Flip Saunders Once Again T-Wolves Head Coach

I think Flip Saunders should lace up his old Converse shoes and play backup point guard for the Wolves this year. What, with being President of Basketball Operations, part owner and head coach (again), being a player is the only element missing from making Saunders the ultimate basketball auteur. He’d be the director, writer, cinematographer and actor in the soon to be released 2014 film, “Without Love: A Rebuilding Story.”

Jokes aside, while it’s obvious Saunders will not be putting on a T-Wolves uniform anytime soon, it isn’t so obvious whether the decision to make Saunders the new head coach was a good one. In fact, from the sounds of it, some of the more vocal T-Wolves writers and fans online are none to pleased with the announcement.

And, well, I get that. I also understand the reservations one should have with Flip trying to balance both jobs as President of Basketball Operations and Head Coach -because given the duties each job entails (as POB his job is to build a team for the future, while as head coach his job is to do all he can to win in the present) it’s fairly likely that a conflict of interest will arise.

I even happen to agree with many of the points made by Britt Robson, Zach Harper, and Canis Hoopus writer Eric in Madison. That said, I don’t think the decision to make Flip head coach is bad as it seems.

Here’s why: He can act as a placeholder providing the franchise with time to rebuild and time to eventually go about properly finding a new head coach (something, as we have seen this summer, appears to be a challenge for the organization).

I would have loved Dave Blatt as much as the next person. But I’m with reporter Jon Krawcynski on this one: he needs experience coaching in the NBA first as an assistant - because unlike other NBA head coaches who have gone straight into the gig without assistant coaching experience (see Mark Jackson, Jason Kidd and Steve Kerr) they at least had been in an NBA huddle or interacted with NBA personnel. Blatt, as great as he is, has done neither.

In summary, I’m not thrilled about the decision to make Flip coach. That said, I also don’t think it’s as bad as some are making it out to be. So in conclusion, I present the following Seinfeld gif to sum up my feelings surrounding the situation: