Just kidding.

Or am I?

I was amazed Flip didn’t at least to some offense-defense switching with ‘Sheed and ‘Dyess down the stretch, but hey, Amir scores a big hoop and live is good.

And let me say it now: tonight’s game is NOT the be-all and end-all of the season. Yes, it will be hard to get the #1 seed if we lose, but it won’t be the end of the world.

Everyone ought to get off Flip’s back, especially for the DNP-CD Amir got against Utah. The guy had a serious head cold. Some starters would take a night off with that (and we’d probably mock them). Flip showed last night that the Utah Jazz game was the exception to the rule (the rule being that he can stick w/Amir, like in the Sonics game, despite Amir racking up 4 fouls, most of which came off stupid “rookie” overzealousness by Amir). Last night, Amir played well (in spite of his penchant for picking up dumb fouls) and Flip coached well. Let’s appreciate that.

That being said, Joe hired Flip and stuck by him after many thought he’d be fired. I trust that if Joe thought there was someone better out there (like he did when he fired Carlisle for Larry Brown), he would have done it.

This paragraph will be dedicated to my tempered praise of Flip. Flip might have turned a corner last night. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn’t looking towards tonights game when he kept Maxiell and Amir in the game. Flip took a [small] leap of faith. That, in all honesty, was a HUUUGE step for Flip. Mutiny has been avoided this year because Flip has compromised about playing the starters so much. That is the best decision he’s made since he’s been here.

Let me follow that by the praise I give Joe D. Joe D created such a deep team that no coach could screw this up. Really, the only way a coach could screw this up is if he overplayed his starters like 35+ minutes or something. Or if the coach refused to play the most athletic guy on the team with no real explanation, except that it was a mistake. Joe D filled the bench with youth so that the coach HAS to play young guys. Bravo, Joe D, Bravo!! Joe also talked to Sheed in the offseason and made sure he set him straight so that there would be no descension on the team…. even if the coach makes idiotic decisions from time to time. Again, BRAVO JOE, BRAVO!!! Joe D also babysits his coach from time to time, and reinforces that his blankee(aka starters) is just a false sense of security and that eventually you have to move on. Joe D: GM, Baby Sitter, Philanthropist, Messiah. God, thy name is Dumars.

I like Flip Saunders, but you’ve chosen to take Flip over Mike Brown (okay, though I’m not sure I would. I like both, a good amount)? But on top of that, you’re going to take SCOTT SKILES over Flip Saunders who you’d take over Mike Brown? Skiles is a solid coach, but he’s a (way) less effective Larry Brown. What has he ever done? Oh that’s right, NOTHING. He’s taken a good team, rode them like cattle about as far as they could go and then when they started to tune him out they took a nose dive (sound like C-Rate results of Larry Brown tactics to me).

It serves as a nice counterpoint.

I’d take him over Mike Brown or Doc Rivers, that’s for sure.

Everyone is so reactionary to Flip and it’s so damn tired. Brad, comparing Flip making these decisions to a 7th grader being able to read is just not accurate at all. I said at the beginning of this season in a post that the reason I like Flip is because he doesn’t have a huge, meddling, ego (*cough* Larry Brown *cough) which has spoiled our chemistry/focus in the past. You think Larry Brown would take that directive from Joe? He’d tell Joe to stick it. And Rick Carlisle probably would’ve been pretty opposed as well. Flip is great if for the simple fact he’s not so stuck in his ways. He’s willing to change. And so, Flip takes the order and executes it without complaining. Flip has shown tremendous growth this season.

We have an amazing record, we’re getting amazing play from (I’m gonna say it) the DEEPEST bench in the NBA this season, and Flip is managing the ship BEAUTIFULLY (any in-house fighting this season? no, didn’t think so). Those of you still calling for Flip’s head are acting like Prophecy was at the beginning of the thread. He called the game over after the first and look how that turned out. You’re doing the same with our season, dooming it because Flip hasn’t gotten the job done in the past. Plenty of championship coaches were doubted every step of the way UNTIL they actually won (ie: Tom Coughlin w/the Giants this year). I would argue that given the way things have gone this season, this year might just be Flip’s Tom Coughlin-esque ascendancy.

Now let’s lay the boots into the Celtics tonight.

The tiny channelsurfing.net pop-up viewer is not enough for this game!