Empty the Bench

Minnesota sportswriters have fantasized all season long about a possible homecoming for Flip Saunders. Whether it’s as coach of the Golden Gophers or as coach of the Timberwolves, it didn’t matter, they just wanted him back for some inexplicable, unexplainable reason. Both of those coaching vacancies have since been filled, and Saunders has publicly shot down any rumors of plans to leave the Detroit Pistons after this season.

But after two full regular seasons and two underwhelming postseasons since his arrival in Detroit, it’s official: you can have Flip Saunders back. If there’s a coaching vacancy anywhere in the state of Minnesota (or North Dakota, or Wisconsin, or…), he’s the man for the job, because it’s clear that he’s not the answer as head coach of the Pistons.

This conclusion isn’t drawn on just one exhibition, but last night’s Game 5 loss at the Palace was a perfect microcosm of everything that’s wrong about Flip Saunders, at least in context of the Pistons. When an all-world superstar like Lebron James goes off like he went off, there’s probably not much that can be done to stop it. But it’s Saunders job and Saunders job alone to at least try and do something, anything, about it. Fans in attendance and at home are allowed to sit, mouths open in amazement, jaws repeatedly dropping to the floor, and watch the James Show–head coaches being victimized by the James Show are not. “He saw lanes and he attacked,” Saunders said. “He was in a zone. He hit some phenomenal shots. We tried to stop him, get it out of his hands, and he re-attacked. We’ll have to take a look and definitely try to do something different next time.”
I’d say so, Flip, I’d say so.

Is it any coincidence that never before in NBA playoff history has one player accomplished what James did last night? Cleveland’s King scored 29 of his team’s final 30 points, including 25 in a row and all 17 of the Cavs’ points in the overtimes. Bird never did it, Magic never did it, Jordan never did it, Kobe has never done it, and there’s a good reason why. Competent NBA coaches stop the madness before it grows into a big ol’ Ball of Insanity rolling down a hill with unstoppable inertia. They make significant adjustments that prevent one man from making five men look foolish. For God’s sake, they make sure his players do whatever it takes to get the ball out of said player’s hands!

When asked after the game why James was getting to the hole so easily for dunks and layups against its vaunted defense, numerous members of the Pistons cited miscommunication as a chief culprit. So many players were being shuffled in and out with, apparently, little to no direction as they checked in as to what the plan was (if there was a plan at all). That’s how Jason Maxiell ends up checking Lebron James one-on-one in the waning moments of the fourth quarter. That’s why there was no help defense after James repeatedly beat his man. That’s why Flip Saunders has lost the confidence of this team.

Flip seems like a nice guy. He’s done a lot for the community wherever he’s been, and no one gets this far without being pretty good at what they do. But this isn’t about his off-court personality or his charity work or his career accomplishments. This is about *right now.* This is about not squandering all that talent on this Detroit Pistons roster. This is about getting to the NBA Finals and winning it.

An inability to throw everything and the kitchen sink at James in the fourth quarter and overtimes is but one of many ways Flip Saunders failed his players, the Pistons franchise, and the diehard Pistons fans. Here’s three more indictments that should lead to Saunders’ dismissal this summer–whether the Pistons crawl back into this series, win it, and get to the NBA Finals or not. Rick Carlisle and Larry Brown only lasted two seasons; ask yourself if Flip Saunders has truly earned the right to coach the Pistons longer than his most recent predecessors.

Where’s the Offensive Ingenuity?

When Larry Brown quit was dismissed after the Pistons’ lost the 2005 NBA title to the San Antonio Spurs, the prevailing theory was that the league was shifting to a more offensive-oriented game and that Brown’s plodding style of offense just wasn’t going to cut it anymore. The Pistons’ offense needed more fluidity, movement, and innovation to keep up with the Joneses, and Flip Saunders was just the man to do it. His offensive playbook was seemingly something of legend, a 5,000-page thing of unparalleled beauty that took years to digest. The Bible of Offensive Basketball. It was so big that it would take at least one season for him to implement it into the team.

So where is it? What happened to it, and why isn’t Flip Saunders using it? Throughout these playoffs–and let’s be realistic, the Magic series doesn’t count–I’ve seen the same sets over and over and over again that I saw when Brown was the head coach. Slowly dribble the ball up the court, set a pick to get whomever Saunders thinks has the mismatch in the post, clear the other four guys out, and hope and pray that said player can score one-on-one. Is that the offensive ingenuity Saunders was hired to bring to this team?

