Flip Saunders took over as Timberwolves president of basketball operations last season, then returned to the sidelines as head coach this season. With the Wolves' youth movement sped up even more than planned because of injuries this year, the Star Tribune's Michael Rand caught up with Saunders on a number of subjects:
Q Magic Johnson the other day said he hopes the Lakers lose all their games. What do you make of that mentality?
A I'm never a proponent to just say tank games or lose games. You're letting players off the hook. Depending on who you have out there, you might not have to worry about it. … I know what Magic is saying, and I'm sure it's how most people look at it: If you're not going to be a playoff team, you're better off getting as high a (draft) pick as you can.
Q You were going to go through a fair amount of struggle this season even before some of your established players were hurt. Is it all good in terms of development or is there danger?
A From a management standpoint, it's great. From a coaching standpoint, it's not so good. … You have a young player who makes a mistake and you want to take them out of the game, and you might not have that luxury. They're learning, a lot of times, on the fly. That's why, a lot of times, we've played better after practices.
Q A lot of the focus has been on Andrew Wiggins because he was the No. 1 overall pick. At what point should we expect to see the kind of performance, consistently, that he delivered in Wednesday's win over Portland?
A He's been coming on like that, and we've been challenging him. I even see it in practice. He's been much more confident and comfortable in what we're trying to do. We've changed some things we're doing. We went through this thing, until last week since we had lost Ricky, we'd had six practices. We've had a chance to change now how we play and utilize him and [Shabazz Muhammad] a little more.
Q It was a much different team last year. Did not playing much hamper the development of guys like Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng, who are showing promise this season?
