Clippers to make a run at him again.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is still over the moon about reacquiring Tyson Chandler this summer, as NBA.com’s Jeff Caplan writes. “It was kind of surprising that we got it done, just because with that many pieces and the fact that no one finds out,” Cuban said of the trade. “I’m glad we got it done. We’re excited. He can kind of quarterback our defense, he makes everybody better defensively and he’ll make Monta [Ellis] better offensively.”
Keith Schlosser of The Knicks Blog wonders if the Knicks would welcome back Kenyon Martin. Martin gave the Knicks one of the most intimidating and physical defensive presences they’ve had in years, but he struggles to stay on the court. Even though he’s seen just 50 games of action over the last two seasons, Schlosser sees K-Mart as a player who the Knicks could call on midseason if Amar’e Stoudemire, Andrea Bargnani, or Samuel Dalembert have injury troubles of their own.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.

Wolves Notes: Rubio, Young, Saunders

August 24th, 2014 at 2:07pm CST by Eddie Scarito

In an interview with Enea Trapani of Sportando, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities discussed the impact the Love trade would have on Ricky Rubio. Wolfson said, “Rubio is on notice. The Wolves are trying to sign him to an extension, and so far his agent, Dan Fegan, is balking at the idea of a four-year, $43MM deal. That’s plenty for a player of Rubio’s caliber. It’s a lot more than Atlanta point guard Jeff Teague makes — maybe a better player — and is what Golden State All-Star guard Stephen Curry makes. But Fegan is seeking the five-year max. That’s not happening. The situation is pointing toward Rubio being a restricted free agent next summer. In other words, the 2014/2015 season is huge for Rubio. He should improve his shooting under Flip and we know he has unbelievable athletes to cut to the hoop and catch alley-oop passes.“

Here’s more out of Minnesota:

With the trade of Thaddeus Young, there are no players left from the Sixers‘ last playoff team, writes Bob Ford of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Young isn’t heading into an ideal situation in Minnesota, notes Ford, with both Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett figuring to cut into his minutes.
Timberwolves GM Milt Newton believes that Young’s production will improve in Minnesota, tweets Jon Krawczysnki of the Associated Press. Newton said, “I think he will be better statistically than he’s ever been based on all the options he will have in the offense.”
Timberwolves President and coach Flip Saunders relayed his thoughts on the franchise’s new acquisitions in an interview with NBA.com (video link).

Western Notes: Wolves, Cuban, Young

August 23rd, 2014 at 12:35pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Analysts have mixed opinions about whether or not Wolves President of Basketball Operations Flip Saunders is getting the best possible return for Love, writes Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune. The deal will only be as good as Andrew Wiggins‘ development becomes, opines Youngblood.

Here’s more from around the league:

The crew over at Basketball Insiders (video link) discuss the Love trade, and what it means for all the teams involved.
It will be a few seasons before a clear winner in the Love trade is determined, but Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders discusses the possible outcomes for each team involved.
Thaddeus Young is facing another long season of losing, this time with the Wolves, writes Mike Sielski of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wanted to best Rockets GM Daryl Morey in free agency this offseason, he relayed in an interview with Dallas’ KRLD-FM 105.3 (hat tip to the Dallas Morning News). Cuban said, “Oh, all good business is personal. Trust me, there’s nobody more competitive than me. Every bit of me wanted to kick his [expletive deleted] and I would have felt bad. Obviously they got Dwight Howard a couple of years ago. Yeah, I wanted to beat him. And that’s a compliment to him. Daryl is very smart. It was very much like a game of chess.”
Cuban also weighed in on the Rockets inquiries about acquiring Dirk Nowitzki. Cuban said, “I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ He asked if we’d trade Dirk. At first I thought it was taunting, but now knowing more about Daryl I don’t think it was in hindsight. That’s just not his style. It says a lot about their approach more than anything else. They just have a different understanding and approach to chemistry than we do. Some teams, and that’s not just the Rockets, just put together talent and the talent takes care of itself. We think chemistry matters. When Carmelo came to visit us, there was no chance that we were going to put him in someone else’s jersey number and put it on the outside of the arena. That’s not our style.”