Good post Matt. Flip did the best he could do. It was a nice three years. But its now time to move on. Joe D was just on WDFN and said he wished Amir played more last year. Me too

raises glass to Flip
I was proud of what he accomplished this season, even if it was driven by a mandate from Joe. I wish him the best of luck, here’s to a long, healthy career for Flip Saunders.

Second everything said by Matt.

Somebody on one of the other threads pointed out how few coaches have won championships in the last X number of years, and it was surprisingly small. I started out this year pretty skeptical of Flip, and he mostly converted me into, if not a devoted fan, at least somebody who doesn’t think he was the problem this year. I wish him well too.

I thought it was a good hire at the time, and looking back I don’t see how another coach could do better with the same group of guys. To his credit, I think there are plenty of coaches who could have done a lot worse.

You can’t teach hunger and completely coach out complacency, especially when it seemed to institutional over the last couple of years. He never had the weight to throw around since the players and system were firmly entrenched when he arrived.

Unfortunately, I think hiring a coach with little or no experience is a mistake. Flip has the label of a “player’s coach” and the fact that the players appear to favor Michael Curry is evidence that perhaps they’re already too close. Since their ostensibly bringing in new players, why not bring in a coach from outside the organization with some weight that will have the respect (and some fear) of the coach instead of being buddy-buddy with them…

Here’s my appreciation:

neck crane

tie fidget

so you’re saying you wouldn’t rather have Doug Collins?

(sorry, lame jokes make the tears go away)

Yeah, honestly, it’s too bad Flip was rewarded this way for three years of a job well done. He’ll cash his buyout check and find work elsewhere, so I don’t feel too bad for him.

Toledo Joe: I think you’re referring to this comment by Quick Darshan:

“It’s amazing that in the last 21 years, only six coaches have won a title: Phil Jackson (9), Greg Popovich (4), Pat Riley (3), Chuck Daly (2), Rudy Tomvanovich (2) and Larry Brown (1).”

Matt W.: Yeah, that’s the one. Makes you wonder if replacing Flip is really a big part of the answer (assuming we’re not getting one of those 6, which seems like a safe assumption).

He made the regular season and the first two rounds more fun to watch and Im glad Matt pointed out that the backcourt actually seemed to thrive more under Flip despite most people saying LB “Motored” Rip and CB to a lesser extent.

Flip was a good guy too and he loves the game. I realy hope he lands on a good team and helps them take it to the next level.

To an extent, but even among those six, the only guys I’d trust to have anything left are Jackson and Pop. At some point someone has to join that club.

Matt W.: It’s not going to be this year and it’s certainly not going to be Doc Rivers.

i appreciate him and i agree that he was probably the best that we could have done. but when schmucks like me correctly predict how you’ll blow the playoffs, that’s a problem. flip was good, but a solid 2-3 years behind the learning curve. i appreciate him, but i’m not sorry to see him go.

I don’t see where replacing him is going to make much of a difference. He was a great offensive coach, and most coaches are great at nothing at all.

Is there any way Flip doesn’t join the Suns?

Flip will go down as the worst playoff coach in the history of the Pistons franchise. Good riddance.

Probably not, Kevin. They’re in 2nd round of whatever Kerr’s doing with a dartboard for a coach.

http://ktar.com/sports/?nid=21&sid=855879

I think that Flip winds up in Chicago. That is why Paxon hasn’t make an announcement about Collins because Paxon was waiting to see if Flip was going to become available.

Flip has a lot of good qualities, but he just wasn’t the right guy to lead this group and simultaneously develop the young guys, like Jackson has done with the Lakers.

I think Flip was totally risk averse and would not take the risk playing young guys that he needed to, especially when they were talented. To Flip’s credit he did play Stuckey but I think Joe D. left him with no real alternative. Murray was never an alternative nor was Dixon.

With Amir Flip was a total disaster and I believe that Flip would have kept him on the bench again this year if Joe D. hadn’t insisted on Flip playing him.

Why didn’t Joe D. insist on Flip playing Amir in the playoffs. I think Joe D. may have felt that it was up to Flip to make the right choices and it would have been too much of a distraction during the playoffs to get in Flip’s face about not playing Amir.

