The main go-to player for the Minnesota Timberwolves for years, Kevin Love may not have been able to take his team to the playoffs but he was thought to be one of the best Power Forwards in the game.  Before he would become the “third option” and an NBA Champion in Cleveland, Love would become a two-time Second Team All-NBA Selection and a three-time All-Star.  Love did not exactly leave Minnesota on the best of terms, as he was upset that Minnesota was never a contender but it was not for the lack of effort from the former UCLA Bruin.

A sad announcement took place in the world of professional basketball as Flip Saunders passed away at the age of 60 after a battle with cancer.

Saunders, who played his college ball at the University of Minnesota, would immediately begin a coaching career following his stint with the Golden Gophers.  He would work his was up the ranks where he would become a Head Coach in the CBA and work his way to becoming the Head Coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1995, a position he would hold for a decade.

He would take Minnesota to multiple playoff appearances, but never deep though with the exception of Kevin Garnett, he really did not have the horses to accomplish that.  He was let go in 2005 and Saunders would go to the Detroit Pistons for a few seasons and continue to win games there.  After being let go from Detroit, he would coach the Washington Wizards for a few seasons until he returned to Minnesota prior to the 2014/15 season.

Saunders would shortly be diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and would delegate many of his duties to his assistants though there was a lot of belief that he would be returning to active duty soon.  This was not to be as Flip Saunders dies shortly after the announcement of his Cancer diagnosis.

Flip Saunders retires with a .524 Head Coaching Record and a reputation as being one of the good guys in the game.

He will certainly be missed and we here at Notinhalloffame.com offer our condolences to the friends and family of Flip Saunders at this time.

Sam Cassell may never have been the best player on any team he was on, but didn’t it always seem that as soon as he got to a team, they got better? Cassell was a great locker room guy, a good leader, an efficient passer and a feisty defender. He is the only player in NBA history to play over ten years and win a championship in his first and last campaign. Yet, when you play for eight different squads and only appear on one All Star Team (and again was never the go to player), is he really a Hall of Famer? Probably not, but didn’t you want him on your team?