National Basketball Association

Saunders trying to rekindle magic as coach once again

Published Oct. 1, 2014 3:40 p.m. ET

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MANKATO, Minn. -- As reporters hovered around Minnesota State's Taylor Center, waiting to chat with players after the Timberwolves' first training camp practice Monday afternoon, one outsider was allowed through the Bresnan Arena doors early. Tufts of gray and white, curly hair stuck out from the sides of his baseball cap and matching suit jacket.

The workout concluded about 20 minutes later, and coach Flip Saunders called his team together and asked the stranger to come down to the court. He proceeded to wow the team with a series of card tricks, a small facet of his touring act as "The Amazing Hondo."

Saunders invited the magician to close out his first practice as Minnesota's head coach in nearly a decade. Hondo also performed at a team dinner function later Monday night.

Last year, Saunders brought in a hypnotist -- "just something a little bit different," he described as his aim. It's a way to keep players loose and engaged as the preseason grind gets underway.

But in Saunders' mind, there's also something significant about a man who makes is living by toting around a bag of tricks. It's not unlike his mission as Minnesota's president of basketball operations and now coach, one of the most powerful front-office workers in the NBA today.

"We're like a magician," said Saunders, who also has an ownership stake in the club. "We're just stealing from everybody. We take the best, whatever all coaches do, and try to incorporate that in our philosophy."

Now 59 and overseeing his 17th training camp, Saunders has plenty of experience upon which to draw. During 10 campaigns in his first head coaching stint here -- which brought the only eight playoff appearances in franchise history -- he learned how to mentor elite, green talent in Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury. Three seasons in Detroit taught him the value of defense and instilling a team-first focus, and three more in the nation's capital dealt him a rough lesson in handling failure.

Then came a year at ESPN in which he "was coaching eight games a night" as an analyst, before taking over for fired personnel chief David Kahn and molding the roster he officially began coaching Monday in Mankato.

"This is the fun part for coaches. We don't really care about the games," said Saunders, who's won 638 of them in 16 seasons as a head coach. "We love practice because you can work with the guys. Basically, the game is like that final test to see if what you've worked on, they've been able to pick it up."

Although he picks and chooses from around the basketball globe, Saunders does have a well-defined coaching identity. He's a hands-on teacher who walks players through concepts meticulously and puts them through lots of drills -- the antithesis of a coach like Rick Adelman who throws the ball out at practice, sits back and watches his players go five-on-five, shooting guard Kevin Martin said.

"I think Flip is good in this situation," said Martin, a longtime protege of Adelman, who retired after last season, "because we've got a lot of young guys who need to learn how to get accustomed to an NBA game and the style. A lot of drill work, but Rick, he throws the ball out -- he'll teach you, but it's more like learning on the fly. Flip's going to be with you every step of the way."

It worked when Saunders groomed Garnett into an MVP, and he hopes to do something similar with 2014 No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins and fellow first-round selection Zach LaVine. Saunders and Garnett teamed up for an octet of playoff berths culminating in the 2003-04 Western Conference finals.

Then came three more playoff appearances with the Pistons, all of which ended in the Eastern Conference finals. Those teams, featuring Richard Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Ben Wallace and Chauncey Billups (who is at the Wolves' camp this week as a guest of Saunders), were predicated on defense and low on ego, Saunders said. Stat sheets weren't even passed out in the locker room after games.

"We didn't care about (individual numbers)," Saunders said. "We just cared about the final score."

His time with the Wizards didn't go so well. His first two teams there won 26 and 23 games and he was let go 17 games into the 2011-12 campaign.

But Saunders continued to enhance his repertoire during a year working on ESPN's "NBA Tonight." It opened his eyes to the broader NBA landscape and gave him a working knowledge of all 30 teams, their coaches and their tendencies.

"When you're coaching your own team, you're looking at your own team and what they've got to do to get better," said Saunders, who before his NBA days served as a coach and general manager in the Continental Basketball Association. "When you're in a role as an analyst, you're looking at the whole league and seeing how they do."

That gave Saunders some unique perspective when he took over as president last May. Of the 18 players in training camp, only two of them are here on contracts he didn't sign off on -- point guards Ricky Rubio and J.J. Barea.

But just one of them, center Ronny Turiaf, has played any games for him.

"I think they can expect a lot of teaching and also once you go out there on the court, freedom in the way he trusts people to make the right reads," Turiaf said. "So he's definitely going to give you a platform or a foundation of what he's trying to do out there."

And it's that part of the gig Saunders finds most rewarding.

"You are going to have more of an impact," Saunders said. "In the past, you talk to them and try to help them out, but I tried to stay away and give Rick the leeway to do what he needed to do to try to have them be successful, which with all coaches, you have to do.

"I hope I'm going to be a different coach tomorrow than I was today. You're either getting better or getting worse; you're not staying the same."

Follow Phil Ervin on Twitter

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