It's a make or break for Flip
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by user Leslie Monteiro
There are many good storylines in the NBA Playoffs.
Vince Carter's return to Toronto, Don Nelson trying to beat his old team in the Mavericks, Carmelo and AI teaming up to beat the Spurs, Kobe trying to beat the Suns on his own, the Suns trying to prove that a team can go far without playing defense, Lebron getting a shot at a championship, Miami trying to repeat, and the Mavericks trying to win it all are the theme of this year's playoffs.
With that said, the big storyline should be about Pistons head coach Flip Saunders. His reputation is at stake.
There is a belief that Flip Saunders got so much out of so little with the Minnesota Timberwolves in his time there.
Outside of the 2003-2004 season in which his team went to the Western Conference Finals, he never had the players that would help him do well in the playoffs so he was never savaged nationally. It was understandable then.
Last year, his Pistons went to the Eastern Conference Finals, but they bowed down to the Miami Heat, who went on to win the NBA Championship, in 6 games His team was expected to win it all last year.
The standards are no different this year.
If his team can not win it all this year, one has to wonder if Flip will ever win a championship.
There has to be doubts about whether or not Flip can get the job done. His work in the playoffs leave a lot to be desired in so many ways.
There are just too many flaws about Flip's coaching skills.
He tends to get outcoached often against his counterparts in playoff games.
His style of offense is very questionable in the playoffs.
He sacrifices defense in an attempt to run more plays on offense.
His team is never tough enough in the playoffs.
Coaches such as Gregg Popovich, Phil Jackson, Don Nelson, and Pat Riley have done such a good job of outfoxing Flip over the years.
They would come up with new wrinkles in their game plan to stop his teams and he would not find a way to adapt or counteract something. Also, when he has ever made adjustments in the second half ever.
The Pistons head coach is known as a coach that runs a great offense. He has a very big book featuring how to execute plays on offense.
The funny thing is that it just does not work come playoff time. His offense is more about guards shooting jumpers more than anything.
In playoff basketball, players have to score from the paint a lot often because that's where playoff teams do their best work. Also, going to score from the paint will result to free throw opportunities, which makes or break a team to win playoff games.
Jump-shooting teams never go far at all. One would think Flip would realize this after several years of coaching playoff teams, but he insists on letting his players take ridiculous shots.
His teams are not that bad defensively, but they do not exactly get the big stops when they have to in the postseason or in tight games in the regular season.
How many times have Timberwolves fans would scream at their TV screens about making a stop? It just seems that players from other teams tend to get wide open or make easy layups time after time in the fourth quarter.
Flip was exposed as a coach who is not into defense last year when his Pistons, which used to be very stingy on defense under Rick Carlisle and Larry Brown, showed their softness against Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning, and several other role players.
He just could not draw up any good defensive plans which is another reason why he fails in the postseason.
Do players have faith in this guy as a coach? That is the biggest question of all.
It was no secret that Sam Cassell and Latrell Spreewell had zero respect for him. They thought he did not know much about the game.
They would ignore whatever his instructions that he tells his players. They just do their things on their own since they have had a good pedigree of how to get it done. It worked too so it can not be a great sign for the head coach.
Last year, Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace rarely paid much attention to their head coach.
Rasheed would be looking at the other way when Saunders was drawing up plays while Ben would look disinterested in hearing what Saunders had to say. Ben clearly second-guess some of his coach's moves and it was evident when the Pistons was falling apart in the playoffs last year.
Ben did not like the fact that Flip was more into offense than defense so he left Detroit to go to Chicago, where he can be utilized properly.
There are so many issues that proves that Flip may not be a coach that will win a championship.
There is a reason why no one is taking the Pistons seriously as a championship contender. The coach is the big reason for it.
The only way he can shut his critics up is to get it done. The least he can do is take his team to the NBA Finals. This can not be too hard for him, right.
If his team is not there again this year, the Pistons should make a coaching change.