Last night was, perhaps, the worst-coached game we’ve seen from Saunders as far as calling plays goes. Your ETB friends just sat there, shaking our heads in disbelief, as the *same set* was ran over and over and over and over again, especially late in the game. Mismatches are fine–take advantage of them when you can. But that’s not a game plan! And if it *is* the game plan, well, who says that post ups and one-on-ones have to be the entire game plan? Shouldn’t there be some diversity, some sets the Cavs maybe haven’t seen before, sprinkled in for good measure?

Chauncey Billups is never put in a position to score; any points he gets he gets on his own. Rip Hamilton finally had some of his patented curl plays ran for him, but not nearly enough. Rasheed Wallace received very few high pick-and-roll sets designed to get him those open three-pointers he so excels at. Wallace did not touch the ball enough in the post, either. Chris Webber’s strengths–as a distributor at the elbow–are rarely catered to. The players probably deserve some of the blame, but there’s no question whose the architect of the Pistons’ offensive mess in this postseason.

Game Management

In times like this, when the pressure mounts by the minute and the players on the court need a reassuring leader on the bench, successful head coaches in command of the moment step up and give their team direction. Hope. Guidance. Strength. Last night, seemingly from the get-go, Flip Saunders was not that coach. From poor substitution patterns, to a failure to communicate, to not providing a strong shoulder to lean on, Saunders was out of his element.

In his post mortem, Chris McCoskey for The Detroit News had this to say about the Pistons’ repeated instances of confusion:

There were signs all game that the Pistons were battling themselves. Webber, after firing up a bad shot and picking up his fourth foul, in the third quarter, yelled to the bench, apparently at assistant coach Ron Harper, “Just let me play my game. Let me play my game.”

Later, Billups and Hamilton appeared to have a brief discussion over who would shoot a technical foul free throw. Hamilton had made five straight at that point, Billups had missed two. Billups kept the ball and missed the free throw. Then, to compound the problem, he fired up a rushed 3-pointer.

Wallace was angry, apparently at coach Flip Saunders, for his decision to go small for a stretch against the Cavaliers. Saunders did that because Antonio McDyess had been ejected. Between the third and fourth quarters, Wallace and assistant Dave Cowens engaged in a fairly animated discussion. Mostly Cowens was listening to Wallace’s complaints about the strategy.

Wallace later got peeved with Billups for a couple of his decisions. Team harmony, this was not.

Emotions will fly in situations like this. But as much of a distraction Larry Brown became during his last postseason with the Pistons, there’s no question he would have settled this team down, restored order, and got everyone back on track and on the same page. Flip Saunders, unfortunately, not so much.

Jitters are Contagious

From Mr. Big Shot, Chauncey Billups, on down the line to bench players like Dale Davis, the Pistons have always exuded the kind of unflappable confidence befitting of a championship-caliber team. In pressure situations, when the deck is stacked against them and the whole world is raining down hate upon them, they’ve always been at their best, emerging from the battle bleeding, bruised, and a little battered, but emerging as victors nonetheless.

In this series, however, with the oven turned up to 450 degrees, Lebron James has filled his baster with the juices of confidence, and now is spraying them all over the turkey that is Colonel Saunders. Unfortunately, few birds are cooked without stuffing, which means Saunders has dragged his team into the Cavaliers meal.

When TV cameras flash to Saunders on the sideline, rarely have we seen a man with fire in his eyes, a killer instinct visibly boiling just underneath the surface waiting to be unleashed. We’ve seen the leader of the best team in the Eastern Conference fidgeting, looking slightly concerned, and picking at his fingernails. Anyone whose watched Flip in action knows that he always has some nervous ticks, no matter the situation. That’s fine, a lot of people do.

But that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about a coach who has intermittently looked dazed and confused. A coach who appears afraid, or possibly incapable, of embracing the moment and the challenges confronting him and facing them head on. Don’t think for one second that Saunders’ noticeable jitters go unnoticed by his team (or, hopefully, his boss) and don’t have a negative effect on their mindset.

Billups has looked uneasy and unsure of himself for most of this series–is he being put in a position to succeed? Rasheed Wallace has repeatedly let his emotions get the better of him–does he respect Flip enough to listen to his voice of reason and calm down? Dale Davis was virtually invisible last night and didn’t seem tuned into the game whatsoever. Again, some of this blame lies squarely with the player, but the jitters from their head coach don’t help either.

Like we said, Flip Saunders seems like a good guy, and we don’t delight in seeing someone lose their job. But head coach of an NBA team can be a cruel profession to pursue, and sometimes change is necessary. If/when Flip is dismissed from the Pistons, he’ll latch on somewhere else. Quickly. And don’t forget that we’re talking about a man who is a millionaire many, many times over, so don’t feel too bad for him. Minnesota, you can have your coach back.