Wizards Flip For Saunders

Deal for new Wiz coach is all but done

By KYLE WEIDIE

Updated 12:01 PM EST, Mon, Apr 13, 2009

Print Email Share TWITTER FACEBOOK

Getty: Jim Rogash

"It looks like a done deal," Caron Butler told a local reporter while rolling for Easter eggs with his family on the White House lawn this morning.

The imminence of Flip Saunders as next coach of the Wizards should come as no surprise. Saunders is the top name available, which also means he won't come cheap. But if Abe Pollin is serious about his edict of spending whatever it takes to win a championship before fading gracefully into the Chinatown sunset, then why not hire the best to steer the ship?

Saunders has been mulling around the boys of Fun Street since last September when he was leading defensive drills in training camp. And more recently, before bowing out of his beat reporter duties with the WaPost, Ivan Carter's gut indicated that Flip was the man.

Fans are neither shocked nor upset with the choice of Saunders. Recent polls on both Bullets Forever and Wizards Insider have Flip taking the majority of the reader vote, 61 percent and 40 percent respectively. And honestly, a guy who has the combination of offensive knowledge, defensive coaching ability, and post-season experience, doesn't provide much fodder for argument against his hiring.

But Xs and Os are one thing, will Saunders be able to unite a locker room dealing with small doses of disarray, as the case with most losing teams?

Despite leadership from the likes of Butler, Antawn Jamison and Brendan Haywood, most of the Wizards seem to take cues from Gilbert Arenas. After all, Agent Zero is the point man for distribution and game-winning heroics.

Can Saunders get Gil, and the Wiz kids, on the same winning page? The fact that it's on the shoulders of the eccentric and unpredictable Arenas isn't the most comforting thought in the world.

But these are the Wizards, for better or worse. And with Flip in town, with the championship experience of Sam Cassell purportedly by this side, expect a lot more of the better in the phone booth.

Kyle Weidie also writes Truth About It and contributes to Bullets Forever, both Washington Wizards blogs. He hopes that Flip makes these birds fly.