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….

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.

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.

The world is coming to an end.

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.