Minnesota Timberwolves: Sam Mitchell to step in as interim coach as Flip Saunders battles cancer
Flip Saunders is stepping away from the Minnesota Timberwolves to focus on his battle with cancer according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Sam Mitchell will be taking over the head coaching duties while Saunders undergoes treatment.
It was announced this summer that Saunders had been diagnosed with a treatable form of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The initial announcement of Saunder’s battle made it appear that he would not be missing much time away from the team. It looks like a notable amount of time will be missed.
Sam Mitchell will be taking over as head coach and Yahoo! Sports reports that a source says that Mitchell will be the acting head coach for no less than half the season. There is hope that Saunders can return to the bench in 2015-2016.
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Mitchell has plenty of coaching experience. He’s currently on Saunder’s staff as an assistant, but was the head coach of the Toronto Raptors for part of five seasons before. Mitchell was even named the 2007 NBA Coach of the Year. Mitchell went 156-189 and went lead the team to the playoffs twice in his tenure.
Mitchell also is well known in Minnesota for his time playing with the Wolves and under Saunders. Mitchell played a total of 10 seasons with the Wolves and was a huge influence on Kevin Garnett in his developmental days in the league.
The interim status might be an audition of sorts for Mitchell. The head coach position has been in flux since Saunders retook the job and Mitchell would be a natural candidate to take over the job full-time, especially with Fred Hoiberg leaving Iowa State for another NBA job with the Chicago Bulls.
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