Flip Saunders Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Wolves Rumors: Hoiberg, Saunders, Young

April 12th, 2014 at 3:49pm CST by Charlie Adams

An unexpected 51-point performance from Corey Brewer in last night’s win over the Rockets no doubt had Minnesota fans thrilled, but it’s been an overall tough season for the Wolves. There was hope in the North Star State that this might finally be the season that the franchise breaks their NBA-leading 10-consecutive seasons without a playoff appearance. That isn’t the case, and there might be some changes to the club this offseason. Let’s round up the latest on the Wolves:

Fred Hoiberg‘s unwillingness to coach the Wolves stems from his fear that Kevin Love will leave via free agency in the summer of 2015, reports Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News. Hoiberg looked like a realistic candidate to run the team before a report earlier this week refuted such a notion.
In the same piece, Lawrence opines that Wolves president Flip Saunders might have no choice but to take over head coaching duties himself next season. Saunders coached the Wolves from 1995/96 until 2004/05.
Kentucky’s James Young is one prospect who intrigues Minnesota, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500ESPN.com. The Wolves are likely to own the 13th pick in the draft, and the latest mock from DraftExpress has Young going 17th overall.
Another tweet from Wolfson suggests that trading Nikola Pekovic wouldn’t yield a fair return, but the Wolves would be interested in acquiring a wing and changing Kevin Martin‘s role, presumably to a sixth man.

Western Notes: Lakers, Saunders, Henry

April 4th, 2014 at 7:16pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Lakers know their fans and Kobe Bryant aren’t sold on Mike D’Antoni, but with the team’s free agency focus on 2015, they’re hesitant to bring on a new coach who might not mesh with the players they target then, Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding writes. They’re also not sure that D’Antoni has performed poorly enough to warrant his dismissal, Ding adds, suggesting assistant Kurt Rambis as a possible replacement if D’Antoni is ousted.

Wolves Rumors: Love, Adelman, Hoiberg, Rubio

March 28th, 2014 at 2:55pm CST by Chuck Myron

There’s more uncertainty surrounding the Timberwolves than with any other team in the league, Grantland’s Zach Lowe concludes. The future of Kevin Love is at the center of it, and Lowe and Marc Stein of ESPN.com examine that and other issues on which the franchise could pivot in the months ahead. We’ll highlight their pieces here:

The Wolves have already let some teams know that they’re uninterested in trading Love, who’s set for free agency in 2015, and Minnesota has indirectly given that signal to other teams, too, Lowe writes. Owner Glen Taylor is intent on convincing Love to stay and the Wolves are optimistic about their chances of keeping him, Stein reports, adding that Taylor is determined not to trade Love unless the time comes when he feels he must.
There are many close to the Wolves who are convinced Rick Adelman will retire after the season, Stein writes. The Wolves and Adelman each have two weeks to decide whether to exercise the mutual option on his contract, notes Andy Greder of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Twitter link). Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune suggests via Twitter that even if Adelman doesn’t opt out, the Wolves will.
There have been no signals that president of basketball operations Flip Saunders wants to take over on the bench, but Stein hears the Wolves will make a strong pursuit of Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg if Adelman isn’t coming back.
Ricky Rubio will be up for a rookie scale extension in the offseason, and the sense around the league is that agent Dan Fegan will ask for eight-figure salaries, according to Lowe. The point guard is undeserving of that much money, Lowe argues, noting that teams nonetheless have widely varying opinions of Rubio’s worth.

Coaching Rumors: Jackson, T’Wolves, Adelman

March 27th, 2014 at 8:45pm CST by Ryan Raroque

The topic of Mark Jackson’s job security with the Warriors is riddled with complexity, and ESPN’s Israel Gutierrez and J.A. Adande discuss how this year’s struggles may affect the third-year head coach’s future in Oakland. Gutierrez suggests that Jackson bears some responsibility for Golden State’s frustrating play at times this year, while Adande surmises that Jackson will be in big trouble if the Warriors fail to improve on their six playoff wins from last season. Adande adds that ownership has spent nearly half of a billion dollars to purchase the team and upgrade the arena, and doesn’t think that patience accompanies those types of expenditures.

