Flip Saunders Appreciation Thread

[Hoopalotta]

Well, it you mean a fourth big, I could see it.

[nate33]

Guys, the defense didn't just get better. It got a lot better.

After getting rid of Jamison and Butler (and even Haywood, though there isn't much causation with him), we were playing defense at a top-10 level (that's what it would take to go from around 25th pre-trade to 18th at the end of the season).

I don't believe this is accurate. My recollection is that the Wizards ranked 21st in defense for nearly the entire season prior to the trade. After the trade, they inched up to 18th. The post-trade defense was solid, but it wasn't top 10 caliber.

[closg00]

After reading Mike Lee's latest blog entry, I had to start this thread. What a refreshing change to have a teacher/coach.

Wizards Coach Flip Saunders was about to head up the steps at the conclusion of pre-draft workouts at Verizon Center on Tuesday, but he stopped to see Nick Young as Young worked on defensive drills with assistants Sam Cassell and Randy Wittman. After watching Cassell repeatedly drive left and get off his shot, Saunders stopped Young and showed him the proper body angle and where to place his feet so that Cassell wouldn't have an uncluttered lane to the basket.

"If you do this, he can't go here," Saunders told Young. Then Saunders slid his feet to force Cassell into a more difficult shot.


I want you to see more of me next season. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Young took note, and went back at Cassell. With Wittman shouting for Young to get a good seat (as in get low on his defense), Young kept sliding in front of Cassell and forced him into a series of tough jumpers. "That's it," Saunders said. "That's it."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/wizard ... .html#more

I started the Flip Saunders Appreciation thread before JoJo ever set foot here.
Fast Forward to today

He's just a hater. He also hates EG but somehow Flip is now got EGs >.500 roster underperforming. His hate isn't even logically consistent.

closg00, the depth of your hate for Flip Saunders continues to amaze me. You've criticized him in the past for being too quick to pull McGee, and now you're criticizing him because he won't utilize his bench to replace non-productive starters.

And you make this criticism despite Flip being quoted on this very page of the thread that he won't be rewarding mistakes; which means he will be replacing non productive players with productive ones.

My crime? not being sufficiently obsequious when referring to Flip and Ernie. Get in line folks, no criticism or discussion of the people who get paid millions to run this team and organization. I committed a thought-crime.

[Wizards2Lottery]

My only criticism of Flip is his negative nancy demeanor. Granted he hasn't had much to be happy about but still, he shouldn't look and act so defeated after every loss.

Kind of feel for him though. He came here expecting something totally different. None of us could have predicted last year that at this point we'd be in a 100% rebuild with the #1 overall pick on the roster.

As much as I hated EJ, I kinda long for the days when at least one side of our team produced almost every game.

[hands11]

LOL Closg

Yeah, we don't have any negative threads or posts on this board. Just 8 " amazingly sucky" threads and several " count down" till firing threads.

No negative posts are excepted here. Everything is obsequious.

PS - No wonder that word isn't used much. Pain in the A to say and spell. I can't honestly say I have ever heard anyone say that before.

[closg00]

My only criticism of Flip is his negative nancy demeanor. Granted he hasn't had much to be happy about but still, he shouldn't look and act so defeated after every loss.

Kind of feel for him though. He came here expecting something totally different. None of us could have predicted last year that at this point we'd be in a 100% rebuild with the #1 overall pick on the roster.

As much as I hated EJ, I kinda long for the days when at least one side of our team produced almost every game.

I hear ya, but IIRC even our offense was in the gutter towards the end of EJ's time here.

@ Hands, sports-fans are a cranky lot, listen to sports radio after a Skins or Wiz loss. We all have our opinions of how WE would do things, other fans are more deferential to the coach and GM. Some are just sycophants

[dlts20]

Detroit fans before last season said that any time they played a team with good defense they got shutdown and thats why they never won in the playoffs. They said a good Defensive team exposes Flip's offensive system. They said its based off of all jumpers. Thats what it looked like so far this season.

Im not going to fully blame him because we have some top guys who are injuried or just coming back and we always have the worst IQ basketball team in the league but he has to make some adjustments. Us running that same double curl play is so redundant. Its all pick & roll or double curl.

Also, Ive said this since the 1st day Gil came back. He should start and I think he should be the PG in the halfcourt. Its not so much about being the PG as it is positioning. The PG is pretty much always at the top & the SG is on the wing. When we throw it into the post, they double down & leave Wall open up top, which is not his game because he cant shoot. It would be so much better to have a shooter like Gil there. They cant double our bigs then or Gil will kill them. Not only that but if they run out on Gil, he can then swing it to Wall who can slash. Its hard for Wall to do that at the top because the D is sagging off so far but on the wing he could do it all day with Gil at the top.

Gil is also a great passer/playmaker now while Wall still struggles in the halfcourt at times. This would also take pressure off the kid and make it easier for him to go through the whole season. I would love for us to be healthy and have Gil at the top with Wall & Howard on the wings. Dont get it twisted though. Wall is great and he could easily learn it soon enough & be good at the top. Either way its time for them to start playing together more, which means we have to start Gil

[Kanyewest]

^^ I'm more interested in what T-Wolves fan said about Flip when he had KG- I consider it nearly impossible to win a ring without a top 5 big. Pistons only had a 1 year window to realistically win a title since Ben Wallace left although they certainly didn't meet expectations in 2007 when losing to LeBron's Cavs.

[Wizards2Lottery]

I'll start a Flip thread on the T-Wolves board and see what they have to say.

Here's the thread: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1066847

[Illuminaire]

Good idea W2L. Chimed in there myself.

[closg00]

I'll start a Flip thread on the T-Wolves board and see what they have to say.

Here's the thread: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1066847

Thanks for posting this on the Minny board. However, that board does not appear to be very active, you would have gotten an earful from the Piston guys.

[Wizards2Lottery]

A lot of interesting responses in that thread. Seems like they believe the same things we have noticed.

Plays too much zone, almost to a fault. Good for guards but hampers the ability of big men. Found it interesting that one guy said that KG became a better perimeter player but his post game was hurt because of Flip's system. You could say that the same thing is happening to Andray right now.

Makes sense that McGee can't get minutes from Flip. I'm guessing McGee has no idea on how to play within this system and since Flip is so big on the x's and o's he gets frustrated with Javale. For the sake of this team, I think we'd be better of with a coach who allows a little improvisation rather than being so rigid with a system. I wouldn't mind it if Flip had a really good system but the fact that it relies so much on jump shots makes me think that we really don't need this kind of coaching for the young players.

[closg00]

Thanks for the update W2L, I went and read the latest post and they are insightful. I will copy that thread to the Grade Flip thread if it isn't already there. Let's see if Flip will warrant it's return in the future.