Flip flopped in D.C.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Washington D.C. is traditionally the flopping capital of the world so I guess it should be no surprise that in the end Flip flopped in the nation's capital.
Flip Saunders was relieved of his duties as head coach of the Wizards on Tuesday, a day after Philadelphia enjoyed a laugher at his expense despite missing both of its centers, Spencer Hawes and Nikola Vucevic, and playing with a power forward, Elton Brand, who was weakened by a stomach flu.
The Wizards, instead of making a hard-fought run at their first road win of the season, tapped out in almost record time, falling behind by as many as 34 points en route to a 103-83 drubbing as they played Washington Generals to the Sixers' Harlem Globetrotters.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}S.D. Jones was more competitive in the inaugural Wrestlemania match against King Kong Bundy. Marvis Frazier had a better chance against Mike Tyson than the Wizards had on Monday night.
Sitting in the press area on the baseline closest to the Wizards bench I wondered if Flip, a solid coach in both Minnesota and Detroit before he ever arrived in D.C., might just walk off into the sunset at intermission with the Wiz behind 62-32.
It was that bad.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Clearly there is talent on hand in D.C. You can't compare the Wizards to the Thunder but they certainly pack more on paper than more successful clubs like Cleveland, New Jersey, Detroit and Charlotte.
In fact most coaches would salivate at John Wall's upside, JaVale McGee's ability to change shots with his length and Andray Blatche's skill-set as a 6- foot-11 power forward.
But it never came together for any of those players under Saunders' watch and you could make a very strong argument that they all regressed.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Wall is just as likely to put up a quadruple-double as a triple-double when you add turnovers into the mix. McGee seems disinterested more often than not and Blatche has a greater gravitational pull than any black hole -- once the ball goes inside to him, it's never coming out.
Basketball like any professional sport is about the black and white of wins and losses and a dismal 2-15 start could earn just about anyone his walking papers.
The Wizards were just 51-130 overall under Saunders. The team won only 19 games the year before he got there so Flip arrived when the cupboard was bare and improved things to 26-56 in 2009-10. Then the decline started as the team compiled a 23-59 mark in 2010-11 before this season's abysmal start.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In contrast, as the head coach in Minnesota and Detroit, Flip was 587-396.
Translation -- the guy can coach but for whatever reason the message wasn't getting through to Saunders' locker room. The lack of effort and energy in Philadelphia the day before Flip was let go was palpable and obvious to anyone in the building.
Saunders seemed almost detached after the game, perhaps resigned to his fate.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Where I was disappointed was I thought that we came out with a better energized effort early," Saunders said despite the fact his team was down 33-14 after the first 12 minutes.
He did notice, however, that his club crawled into the fetal position from there.
"When we fell behind, our heads went down. This is a team [the 76ers] that has beaten us a lot. Whether we lack confidence or whatever."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Randy Wittman, a long-time Saunders guy, was elevated from lead assistant to interim head coach.
"We felt the team had become unresponsive and we will look to Randy [Wittman] to provide a different voice and a change in philosophy moving forward," said Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld, the guy who built this mess of a roster, when announcing Saunders' firing. "We have been transparent in how we would evaluate our team this season and we were disappointed in the lack of development of our players at this point in our rebuilding plan."
I'll buy the different voice but a change in philosophy?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Wittman believes in everything Flip was trying to teach so the message is hardly going to change, although the delivery might.
That has to be what Grunfeld is counting on because this has quite simply been the dumbest basketball team in the NBA and empirical evidence has to put that on the shoulders of the players not Saunders.
After all Saunders' teams in Minneapolis and Detroit were both known for intelligent, well-played basketball. Did something happen between '07-08 when he piloted the Pistons to 59 wins and '09-10 when he arrived in Washington?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Clearly Flip flopped but it's even more clear that his players failed him.