You can find additional coaching-related links below, including more from the above piece:

Adande believes that a contract extension for Jackson would imply a significant vouch of support from management; however, the fact that there hasn’t been one yet makes him wonder if anyone within the organization’s hierarchy has Jackson’s back.
Gutierrez thinks the Warriors are hastily trying to figure out Jackson’s potential as a head coach, and that Jackson could be heading into the postseason with his future in Golden State on the line.
Timberwolves executive Flip Saunders is close to college coaches Fred Hoiberg and Tom Izzo, both of whom owner Glen Taylor admires, notes Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Walters senses that the chances of Rick Adelman returning to coach the Wolves are “remote” and points to the team’s coaching search from six years ago, when the team was willing to give the job to Izzo. Still, Izzo was strident in saying this week that he has no interest in coaching the Pistons. Saunders will be in New York to watch both Hoiberg and Izzo coach in the NCAA tournament this week, Walters adds via Twitter.
Aside from Mark Jackson, there are many other coaches are in worse situations, notes Sean Deveney of the Sporting News. Toronto’s Dwane Casey, Washington’s Randy Wittman , Portland’s Terry Stotts, and Utah’s Tyrone Corbin are all finishing up their contracts this year and have yet to receive extensions.
Deveney also groups Knicks coach Mike Woodson with Corbin as two contract-year coaches who are on “ice that is thin as ice can get”, though it’s worth mentioning that Woodson actually had his 2014/15 contract option picked up last September.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Western Notes: Timberwolves, Grizzlies, Gasol

February 8th, 2014 at 6:59pm CST by Cray Allred

The Grizzlies are looking to upgrade their small forward spot via trade, according to Sam Amick of USA Today. Tayshaun Prince is starting for them there, having easily the worst shooting season of his career and contributing to Memphis’s lack of spacing issue offensively. Here’s more from around the West:

Flip Saunders, Timberwolves president of basketball operations, says that he isn’t hearing anything “imminent” on Minnesota’s trade front, per Andy Greder of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Saunders says the hype surrounding upcoming drafts is a barrier to transactions, “Either everyone wants to keep their picks or if you want to trade players, people are trying to get your pick and people aren’t as apt to do something like that — not only this year, but next year, too.”
Saunders also downplayed the importance of trades in general, citing research the Timberwolves have conducted on 189 trades over the last 10 seasons. Only 14 percent of teams trading with a .500 or worse winning percentage go on to make the playoffs, and only 55 percent of teams with winning records have held or improved their record after trading over that period. “When you look, I think a lot of time teams make trades to satisfy fans, to make them look like they are really trying to do something to make their team better. And I think sometimes teams make trades to make it look to their owners like they are working.” Hard to disagree with him there.
The Lakers couldn’t convince the Suns to send a first round pick in return for Pau Gasol during recent trade talks, per Mitch Lawrence of The New York Daily News. Although a deal wasn’t reached and Gasol is missing time with a groin injury, Lawrence says the teams are expected to pick trade talks back up.
Terry Stotts is having a strong season as coach of the Trail Blazers, but team sources say he could improve his locker room standing by strengthening his relationship with star LaMarcus Aldridge, according to the same Lawrence article. Stotts’ contract is up this year, and he hasn’t had any extension talks with the team.

Odds & Ends: Embiid, Boozer, Turner

February 4th, 2014 at 11:56pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Jeff Goodman of ESPN released his report about Joel Embiid “strongly considering” a return to Kansas for his sophomore season, noting that while the Cameroon native recently stated he didn’t feel ready for the NBA, those feelings could change depending on his development over the rest of the year. Earlier this evening, we noted that Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog relayed the first scoop from Goodman via Twitter.

After tonight’s game against Baylor, Embiid spoke with reporters: “I’m not even thinking about (going pro) right now…I’ll make a decision after the season, but I’m definitely considering coming back to school.”

