Despite being unemployed, former Washington Wizards and Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Flip Saunders is watching his fair share of hoops. Recently, Saunders spoke to Sid Sartman about what he’s seen in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ two emerging stars, Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love.
“It (Rubio’s game) still has a lot of (room) for improvement,” Saunders said, “but the thing he can do, has always been able to do, is really see the floor, the open floor in the transition-type game. Players like playing with him because they knew if they get open that he’s going to get them the ball. (Rubio has) got a good future. He is what he is. I think he’s got great vision. He’s going to get better because he’s going to get a little stronger. Whether he becomes a dominant player is going to (depend on) how much his shooting improves. But he … makes plays for others and makes people better. And defensively he has long arms, so he gets his hands on a lot of balls, gets a lot of steals.”
Speaking about Love, Saunders said he agrees with the majority of experts who say Love is the best power forward in basketball right now, citing his ability to rebound on both ends of the court and the way he stretches the floor for the T-Wolves. Saunders also added that he didn’t think Love was capable of putting up such great numbers when he came out of UCLA.
“When he came out, I thought he had a chance to be a player that was going to play in this league a long time and be a double-double guy. But I thought more like 15 [points] and 10 [rebounds] as opposed to getting 27 and 15 every night. He’s surprised a lot of people and done a great job.”
I’m not completely sure David Kahn won’t find a way to screw this team up, but as it stands now the Wolves look to be the promising young team in the West. They still need a go to perimeter scorer. It’s become pretty obvious that Wes Johnson is not the answer. We haven’t even mentioned Derrick Willams yet, who has shown a ton of promise even if we haven’t quite figured out what position he’s going to end up playing.
