The Minnesota Timberwolves have already had an eventful offseason. With “Love Watch” in full effect, the team needed to find a head coach to replace Rick Adelman, which was no small order.
President of basketball operations Flip Saunders began his search by calling some old friends in the college ranks. As Billy Donovan, Fred Hoiberg and Tom Izzo likely hung up and immediately started rolling on the floor laughing, Saunders turned his attention to his NBA circle.
Saunders thought he had an easy target in Memphis Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger. After flirting with the Timberwolves for a couple weeks, Joerger looked around and realized he was walking into a bear trap and decided Memphis’ front office demolition wasn’t that bad.
Once digging through the ex-NBA coach scrap heap and coming up with Vinny Del Negro, Saunders came to the realization that the best man for the job was himself.
The Timberwolves didn’t have any other options. Minnesota isn’t a desirable situation to walk into with a superstar having one foot out the door and no financial flexibility or tradeable assets that could make him want to stay.
The farce that was the Timberwolves coaching search was only a precautionary measure to see if someone was crazy enough to do the job. If not, Saunders knew he’d have to return to the sidelines and save the team that he coached to its only level of success from 1995-2005.
Unlike most coaching candidates, Saunders knows exactly what’s going on in the Timberwolves locker room. He knows how Kevin Love feels about the direction of the team and what pieces fit into the team’s future. With the current structure of the team, this is key.
Saunders’ return isn’t a long-term fix, but even if he spends a year or two to construct the roster and stabilize the seemingly cursed franchise, he could wind up as one of the greatest Minnesota coaches since Bud Grant.
Even if he fails to do so, it’s not like anybody else was going to do it.
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Chris Schad contributes to 105 The Ticket and has had his work featured on the Bleacher Report and Yahoo Contributor Network. He serves as the Vikings Lead Writerfor Pro Football Spot. Find him on Twitter @crishad. |