Many NBA executives told ESPN.com that Embiid is their frontrunner to be selected first overall in June, according to Goodman. The Kansas center – who admittedly thought of redshirting prior to the start of the season – is averaging 11.2 PPG, 7.7 RPG, and 2.7 BPG thus far during his freshman campaign, and is reportedly shocked at the impact he’s been able to make.

Here are the rest of the notable links we’ve gathered up tonight:

Carlos Boozer hasn’t been happy with being benched in favor of Taj Gibson once the fourth quarter rolls around, letting reporters know about his frustration on Monday: ‘‘I think I should be out there, but it’s [Tom Thibodeau’s] choice,…He makes the decisions out there. I play; I don’t coach. He coaches, so he decides that. But, honestly, he’s been doing that a lot since I’ve been here, not putting me [in the game] in the fourth quarter. Sometimes we win. More times than not, we don’t. But that’s his choice’ (Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Sun-Times).
Boozer continued: ‘‘It’s very frustrating, especially when I’ve got a great game going or what have you. Obviously, as a competitor, you want to be out there to help your team win. Especially when the game is close, you can do things that can help your team win. And not being out there, all you can do is really cheer them on. But that’s [Thibodeau’s] choice.’’
Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN tweeted that nothing has changed since the beginning of the season regarding the Timberwolves’ interest in 76ers guard Evan Turner. Although Minnesota covets Turner, President of Basketball Operations Flip Saunders is still not willing to include a first rounder that Philadelphia would want in return.
During his chat with readers, Eddie Sefko of SportsDayDFW downplayed the possibility that the Bucks would deal Larry Sanders. Additionally, Sefko doesn’t believe that the Mavericks would be interested in pursuing the Milwaukee big man, especially with frontcourt positions already occupied by Samuel Dalembert, DeJuan Blair, and Brandan Wright.
Sefko doesn’t foresee the Mavs making a huge splash on the trade market, saying that if any move is to be done, it’ll involve players at the bottom of the roster instead of the top. One deal he thinks would make sense involves trading Wayne Ellington for an expiring contract, thus allowing Dallas to free themselves of $2.5MM next season.
As for the Pau Gasol sweepstakes, Sefko gets the sense that Dallas has at least made cursory inquiries and labels their chances at landing him as a “long-shot.” As for LeBron James potentially becoming available this summer, Sefko says that not being among the top on the list of preferred destinations won’t deter the team from making their free agent pitch.
With the Thunder owning and operating their D-League affiliate Tulsa 66ers, it has allowed Oklahoma City to create an infrastructure which maximizes player development, writes Anthony Slater of NewsOK.

Odds & Ends: LeBron, Lowry, T’Wolves

December 26th, 2013 at 9:22pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Fresh off of winning the Associated Press’ 2013 Male Athlete of the Year award, LeBron James spoke in depth about being a role model off the court and having a higher calling outside of basketball in addition to how he’s continued to mature in life. With the possibility of hitting free agency once again since 2010’s “The Decision”, the Heat superstar couldn’t avoid another inquiry about what could happen this summer (Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press). Not surprisingly, LeBron didn’t elaborate on much:

“I’m so zoned in on what my task is here this year that it’s hard to think about anything else…A guy the other day asked me what I’m going to do for New Year’s, and I haven’t even thought about that.”

With that aside, here are more of tonight’s miscellaneous news and notes from around the league:

