Timberwolves Add Another Saunders to the Coaching Staff

The Minnesota Timberwolves have announced on Tuesday that Flip Saunders’ son, Ryan, will be joining the team as an assistant coach.

Now, before we assume that this is an example of “knowing the right person,” let’s take a look at the younger Saunders’ background, shall we? Ryan is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in sports management. He also spent time as an assistant at the U of M under former coach Tubby Smith and helped the team to an NCAA Tournament berth.  He has spent time at the NBA level as an assistant with the Washington Wizards. He helped develop a company called Gametime Concepts, a statistics program that is used by a number of NBA teams including the Miami Heat, Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards, and of course, our Timberwolves.

To think that Ryan was offered this position based on his father being the head coach is unfair. Ryan is more than qualified to help coach and develop a young team like the Timberwolves.

Ryan spent the last five seasons working as an assistant in Washington focusing on gameplan scouting and statistical analysis. Ryan is praised for his hand in the development of  guards John Wall and Bradley Beal.

The move fills out the coaching staff under head coach Flip Saunders with Sam Mitchell, Sidney Lowe,  and David Adelman.  This group has become a strong group of coaches with a variety of expertise and varying levels of experience.

Now that the Timberwolves have secured his services, there are still a few questions.

How will he fare in the development of our veteran players like Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic?

Will he get the chance to work with Kevin Love?

How far can he take the two rookies, G Zach LaVine from UCLA and SF Glenn Robinson III from Michigan?

Let me know what you think in the comments below!