The Passing of the Torch

Written by Taylor Odenat

As of October 26, 2015, former coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves Flip Saunders has past due to a losing battle with cancer. He had an illustrious career collecting two NBA All Star coaching appearances and leading the Pistons and Timberwolves to separate franchise-record victories. Players loved Saunders and are shocked of his passing after dealing with Hodgkin’s lymphoma for a large portion of the 2014-2015 season. He was a prominent and substantial figure in the lives of the athletes he coached. Stephon Marbury went as far as to refer to Saunders as a ‘father figure’ because of his knowledge of life and the game of basketball along with his ability to combine the two.

As a result of his death, Minnesota is now in void of a head coach for the future. The Timberwolves will eventually elect a temporary head coach, reasonably being former NBA Coach of Year Sam Mitchell, and go through the motions until stability is regained. However, for the long term future, who better to replace Saunders than 21-year veteran and 13-year player for the Timberwolves: former NBA MVP Kevin Garnett.

Flip Saunders was a mentor, friend, and bound to be future colleague of Garnett’s. After Garnett plays out his inevitable last season as a NBA player, Saunders was destined to bring Kevin on his assistant coaching staff or grant him a spot in the front office. According to Garnett, he bleeds “green” referring to his tenure with the Boston Celtics, but he will always have love for Minnesota and would presumably be honored to coach the franchise that drafted him fifth overall in the 1995 NBA Draft.

Garnett’s image in the NBA has been one of excessive animation, relentless competitiveness, and an uninterrupted motor. If he can translate that to coaching and instill into his players a similar mindset of a determined desire for victory, then Garnett will be a very successful head coach. Additionally, recently drafted big man Karl Towns Jr. can learn under the tutelage of his esteemed coach and acquire information on how to properly play defense, when to slide over and help after a guard gets beat and so on. Garnett was also once very young, coming into the NBA as a 19-year old out of Farragut Career Academy in Chicago. He understands the challenges of being a youth in the NBA, so he would be highly capable of conveying to the players the same fatherly advice similar to what Stephon Marbury received from Saunders when he was young and naive.

What better gift could Garnett give to the Timberwolves and deceased Flip Saunders than filling the vacant head coaching spot guiding the Wolves players through what Flip taught him and his own extensive knowledge of the game of basketball.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/garneke01.html, http://nypost.com/2015/10/25/devastated-kevin-garnetts-powerful-tribute-to-flip-saunders/, http://www.si.com/nba/2015/10/25/minnesota-timberwolves-flip-saunders-dead-player-coach-reactions, http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2015/10/26/9614860/stephon-marbury-flip-saunders-tribute