Eric Koreen of the National Post examines the trade/free agent value of Kyle Lowry, especially now that the Raptors appear to be thriving since trading Rudy Gay to Sacramento. Koreen argues that talent-wise, Lowry is worth the price of a first-round pick for teams looking to acquire him. On the other hand, if he finishes the season in Toronto looking to stay, then the asking price could start around at least $8MM annually, similar to what Jeff Teague and Brandon Jennings garnered as restricted free agents last summer.
Sitting at 13-15 through 28 games, the Timberwolves are on par with what president of basketball operations Flip Saunders had expected at this point. Saunders explained his stance to Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press: “Of the record, when the season started, I thought we’d be right where we’re at, or maybe 14-14, 15-13…I thought that was a very realistic goal. But we haven’t finished games like I thought we would be able to do right now.” Saunders also pointed to the team’s road-heavy schedule early on as well as the fact that many of the core players don’t have much experience with each other as reasons why he’s optimistic about brighter days ahead this year.
Prior to this season, Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts compiled an NBA head coaching record of 148-217 over 365 games, with just one playoff appearance and a first-round exit to boot. This year, Stotts is enjoying an .821 winning percentage in Portland in what is currently his most successful season to date thus far. In a special article for ESPN.com, Daniel Nowell discusses Stotts’ long road to becoming an NBA coach.
Taj Gibson is repaying the Bulls’ investment in him, writes K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune (Subscribers only).

Flip Saunders On Love, Williams, Kahn, Newton

September 9th, 2013 at 4:51pm CST by Zachary Links

Timberwolves president Flip Saunders has had a very busy summer, but he's finally at the point of the offseason where he's down to lower priorities. In fact, David Aldridge of NBA.com writes that he has gotten far enough down the checklist to start working on the player intros.

"I believe that whether it's your game introductions, or the music that's played, that it have a purpose. And you have to understand your fan base and what really makes them go," Saunders said. "We want them to have the kind of experience that when the fans do come in, they come back."

Here's more from Aldridge's chat with Saunders…

On his relationship with Kevin Love:

I've probably had as much communication with him as any player that I've had, over the course of the summer. I know there have been a lot of things said about him. But he's been extremely committed to the organization. We've asked him to do things from a business standpoint, meeting with different sponsors and different things, and he's been readily available to do that. I communicate with him, I'd say, three times a week, just to see how things are going..I don't know if there's fence-mending. I just kind of came in with myself, and I knew Kevin a little bit from before. I was just very point blank with him about expectations I have for him within the organization. He was very receptive and very open to that.

On predecessor David Kahn's front office setup:

They had — not saying it's wrong — but they had, he had made a decision that they were going to go more like baseball, where they had a lot of satellite scouts, and the scouts were pretty much scattered pretty much around the country..Talking with [owner] Glen [Taylor], I believe there was more organization in the places where I'd been, like with Detroit and Joe [Dumars], and other places that I'd been. I'd already been looking at Chicago back through their heyday. They had people that were there. And they had contact every day with the management, and also with the team. So going out scouting and looking at players, they had a better understanding of what the team needed.

On Milt Newton's role as GM:

He's going to have a lot of responsibility. Where he was at, he was ready to make the step to have more responsibility, maybe have more influence in what happened, both with the day-to-day and also with the vision of the team. I believe in him and [director of basketball operations] Rob [Babcock] we cover a lot of areas with the management team going forward.

On former No. 2 overall pick Derrick Williams:

He's made a big push this summer to lose weight and be quicker, and hopefully be able to play some three. We'll see over the next three weeks, and into training camp, that month, what this offseason has done with him, and what losing weight and being a little quicker has done for him. His biggest thing is, can he guard threes? The way Coach [Rick] Adelman plays, he'll be able to fit him in offensively.

Will Saunders return to coaching?

I'm extremely happy where I'm at. I never get into hypotheticals or what ifs, or what coulds, because you never really know. But I'd say when I'm just talking to people, I don't think I've been any more relaxed, happier. I'm in a perfect situation. I can really mold the team. I have a lot of input on how a team can be formed. And I don't think about coaching because Coach Adelman has been very open to me.

T-Wolves Owner On Williams, Roster, Muhammad

September 5th, 2013 at 9:24pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN points out that the Timberwolves will have until October 31st to decide on whether or not they'll exercise Derrick Williams' fourth-year option for 2014/15, in which he would be owed $6.3MM. In a phone conversation with team owner Glen Taylor, it appears that the front office is still undecided:

"We'll evaluate his summer program, and how he looks coming into camp (which starts Oct. 1)…I heard he is looking good."

