When Flip Saunders arrived to Detroit, he was hailed as a player’s coach, someone who would keep the team’s business in the locker room and never use a reporter’s microphone as an opportunity to air his grievances with players. After two years of Larry Brown, it was a much-appreciated change.
During the four and a half month marathon of the regular season, it worked great: the Pistons set a franchise record with 64 wins, four players made it to the All-Star game, three were named to All-Defensive teams, one stayed in the MVP conversation for much of the year and another took home his fourth NBA Defensive Player of the Year award.
Over the last two-plus weeks, though, everything has gone haywire. The Pistons dropped three of their last five against the Cavs and three of their first four against the Heat. Before Monday’s game, several players started chirping in the press, publicly second-guessing their coach for the first time in recent memory.
After Monday’s game, which put the Pistons on the brink of elimination, Saunders broke trend and fired back. Chris McCosky of the Detroit News writes:
The morning after some of his players tossed him under the proverbial bus, Pistons coach Flip Saunders fired back. He delivered a one-word edict to his team — accountability.
“My message to them?” Saunders said. “You want to talk about a lack of defense, yeah, there’s a lack of defense because guys aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do. If I gave up 50 points in the paint (which the Pistons did in Game 3) and I gave up 13 straight-line drives to the basket when I am supposed to be guarding somebody — I mean, these are things you learn in the sixth grade. Stay between your man and the basket.
“If you can’t do that, you are right, there is going to be a defensive lapse. This isn’t about egos right now. This is about winning. If you have a job to do, go out and do your job.”
Ben Wallace, most notably, and others complained after Game 3 that the Pistons had gotten away from their defensive concepts and that Saunders has spent too much time coaching offense at the expense of the defense.
“This is the same group that said we did more defensive drills this year than they ever did,” Saunders said, shaking his head. “I don’t agree with what Ben said about practice, but we all know how Ben gets sometimes.”
Saunders also had a rebuttal to Tayshaun Prince’s complaint that Lindsey Hunter should have played more in the second half.
“It’s kind of ironic,” Saunders said. “The reason we couldn’t put Lindsey on the floor was because Tay wasn’t scoring. I had to keep the starting guards on the floor.”
This could very well be “too little, too late,” and it may be nothing more than a desperate man clutching at straws, but no matter what I have a lot more respect for Saunders now than I did before reading this. I’m already on the record defending Saunders in this (almost) botched march to glory, but now I’m even more in his camp.
There’s nothing Saunders can do if the players won’t guard the paint like their season depended on it (and we now know it does). Is it Saunders’ fault that no one was able to send Dwyane Wade sprawling on his ass until Dale Davis entered the game? Is he the one that asked Rasheed Wallace to waste his fouls on silly hand-checks? Is he the one in Ben Wallace’s head, telling him not to go to the hole hard because he might be fouled and be embarrassed on the free-throw line?
When I launched this site back in October, the very first post included this quote from Chauncey Billups:
“We’re going to miss Larry Brown, but so many times it was just about Larry,” says Billups of the 65-year-old coach, who at first appeared on his way to the Cavaliers but wound up with the Knicks. “It was always, ‘Larry did this, Larry did that,’ with the result that I don’t think the players got enough credit.”
The Pistons need to man up and take responsibility. No more “Flip didn’t do this, Flip didn’t do that” — if they lose this series, it’s on the players and only the players.
On a sidenote, I’m obviously biased, but I still think the players can pull this out and restore at least some semblence of locker room harmony heading into the offseason. It’s true, a 3-1 deficit looks awfully imposing, but I can’t see the Boys in Blue rolling over at the Palace on Wednesday. And if they head back to Miami 3-2, well, hell, the Pistons just came back from being down three games to two against the Cavs, winning a critcal Game 6 in a far more hostile environment at the Q.
Saunders answers criticism by players [Detroit News]
good for flip, the players need to start to man up. im sick of this excuse crap and blaming crap, just freaking man up and play. put ur heart on the line and leave everything on the floor. start playing each game like its your last. and good good things usually happen when you do that. i know that because doing that got them a title in 04 ….
This may be a blessing. Yeah it hurts that we are down 3 to 1, but maybe this will help us next year. Don’t get me wrong I still think we can pull it out. But if we don’t I think the team will be ok and Flip will be a better coach. Like Robbie said we have to man up and play Detroit Basketball. Hey if the Spurs can push a game 7 with the Mavs, I know we can. Our guys are playing hard and thats a sign that Flip is still running the show. The Heat are just a little better. My advise to the Heat is make sure you win game 5. Because if you don’t you may be playing with fire. I just want us all to please stop with the fire Flip talk. Who would we replace him with? There is no one else. We just have to get better. I with Matt when it comes to Flip. I have his back. I don’t think he has done a bad job. Our boys just have hit the wall. Maybe going home early will put the fire back in us.You don’t fire a coach after winning 64 games and gets the team back to the Eastern Conf. finals. Hell O’Neal and Wade are playing above their heads. This is not a bad team we are losing to. Flip has done his part. He is not missing and forcing shots. He is not missing from the foul line. Hell Rip had 4 turnover the first half. Plus one of our best players(Sheed) is hurt. We have been lucky the last 4 years. Because we have not had to play hurt for the most part. Look for flip to make adjustments when Rip comes of the screens next game. The Heat are over playing on them so I am sure he will find a way to make them pay. Leave Flip alone. I think Joe D has his back so do I.
