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Sad bench shots never die.

All the questions seem the same. The answers all come out of a box. But dammit these people are working … the media covering struggling basketball teams such as the Wizards.

Everybody is usually laughing and joking around in the press conference room before Flip Saunders’ post game sessions. It’s to that point. But when Flip comes in (assuming after a loss, per usual), the stone-faced come out. There are tough questions, there are softballs, there are random ones peppered from abroad about the development of Yi.

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Flip Saunders watches his Washington Wizards go through a basic shell drill before facing the San Antonio Spurs.

[photo: K. Weidie, TAI - Feb. 12, 2011]

Flip Saunders is currently tied with Doug Moe for 20th on the all-time NBA head coaching wins list with 628, 11 victories away from passing Chuck Daly. Upon resigning from his position with the Utah Jazz, Jerry Sloan falls third on the list behind Don Nelson and Lenny Wilkens with 1,221 wins; and it doesn’t appear he will be caught by Phil Jackson, fifth all-time with 1,136 wins, as the coach who has led his teams to a record 11 NBA titles is set to retire after this season.

Saunders is now fifth in wins among active coaches, trailing Jackson, George Karl (1,017), Rick Adelman (927) and Gregg Popovich (781). Flip clearly ranks highly in the NBA coaching fraternity. So on Saturday before his team faced the San Antonio Spurs, and the new Dean of NBA head coaches (Popovich is in his 15th season coaching the Spurs), Saunders’ opinion of the sudden resignation of Sloan was a good one to solicit. Read more »

[Flip Saunders & Chauncey Billups remember the good ole days. They can't last forever, can they?]

[My column this week at the DCist, the first three paragraphs of which are posted below, covers Flip Saunders, the general state of team management, and how fans should be prepared for there to be no change in basketball operations at least until the end of the current 2010-11 season. Thanks for checking it out (and yes, I'm now recycling my own content).]

Earlier this season, after who knows what number post-game press conference where he had to explain a frustrating loss, Wizards coach Flip Saunders exited the media room with an impassioned step. The media followed his path up until the point where Saunders carried forward to his office, per usual, while hurried members of the press took a quick turn left into locker room to interview players. Before disappearing around the corner, in a moment where he probably thought he was alone, Saunders let out a loud expletive, both rhyming with and feeling down on his luck.

Moving to his press conference after Tuesday’s home game against the Denver Nuggets — the Wizards’ 31st loss in 44 games on the season — Saunders’ demeanor was different. He wasn’t exactly a defeated man — Saunders’ often conveys a sleepy-eyed, subtle calmness — but he was more a coach resigned to a situation which he often likes to point out that he didn’t sign up for. He highlighted more what the Nuggets did in building confidence to beat a downtrodden, rebuilding franchise, rather than what his own team did, or didn’t do, in losing yet again. Saunders didn’t seem as angry at the loss as he did on Monday night in New York, but more faced it as a matter-of-fact. Afterward, as he went through his exit routine with the media following on their way to talk to players, Saunders didn’t drop any F-bombs. He just gently rapped his hand along the photos of Wizards stuck to the wall as he plodded toward to his office, seemingly lost in his own thoughts.

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John Wall asking to be fined by the Wizards’ coaching staff when he sulks or shows poor body language is a good thing. But is too big deal being made out of it?

Yes, at face value it’s refreshing to hear. In an NBA that’s getting younger, these are the situations that coaches like Flip Saunders have found themselves with … managing feelings and attitudes in addition to game plans. So when a player makes a request to be disciplined, ears perk up … because it’s new to us, but it doesn’t make the act any more valuable than someone who is able to keep themselves in check on their own.

Toward the end of the Wizards’ 18th game of the season, when the team was only 0-9 on the road (5-12 overall), was when I first noticed prevalent signs of Wall’s waning attitude and focus — in a tight home game against the Portland Trailblazers that the Wizards were trying to win no less. Here’s an excerpt:

With 33 seconds left, after Brandon Roy had scored to cut Washington’s lead to 79-74, coming out of a timeout, the Wizards were taking the ball side-out on their end. Instead of using an Andray Blatche screen to run toward Kirk Hinrich, who was taking the ball out of bounds, Wall listlessly scrambled away from Hinrich. The Wizards were forced to take a 20-second timeout. Flip Saunders chided Wall on his way to the bench, pointing toward the corner where he should have been.

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{photo: Adam McGinnis}

The NBA is all about the Pick & Roll, right? John Wall, even in limited games thus far, is getting a crash course in the adjustments he needs to make in execution on both ends of the floor. The transition from college to pro involves more games, more minutes and more plays per game, and a majority of those plays involve … you guessed it, the Pick & Roll. So, if Wall is going to get better running the P&R on offense, and better at defending the plethora of young point guards in the League trying to do the same thing, he has plenty of opportunity.

After Friday’s game against the Knicks, I asked Flip Saunders to speak on Wall’s P&R execution and progression. Saunders said:

“Some of those plays are designed as a decoy to get other players open. I think what’s happening is John — we watch film, we have to watch more — he’s got to make the adjustment of understanding when players are going under those screens a lot, that’s when he can be more aggressive to the paint, and a lot of times, he’s kind of walking off those screens. When you slide off those screens, the defense doesn’t have to commit.”

