How does Flip Saunders rank as an NBA Coach?

Sorry, you haven't convinced me.

Ironic, that over the last couple of days I find myself actually (somewhat) DEFENDING this piece of crap poor excuse for a coach against some of you in other threads when you had such high praise for him just such a short time ago.

Yet now that the beloved Pistons have been exposed by the Cavaliers people insist on placing the blame solely on Saunders since it can't be the players faults....can it? No, of course not.

How can one of the "top coaches in the league" as shown by your own votes manage to bring our team down to such great depths?

Our players missed open shots because of fatigue...uhmmm...which goes back to the coach. They stood around in awe and watched Lebron fly by them because of poor defensive planning...uhmmm...which goes back to the coach.

If Pop, Riley,or Jackson were our coach, would we have won? Yeah...maybe. Maybe they were bright enough to get us past our own deficiencies and other teams strengths. But it doesn't take away from the fact that Cleveland outplayed us. Overall they showed more effort, poise, and skill from start to finish.

Blame Flip Saunders if it makes you feel better. Your blame would be well directed. But don't forget that your beloved players choked on their own too.

Interesting, that only 5 of us voted him in the bottom 12 while the overwhelming majority praised him with their votes, but now it is mostly if not ALL, his fault.

He fooled me last season and he did it again. Defense wins championships and Flip doesn't praise defense. I am not falling for it again. Flip is not a bottom 12 coach, but for this team he is.

i said top 12 and i still believe that. i thought he was excellent in the orlando series - remember we never swept a team with brown or carlisle. i also think he had a solid gameplan for chicago and lebron initially, but blew it toward the end of those series.

it seems like he has the most difficulty adjusting to when another team figures something out, but saunders himself can't see what it is, so he can't adjust in return.

if pop was our coach, we would've definitely been in the Finals? yeah. but how many other coaches could we say that and believe it with 100% conviction?

Pop / Riley / Sloan / Jackson / Zeke / Skiles / Laimbeer /

with 100% conviction? maybe pop, riley, sloan, and jackson - none of whom are available - but you can't say that for zeke / laimbeer / skiles, all of whom are unproven.

not saying i'd mind zeke or laimbeer coaching over flip though.

Maybe Dumars will trade Davidson for someone younger + cash.

I don't care if he's younger, just not dumber.