Flip never could control Sheed. In fact Brown has been Sheed’s only NBA coach that has been able to come close to maximizing Sheed’s potential as a player, though Sheed did let us all down on the Horry play in the 2005 Finals.

Good luck to Flip. He is a coach with a lot of Midwestern roots. I hope he lands in Chicago as they have a good core of young players and the #1 pick in this month’s draft.

Yeah, only six coaches have won championships in the last 20 years. But how many more have made the NBA Finals? That list is significantly longer. If Flip had made the Finals at least once, he might have gotten that extension.

I hate to pile on a guy who’s now been fired, but here’s the bottom line IMO:

In 2004, he had the #1 seed in the Western Conference, and lost in the conference finals.

In 2006, he had the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference, and lost in the conference finals.

In 2007, he had the #1 seed in the East, and lost in the conference finals.

In 2008, he had the #2 seed in the East, and lost in the conference finals.

The pattern seems apparent enough. Flip wins big in the regular season and can beat overmatched playoff comp, but his teams can’t go toe-to-toe with other contenders. To have THREE #1 seeds and never make the Finals is hard to understand. That’s highly implausible from a mathematical standpoint.

So, is Curry a done deal? What about Jeff Van Gundy? If seed-to-performance ratio is our criteria, shouldn’t we offer an interview?

Thanks, Flip.

Thanks for alienating Ben Wallace, a 4-time DPOY, who you could not possibly figure out how to coach.

Thanks for pissing off Rasheed Wallace, the lynchpin who got this team a championship, and thanks for never figuring out how to work with his strength, emotion, and raw talent.

Thanks for destroying one of the NBA’s best defenses, and demanding that they revert to high-school zones which everyone in the NBA can pick apart after 3 or 4 successive possessions.

Thanks for blowing an opportunity to to garner a championship ring (or two) by insisting that your offensive strategy was more important than the man-on-man defense that got this team where it was when you took charge.

Thanks for burning out our aging starters, 3 years straight. We really enjoyed watching their jumpers fall short while you straightened your tie wondering why, as we screamed “too many minutes during the regular season AGAIN, asshole!”
 
Thanks for proving to all of your critics that yes, Mike Brown and Doc Rivers are, in fact, better coaches than you, and that Bill Davidson was, in fact, out of his senile fucking mind when he refused to sort things out with Larry Brown and settle differences.

Thanks, Flip.

And good riddance.

@g:

Its quite obvious that you haven’t watched a single basketball game in the last two years. Before reading the rest of my comment, I invite you to take some time to stretch, go for a walk, shave your beard, and catch up on current events. Once you’re done, feel free to continue reading.

1) “Thanks for alienating Ben Wallace, a 4-time DPOY, who you could not possibly figure out how to coach.”

Since you haven’t seen any basketball in the last two years, I feel the need to share with you that two coaches: Mike Brown (whom you address later), Scott Skiles and Jim Boylan couldn’t coach him either, and not as well as Flip did. Also, that 4-time DPOY is now a mediocre-at-best player who is only starting because of the size of his contract, not his performance.

2) “Thanks for pissing off Rasheed Wallace”

In the last two seasons, us Pistons fans that adore Rasheed have realized that there is only ONE person who is in control of Rasheed’s temper, and that person’s Pistons jersey number is 36.

3) “Thanks for destroying one of the NBA’s best defenses”

This season, that “one of NBA’s best defenses” was the #2 defense in the NBA.

4) “Thanks for burning out our aging starters, 3 years straight.”

This season, which again— you must have missed, saw more rest for our starters than any season in recent history. Our bench was exercised, our starters were rested.

Its nice to have you back, though. When you have a chance, I’m excited to hear about what it was like to be cryogenically frozen in carbonite. I’m a big technology buff :)

Sheed will only allow himself to be coached by Dean Smith or Larry Brown. They’re the only ones who can get his ass in the post. Maybe we should hire Roy Williams.

Mike Payne 1 g 0

nice carbonite reference, perhaps Jabba had him hanging on his wall?

g must have had a lose of vision for the ECFs. Watch out for that sarlaac pit

Anyone who makes a frozen-in-carbonite reference is okay in my books!

Our collective midichlorian levels are off the charts here at DBB.