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No John Wall, no Vince Carter as the Wizards put their 5-2 record at home to the test against the best team they’ve seen yet in the friendly confines of the Verizon Center. But without those two, there are still plenty of story lines for the holiday hangover matchup on NBA TV — JaVale McGee and Andray Blatche vs. Dwight Howard, Gilbert Arenas versus Jameer Nelson, Kirk Hinrich versus the sure-to-get-booed J.J. Redick (or Arenas and Hinrich guarding the other way around), and the opening night blowout in Orlando hanging over Washington’s head. Question is, will this game be any good? Exactly.

Let’s go to the pre-game video where Flip Saunders and Andray Blatche discuss:

• Flip talks about his team in general, playing against good opponents home and away.
• Blatche talks about what the team is focused on with the opening night loss in Orlando and the Thanksgiving night loss in Atlanta in mind, and how this Wizards team approaches Dwight Howard’s effect on defense.
• Flip talks about the progression of Nick Young and his role coming off the bench (note: the newly acquired Alonzo Gee will be starting at the three spot with Wall out due to a bruised left knee — he joins Gilbert Arenas, Kirk Hinrich, Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee in the starting lineup).

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On Monday afternoon Flip Saunders left practice early, storming out and cutting it short because he said his team did not have a sense of urgency and that his players were not working hard. Saunders also said, “That’s the one thing as coaches, you can’t coach effort.” He told his team to come back for a second practice that afternoon at 4 pm.

Barring your opinion of whether coaches can really coach effort or not, or if they should at least be taking measures to encourage maximized effort, or if you believe it should not be an NBA coach’s responsibility to hold the hands of basketball millionaires, there are a lot of issues with this Wizards team and they have been pointed out.

But Saunders walking out on practice … how big of a deal is this? Sure, as TAI’s Adam McGinnis was opining to me over Google-chat, this would be getting killed in Chicago or New York. Then again, via web media with boundless reach, it’s out there for a larger audience to scrutinize nonetheless.

Is it a good sign? No, it’s not a good sign that the lines between coaching instruction and player implementation are not in tune. But we’re talking about practice.

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Not too long ago, I found that the Wikipedia page for Flip Saunders listed his real first name as “Flippery” — Wikipedia hijinks … it gave me a chuckle. His real name is Phillip.

On a related note, I recently wrote something for the individual team previews that Basketball-Reference.com is doing. I was supposed to discuss strengths and weaknesses, which I aimed to do, and did to a minor extent, but when all was said and done, it ended up being somewhat of a preview on Phillip “Flip” D. Saunders, Wizards head coach.

Hence, I’m re-purposing what I wrote for BBR for the first part of this post. Sure, it’s kind of “iffy” of me to post something I wrote for somewhere else here (not like I haven’t done it before). But I know you’ll go check out the rest of Basketball-Reference’s preview on the Wizards anyway, which includes projected per-36 minute stats and some team-related polls to vote on.

Looking Forward

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The atmosphere around the Verizon Center practice court was light and playful for once, and the Wizards players and coaching staff looked completely at ease.  John Wall and Gilbert Arenas shared jokes while shooting free throws. Kevin Seraphin worked on his post moves with Gene Banks, trading jokes at the same time. Even the normally stoic Yi Jianlian could be seen cracking a smile while shooting free throws with JaVale McGee and Andray Blatche.

There was no talk about Arenas, his beard, his smile or his behavior, no visible residual sadness regarding the departures of Sean Marks and Adam Morrison, and no lingering effects from the loss in Detroit two nights earlier.

Earlier in the day, John Wall, Andray Blatche, Josh Howard, Nick Young,  Hamady Ndiaye, Trevor Booker, members of the Wizards coaching staff as well as front office personnel, hosted a “Salute to the Stars” in honor of NBA Cares Week of Service.  The Wizards staff served 200 combat veterans as well as wounded men and woman from various branches of the military.  Josh Howard commented on how the event went:

“Soldiers give back to us all the time, so its nice to see the Wizards along with Morton’s [Steakhouse] come together and NBA Cares as well. It’s a great organization…”

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Once, when asked about what his team would look like in the coming season, whether it would be more offensively minded, and how it would keep up the intensity on the defensive end, Flip Saunders said:

Well, defensively, the team always takes the personality of their players. The players we have here … are very defensive oriented. The strength of this team from a defensive aspect – how hard they play and how aggressively they play won’t change. What will change is the changing defenses we’ll use, being able to change the tempo of the game will full-court pressure, half-court traps and defenses. Offensively, like our defense, we will always stay aggressive. I always want my teams to attack, and so we will look to push the ball more and score more out of our fast break.

And on whether he would try to evolve a player into a superstar or continue with the teamwork mentality:

In Minnesota, even though we had a great player in Garnett, the team was built on team play. I look for this team to continue that. This team will move the basketball, become a high-assist, low-turnover team playing a very aggressive style.

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