Sam Mitchell: 'I'm not going to come in here and try to be Flip'

By foxsports
Published

Flip Saunders' medical leave means a young Timberwolves team needs to deal with some change. Interim coach Sam Mitchell has said he will run the same system Flip would've been using in Saunders' absence, but that doesn't mean he won't be his own man.

Here's more from a Q&A Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune did with Mitchell over the weekend:

Mitchell has had coaching success before. He was actually Coach of the Year when he took the Raptors to their first ever division title back in 2006-07. Still, this is somewhat of an awkward position to be in. He seems polished enough to figure it out, though.

Q: At this late date, will you run systems that Flip already has put in or bring your own?

A : When all this happened, we hadn’t met with Flip so we didn’t know what Flip planned on doing. Flip didn’t leave us a book with what he wanted done. The only instructions I was given from Mr. Taylor and Milt [GM Milt Newton] were to coach the team the way you see fit. … I’m going to do things a little different. I’m not going to come in here and try to be Flip. I can’t be Flip. That would be a disservice to me, the organizations and the players.