Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 at 10:00 am  |  10 responses

Flip Saunders Isn’t Getting Fired … Yet


Wizards’ owner Ted Leonsis indicates on his blog that he won’t be making any snap judgments when it comes to his winless team, and the WaPo reports that embattled head coach Flip Saunders is safe in his job. For now, anyway: “Despite the Wizards being off to a franchise-worst 0-8 start, the organization does not have any intention of firing Coach Flip Saunders at this time, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. After the Wizards suffered a humiliating 21-point home loss to Minnesota on Sunday, Saunders was asked if he felt that he was running out of chances to get through to his players. ‘No I don’t fear that,’ Saunders said. ‘I think I know the process that we’re going through, and I know it’s a painful process.’ Saunders is in the third year of a four-year, $18 million contract that he signed in April 2009.”

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  • Riggs Posted: Jan.10 at 10:09 am
    a.k.a “we cant find a suitable replacement yet”.

  • neaorin Posted: Jan.10 at 10:20 am
    Flip needs to take a cue from Whoopi Goldberg and start benching people. It’s not like he’d be sacrificing wins by doing it.

  • RunNGun Posted: Jan.10 at 10:27 am
    Flip’s a good coach but it’s obvious he’s got a group of knuckleheads who just can’t seem to play together; it’s time for both a coaching change and roster overhaul in the nation’s capitol.

  • bike Posted: Jan.10 at 10:31 am
    Jerry Sloan might be available. They better do something drastic pretty quick or just tank the season and hope they can draft UK’s Davis at No. 1.

  • MrRLW Posted: Jan.10 at 10:38 am
    +1 for neaorin. This team is put together terribly, so you have to adjust accordingly. Blatche needs to go. And if he doesn’t, he needs to be relegated to the bench. You can’t have a 4man like him, playing beside a 5 like McGee. It’s counterproductive. Either go small with Lewis at the 4 like he did in Orlando or start Booker. And play Mo Evans at the three. The bench and the starting five needs balance. Too many players with the same mentality on both units.

  • Bt Posted: Jan.10 at 10:53 am
    Doesn’t help that he has a point guard playing 40 minutes who can’t shoot, control the tempo of the game or consistently handle the ball without ridiculous amounts of turnovers. John wall is far from Being a point guard you can rely on to run your team, regardless of who his teammates are.

  • DerekG Posted: Jan.10 at 11:35 am
    Neaorin hit the nail on the head! If these guys can’t get it together and follow his direction he can bench them knowing full well that he can’t mess with their winning percentage!! Go for broke Flip!!

  • dsleepy Posted: Jan.10 at 2:04 pm
    MrRLW, I wish you were coaching the Wiz and not flip

  • feez_22 Posted: Jan.10 at 5:35 pm
    Flip saunders can’t control team personalities. Period. we saw this in minnesota, detroit and NOW washington. IMO 20-30% of coaching is knowing, dealing with and harnessing player personalities to the best of ability so that they contribute to the betterment of the team. Tell me when has flip ever done that in his whole career? maybe that 1 yr in minny but in detroit the players rolled all over him. Washington players are doing the same. he is no authoritarian. he is not respected. To the other players… john wall is a PG that i can rely on to run a team. he is having a major sophmore slump but he is still a great talent. You don’t avg 8.3 assists per game as a rookie on a team full of retards if you can’t handle PG duties. Turnovers are a part of the game for rookie PG’s that pass like he does. look at deron williams early… he was benched for some scrub PG in utah his rookie yr and always turned the ball over. Wall will get it and when he does he will be a great player. These are just growing pains that are exasperated because his team in general is full of 1 on 1 non basketball I.Q. knuckleheads that don’t know what real basketball is. Nick young? Jordan Crawford? Very talented but 1 on 1 players that have played 1 on 1 since they got in this league. Blatche? self entitled PF that still doesn’t get it. still doesn’t defend, still shoots deep jumpers for no reason. Mcgee? 7 foot big man with immense length with absolutely ZERO basketball I.Q. he can’t defensive rebound and is only good at blocking shots. his defensive positioning is awful. John wall? Talented young PG that is getting heaps of criticism bc of his sophmore slump. Bad shooter so far in his career (lowest TS% of all players) but is the most TEAM ORIENTED PLAYER THEY HAVE. i watched a bunch of wizards games last yr. well not a bunch… maybe 20. john wall gets it. his teammates don’t. rashard lewis? 1 trick pony paid 20 million to shoot and play zero defense and has quit on the wizards twice this year already. Everyone has blame in this but to blame wall just as much as the rest is ludacris. this team is poorly built and needs some solid vets/team oriented guys to save it. Look at who andre blatche and nick young learned from… Jamison, stevenson and arenas. u get the damn pattern? young players learning from 1 on 1 guys and the cycle keeps going.

  • ClydeSays Posted: Jan.10 at 11:50 pm
    Sorry, young teams don’t win. Flip doesn’t seem like a coaching genius, but if the players can’t execute on offense or defense, they’re gonna lose a ton of games.
    Watched a couple of Wiz games this season & they’ve got some talent, but it’s one pass, shoot everytime down the floor. They’re decent on the offensive boards, but there are ton of boards available since they shoot suck a low %. Firing Flip might wake the team up, but unless you’re willing to get some hard ass coach in there, I doubt they’ll do much.

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