THAT is exactly what I want to hear from him. I have been very critical of Saunders because I feel like in the Cleveland series, he gave this attitude that things would self-correct. “Do what we do” is a great slogan, but it doesn’t always get you Ws in the playoffs. You have to adjust. I also got this feeling that the inmates were running the asylum with this team, and I don’t think players can self-coach. They need direction and focus and leadership. This makes me have more faith in the man, if he stands up as a guy who’s not going to stand for being betrayed by the very players who he helped win 64 games by giving them the freedom they desperately wanted after LB left town. I’m glad he said what he said. And I hope he said it with a lot more vigor in the locker room. (”Vigor” meaning dropping the F-bomb A LOT.)
This postseason is going to be bitter for everyone involved from top to bottom. But this is a 64-win team for a reason. They’re good. I don’t know how you break up this band after a disappointing playoff run. It’s a setback. But seeing how they bounced back from last year’s finals makes me think they’ll return even more intense and focused and maybe with some humility. Joe D will make a mid-level exception addition who will have an impact, and we’ll take another run at it next year. It ain’t time to freak out yet. Even with the Cavs improving, the Heat still being the Heat, the Pacers getting healthy, and the Bulls adding a no. 2 pick to an already playoff-ready team. It’s going to get tighter at the top, but this team will still compete next year just as it is. It hurts horribly to waste what seemed like a magical season, but I don’t think it’s time to abandon ship.
Unless we can hire Stan Van Gundy. I love that little hedgehog.
I think it’s wrong for the players to throw Flip under the bus, but I also think Flip has been an awful coach. But I’ve already blogged about this, so rather than repeat myself, you can click my name or go to http://allthingssport.blogspot.com to read my thoughts. And yes, that’s a shameless plug for my blog.
What’s happening? Since when did the Pistons start disliking each other? Where’s the trust? Where’s the confidence? Where’s the cohesiveness?
The world is coming to an end.
A break down of Detroit defense:
1) Flop around like a fish trying to draw a charge.
2) Argue in disbelief that a foul has been called on you even when replays show obvious grabbing/contact.
They had done a little bit of this in the past few years, but at least they played great help defense. Now they resort to mostly 1 and 2 with a little bit of “give up” zone defense.
On the other hand, Flip has shown that any trust the players reward him with will not be rewarded.
Obviously the effort and ego is an issue, but Flip Saunders is clearly a pretty damn bad coach. His unconventional, soft offense works in the regular season, but - as many of the more cogent observers have said for months and just about everybody in Minnesota could have told you - in the playoffs things come unglued. Flip cannot coach defense to save his life, and the rotations slipped notably as the season went on; Flip’s “offensive genius” is severely overrated, as the growing frustration of - well, just about everybody - indicates and his awful, awful, AWFUL playcalling clearly demonstrates; and Flip’s clearly not the leader that a strong ego like Chauncey Billups needs to keep from turning into Baron Davis, or that veteran players need to respect a coach.
He’s a born loser.
Does that excuse the lackadaisical behavior and/or public criticism from Chauncey Billups, or the Wallaces, or McDyess, or Prince, or Hamilton, or Davis, or Evans, or Delfino? No, but it explains it to a degree. They have no confidence in the coach to do his job well, and nobody’s in sync.
The unfortunate thing is that we are stuck with Flip. Bill Davidson is too cheap to have three coaches’ contracts hanging out of his pocket. And because of that I expect Ben Wallace to sign elsewhere after the Pistons lose tomorrow, maybe another starter (Billups if Dumars is sane) traded, and the clear end of the Pistons run.
Hey - at least this way Maxiell, Delfino, and Amir might get some PT.
My dad loves to irritate me by rooting against however I’m rooting for; I think he was born with Edgar Allen poe’s “Imp of the perverse”…
So, when ‘Sheed starting shooting dirty looks at Flip my dad sings:
“Flipper….Flipper….”
Me:”WTF dad?where did that come from”
my dad:”before your time chica….it was a show in the late-60’s that featured a good-natured dolphin called Flipper..”
Me:”& the dolphin resembles a real person how?WTF?”
My dad:”Flipper always needed his human handlers to rescue him…”
Me:”You’re just being mean..’tho why I’m surprised when you were on the fire Rick Adelman horse just last month, I dunno!”
My dad:”Well…his rotations suck, be honest…just like Rick Adelman!”
Me: I really hate it when people make the coach the fall guy when the players are complacent…does the coach make the free throws?”
My dad: “you can’t tell me you didn’t think that Mo’ Evans was gonna play more when he left the Kings for the Pistons?”
Me:”OK…I agree with that…but I hate this piling on & ‘wine-ing’; it seems un-Piston-like in ‘tude.”
My dad:”whatever….you’re the one rooting for them…”
Go Pistons!Please prove my dad wrong. he’s soooo obnoxious when he ends up being right….
hahaha
Fire Flip! The window of opportunity gets smaller every week! Let Terry Porter take over!