Wolfson also mentions a point made by Grantland's Zach Lowe, who intimated that picking up Williams' option could potentially carry Minnesota over the luxury tax and prevent them from using their mid-level exception next summer. Here's more of Wolfson's latest in Minnesota via his conversation with Taylor:

It's unlikely that Flip Saunders will bring on a 15th guaranteed contract, meaning that Robbie Hummel, Othyus Jeffers, Lorenzo Brown, and an expected-to-be named big man will compete for the final spot in camp.
Rookies Shabazz Muhammad, Gorgui Dieng, and veteran Chris Johnson are expected to arrive in town on Monday for developmental work.
Taylor shared that he and Saunders received an apology letter from Muhammad after being dismissed from the league's rookie orientation program, adding that he sent a letter in reply:"I want to get to know him…I wrote to him about first impressions."
As far as renovations for the Target Center, Taylor had this to say: "We have a term sheet with the city. We've agreed to everything. They need to work out a term sheet with AEG (managers of Target Center)."

Flip Saunders Talks T-Wolves, Roster, D-League

August 20th, 2013 at 8:49am CST by Luke Adams

It's only been about three and a half months since Flip Saunders took over for David Kahn as the Timberwolves' head of basketball operations, but it's been a very productive few months for Saunders. Since assuming control of the roster, he has added Kevin Martin, Corey Brewer, Shabazz Muhammad, Gorgui Dieng, and Ronny Turiaf, as well as locking up Nikola Pekovic and Chase Budinger to long-term deals.

Saunders recently spoke to Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune about Minnesota's offseason and about the next steps for the team. Zgoda's entire interview with Saunders is worth a read, but here are a few of the more notable quotes from the Wolves president and minority owner:

On whether there's anything he knows now about his job that he didn't when he was hired:

"I don’t think so. People talk about the importance of the agents and how they can dictate things; I believe my year with ESPN helped me tremendously in dealing with media and even agents. You understand these people have an agenda and you have to respect what their agenda is. It might not be the same as yours, and you might not like what they’re doing, but it’s not out of spite to you. It’s because they have a job to do. You have to respect that. I understand that more now, and I don’t take it maybe as seriously, to be honest, as I would have in the past."

On what's still on the to-do list now that Pekovic has been re-signed:

"Things I feel can help all those players become better: Get our medical staff and our philosophy together and decide long term how we’ll train these guys so they can be better prepared for the season. We’re going to look at another front-office person. We need to get everything together from a scouting — our analytics — standpoint. There are still a lot of things to do."

On whether the roster needs any more tweaking:

"I don’t think we have any needs. Right now, talking to Rick [Adelman], we feel comfortable with the roster we have. Not only is it balanced, but we feel we have talent at every position. I’ve talked a lot about this team and there are pretty good players out there we don’t even talk about right now: Derrick Williams, J.J. Barea, Dante Cunningham. When you put all those guys together with who we’ve added, you’ve got to feel comfortable."

On whether it's harder to make a $60MM contract offer when you own a share of the team:

"No. Listen, I knew one thing coming into this whether you’re a coach, president or owner: Good players are going to get paid. More than likely, the teams that have the highest payrolls are the teams that happen to win. You’ve got to choose the right guys. You want to be sure they have a certain skill. Pek can score on the block, he’s got great strength and he can rebound. I don’t think those things are going to change."

On whether Muhammad or Dieng will spend any time in the D-League:

"I’m a proponent of minor leagues…. It’s not a punishment league. Guys can get better and gain confidence. We’re going to try to utilize it. I don’t think we’ve used it very much here in the past. If we send somebody down, we’ll send somebody from our staff with them so they don’t feel we’ve forgotten about them. That’s the biggest thing: You don’t want anyone that goes there to feel they’ve been forgotten. Now saying that, we might not have anyone go down there this year, but we are very open about it and we’re going to have a very good relationship with our Iowa team. I’ve talked with [owner] Glen [Taylor]. We’re going to entertain the opportunity a year or two down the road here of purchasing a hybrid NBDL team."