| Head coach | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | February 23, 1955 |
| Place of birth | Cincinnati, Ohio |
| High school | Cuyahoga Heights High School |
| Listed height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Listed weight | 175 lb (79 kg) |
| Career information | |
| College | University of Minnesota |
| Pro career | 1995–present |
| Career history | |
As coach:
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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| Stats at NBA.com | |
Phillip "Flip" Saunders (born February 23, 1955) is an American basketball head coach of the Washington Wizards. He previously coached the Detroit Pistons and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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Saunders was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was an All-American basketball player at Cuyahoga Heights High School in suburban Cleveland. In his senior season, 1973, he was named Ohio's Class A High School Basketball Player of the Year, leading the state in scoring average with 32.0 points per game. At the University of Minnesota, he started 101 of his 103 career contests and as a senior, teamed with Ray Williams, Mychal Thompson, Kevin McHale. Together they led the Gophers to a school-best 24–3 record.
While at Minnesota, he was a teammate and roommate of retired NFL head coach Tony Dungy.[1]
Saunders began his coaching career at Golden Valley Lutheran College where he compiled a 92–13 record, including a perfect 56–0 mark at home, in four seasons. In 1981, he became an assistant coach at his alma mater, Minnesota, and helped guide the Golden Gophers to the Big Ten championship that season. After five seasons at Minnesota, he became an assistant coach at the University of Tulsa where he worked for two seasons before heading to the pro ranks.
He began his CBA career in 1988–89 with the Rapid City (South Dakota) Thrillers, where former Kings and Warriors head coach Eric Musselman served as the team's general manager. Musselman's father, Bill Musselman, had recruited Flip when Bill was head coach at the University of Minnesota.
Saunders then later moved to the La Crosse (Wisconsin) Catbirds for five seasons (1989–94), where he won two CBA Championships, before coaching in 1994–95 with the Sioux Falls Skyforce. He also served as general manager (1991–93) and team president (1991–94) of the Catbirds. Saunders' impressive CBA tenure included seven consecutive seasons of 30 or more victories, two CBA championships (1990, 1992), two CBA Coach of the Year honors (1989, 1992) and 23 CBA-to-NBA player promotions.
Saunders would leave after seven productive seasons as a head coach in the CBA, where he ranks second with 253 career victories.
Saunders joined the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves on May 11, 1995 as president, working under his former Minnesota teammate, Kevin McHale. On December 18, 1995, Saunders was named head coach of the Timberwolves, replacing Bill Blair.
This happened shortly after McHale had taken over the basketball operations for the Timberwolves. He then added the coaching duties to his GM responsibilities after the team had gotten off to a 6–14 start. The Timberwolves went 20–42 the rest of the year, but the emergence of young Kevin Garnett as a front-line NBA player was a huge plus over the second half of the season.
He guided with difficulty the Timberwolves to their first-ever playoff berth in the 1996–97 season, his first full season as an NBA head coach, and to a franchise-record 50 victories in 1999–2000 which was duplicated in 2001–2002.
After the Timberwolves' success in the 2003–04 NBA season, in which they made the Western Conference Finals, they struggled in the 2004–05 season, winning fewer than half of their games. On February 12, 2005, Saunders was fired and replaced by then-Vice President of Basketball Operations Kevin McHale as head coach. Many fans believed that the firing was unwarranted, citing instead the contract troubles of Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell as the reasons for the team's failure. However, many also acknowledged that Saunders had already coached eight seasons in Minnesota, and perhaps a new voice was needed.
Saunders replaced Larry Brown as coach of the Detroit Pistons on July 21, 2005.[2] Under Saunders, the team set a new franchise record for wins during the regular season, finishing with a 64–18 record. Saunders coached the Eastern Conference All-Stars in the 2006 NBA All-Star Game in Houston, Texas.
Upon entering his third season as Pistons coach, Saunders became the longest-tenured Pistons coach since Chuck Daly's nine-year tenure (1983–1992).
Saunders was fired June 3, 2008 after the Pistons lost to the Boston Celtics in the 2008 Eastern Conference Finals; Detroit president of basketball operations Joe Dumars said the team needed a "new voice".[3]
On April 14, 2009, Saunders reached an agreement to become the new coach of the Washington Wizards.[4][5] The deal reportedly is worth $18 million over 4 years.
Saunders is married to Debbie. They have a summer home located in Medina, Minnesota. Their son, Ryan, was a 6-foot-1 guard for the University of Minnesota, Flip's alma mater. According to Saunders, he was about 20 yards (18 m) away from the I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse on August 1, 2007.[6]
| Legend | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular season | G | Games coached | W | Games won | L | Games lost | W–L% | Win-loss % | |
| Post season | PG | Games coached | PW | Games won | PL | Games lost | PW–L% | Win-loss % | |
| Team | Year | G | W | L | W–L% | Finish | PG | PW | PL | PW–L% | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIN | 1995–96 | 62 | 20 | 42 | .323 | 6th in Midwest | — | — | — | — | Missed Playoffs |
| MIN | 1996–97 | 82 | 40 | 42 | .488 | 3rd in Midwest | 3 | 0 | 3 | .000 | Lost in First Round |
| MIN | 1997–98 | 82 | 45 | 37 | .549 | 3rd in Midwest | 5 | 2 | 3 | .400 | Lost in First Round |
| MIN | 1998–99 | 50 | 25 | 25 | .500 | 4th in Midwest | 4 | 1 | 3 | .250 | Lost in First Round |
| MIN | 1999–00 | 82 | 50 | 32 | .610 | 3rd in Midwest | 4 | 1 | 3 | .250 | Lost in First Round |
| MIN | 2000–01 | 82 | 47 | 35 | .573 | 4th in Midwest | 4 | 1 | 3 | .250 | Lost in First Round |
| MIN | 2001–02 | 82 | 50 | 32 | .610 | 3rd in Midwest | 3 | 0 | 3 | .000 | Lost in First Round |
| MIN | 2002–03 | 82 | 51 | 31 | .622 | 3rd in Midwest | 6 | 2 | 4 | .333 | Lost in First Round |
| MIN | 2003–04 | 82 | 58 | 24 | .707 | 1st in Midwest | 18 | 10 | 8 | .556 | Lost in Conf. Finals |
| MIN | 2004–05 | 51 | 25 | 26 | .490 | (fired) | — | — | — | — | — |
| DET | 2005–06 | 82 | 64 | 18 | .780 | 1st in Central | 18 | 10 | 8 | .556 | Lost in Conf. Finals |
| DET | 2006–07 | 82 | 53 | 29 | .649 | 1st in Central | 16 | 10 | 6 | .625 | Lost in Conf. Finals |
| DET | 2007–08 | 82 | 59 | 23 | .720 | 1st in Central | 17 | 10 | 7 | .588 | Lost in Conf. Finals |
| WAS | 2009–10 | 82 | 26 | 56 | .317 | 5th in Southeast | — | — | — | — | Missed Playoffs |
| WAS | 2010–11 | 82 | 23 | 59 | .280 | 5th in Southeast | — | — | — | — | Missed Playoffs |
| Career | 1147 | 636 | 511 | .554 | 98 | 47 | 51 | .480 |
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