Rasheed Wallace and Flip Saunders’ strained relationship

by Matt Watson on Jan 11, 2007 6:20 AM EST

go read the whole thing yourself, it's definitely worth it, especially his take on Rasheed's reaction to being benched.

OK, you're back? Good. Rosenberg is correct in noting that Rasheed has been doing the whole "hanging out at the scorers table during timeouts" thing for a while -- if I remember, one of the TV crews made something of it during the playoffs last year. But that doesn't really make it right, especially when Rasheed's shoddy play is one of the biggest reasons the team is struggling of late.

But unfortunately, Rasheed has such a strong personality that Flip probably feels like he needs to walk on eggshells around him -- I hate to bring it up, but you don't want Rasheed to slip into the "CTC"Rasheed Wallace, 2003: "I don't give a [bleep] about no trade rumors. As long as somebody CTC at the end of the day, I'm with them. For all you that don't know, CTC means 'cuts the check.' I just go out there and play. So long as somebody CTC." shell that he backed himself into in Portland. There's no indication that it's actually gotten that far, but there's also no reason to think it's not a possibility.

Update: For what it's worth, Rob Parker has a completely different take on the situation, though it seem he spent a lot less time actually watching Wallace and Saunders interact and more time taking Wallace's statements at face value. (Also, there's no way of knowing if Parker was even at the game, considering all of his quotes read like the AP article -- only less in-depth.)

Of course, Parker is the same guy who penned a column talking about how swimmingly the team was doing under Flip Saunders on the same day that Saunders came out after Monday's practice chewing out his team -- I'm not trying to say he mailed it in... OK, that's exactly what I'm saying.

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Rob Parker was at the game. He was in Joe Dumars’s suite for the 1st half talking with Joe.

by Warthog on Jan 11, 2007 11:11 AM EST reply actions

It looks like Sheed is pining for the old days when his pal LB was the coach and other players were required to play D and check their man to get minutes.

Sheed is asked to do an awful lot of covering for other people out there. I don’t think he buys into Flip’s defensive schemes at all.

Giglio (a poster at Detnews.com) made some observations while at the game. He noticed Sheed was not feeling Flip Murray at all.

A no-D playing chucker is Flip. Sheed is a gunner but he plays D. Murray is a chucker, straight up. He makes horrible decisions that hinders movement to our bigs in the post. he stinks.

Flip Saunders is playing the wrong players. It ticks off Sheed. It makes chemistry (Tay really meant) difficult to achieve because the players are not on the same page and then they begin to doubt the coach for not MAKING AN ADJUSTMENT.

wake up Flip Saunders. you’re lost at sea and mutiny is not too far adrift.

by the_Allrights on Jan 11, 2007 1:52 PM EST reply actions

Though Sheed’s attitued concerns me, I must say this….

Being a season ticket holder and considering I might pay more attention to Sheed than most people, he’s been sitting on the scorers table for a while now. I would say I noticed it early last season.

by Natalie on Jan 11, 2007 3:03 PM EST reply actions

we need to change our attitude on the court real fast we also need to make a trade for a rebounder we can’t win if we don’t get the ball we are getting out rebounded almost every night by someone, and you just can’t win that way! we also need a back up point guard, i think we need to leave rasheed alone he will be alright trust me on this one! everybody needs to think rebounder and point guard and we will get them just trust me on this one!!

by FRED W. CAPEL on Jan 11, 2007 7:45 PM EST reply actions

I FORGOT TO SAY THAT RASHEED PLAYS WE ALOT OF EMOTION AND RIGHT NOW THE NBA HAS TAKEN IT AWAY FROM HIM! THEY WON’T LET RASHEED BE RASHEED!!

by FRED W. CAPEL on Jan 11, 2007 7:58 PM EST reply actions

Warthog — interesting. I wonder why he didn’t try to spice up his column, then.

by Matt Watson on Jan 11, 2007 11:06 PM EST reply actions

Natalie: when he’s at the scorers table, what is the rest of the team doing? Does he go there before the coaches are talking to the team? I’m curious because the TV coverage rarely shows this.

by Matt Watson on Jan 11, 2007 11:19 PM EST reply actions