Sam

Mitchell

Mitchell did interview for the Kings last summer, but he was never really a candidate for the position. Mitchell’s time in Minnesota didn’t go very well and he may have a tough time getting a head gig any time soon.

Mitchell reportedly left a good impression with Timberwolves president Flip Sanders in a recent meeting. Mitchell has strong ties with the Timberwolves organization as he made two stops there during his career, the second of which he played for Sanders. Mitchell was the head coach of the Toronto Raptors from 2004-09, where he took his team to the playoffs twice, and won Coach of the Year in 2007.

Mitchell’s name had previously come up in the Timberwolves’ head coaching search, but he will join the team as an assistant now that Flip Saunders has chosen himself as the team’s next head coach. Mitchell has previous head coaching experience with the Toronto Raptors and has most recently served as an assistant coach on the 2010-11 New Jersey Nets staff before being re-assigned to a scouting position.

Mitchell is still somewhat of a folk hero in Minnesota, as he played in the inaugural season and mentored Kevin Garnett early in his career. He also won Coach of the Year in 2007 while coaching the Raptors and his name came up as a possible Wolves candidate during the ‘David Kahn era.’ Mitchell is a no nonsense, disciplinarian type of coach, but as a former player, also gets respect and seems to have good relationships with today’s players. It’s possible that Flip Saunders could return to the Wolves bench, but we’ve read that book before, and Mitchell seems like a more logical choice.

Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin, Zach LaVine, Andrew Wiggins, Kevin Garnett, Karl-Anthony Towns, Gorgui Dieng and Andre Miller seem like the locks, which would mean it’s Nemanja Bjelica, Shabazz Muhammad and Adreian Payne vying for two spots until Nikola Pekovic (ankle) is healthy. Hopefully, Mitchell cuts it to a nine-man rotation. We’re not expecting Pek to be ready for quite some time, by the way.

Flip is currently fighting Hodgkins Lymphoma, and we wish him and his family the best in that battle. Mitchell was named the Coach of the Year during his 2006-07 season with the Raptors, so he’s certainly capable of stepping into a leadership role with Minnesota.

“The good thing is that I’ve played in the system, I’ve used it in Toronto, so I’m very familiar with it,” Mitchell said. “I ran a lot of the things I learned from Flip. Obviously, I have my own little ways of doing things, but that’s to be expected and Flip would tell me that. When I took over for him the one game in Toronto [last season], he called me up before the game and said, ‘Coach the team.’ I played for Flip a long time, so I understand what he wants. Having coached with him last year, I really understand it. We have a pretty good idea of what we need to do.” Saunders is expected to miss several months as he fights Hodgkins Lymphoma, so we wish him and his family all of the best.

“Once we get past [Ricky Rubio, Tayshaun Prince, and Kevin Garnett], we’ve got all young guys out there in that second unit,” he said. “The execution, picks, spacing, timing – that’s all we do with our young guys. That’s what we work on every day. Habits. They’ve just got bad habits. Those habits aren’t going to change (quickly). These are habits that have been acquired, that people who are supposed to have coached them have let them do for years. And we’re trying to break those habits because they’re not conducive to winning. Those are bad NBA basketball habits to have.” There is plenty more to read in the link below, and it’s clear Mitchell is not a satisfied coach right now.

They only have 14 players on the roster after signing Greg Smith to a 10-day deal, and coach Sam Mitchell made it clear that he would like to add a player who would have a chance to make next season’s roster. “We have to improve our athleticism,” Mitchell said. “I don’t think we’re a bad athletic team, but we’re not as athletic as we need to be. We need to look at guys who can defend, a guy who can shoot, and see how this team can look if we can spread the floor a little bit more.” According to the Star-Triubune, the Wolves could look at James Ennis, Jordan Hamilton, Ricky Ledo, Orlando Johnson, Vander Blue and Devin Ebanks.

Players have reportedly complained about 1) an “outdated offensive system,” 2) a “tendency to platoon his rotations” and 3) “a lack of personal accountability for the struggles.” While some of this may be true, it’s a bad look to present this feedback anonymously through the press, especially given the unfortunate circumstances which led to Mitchell’s elevation. Do better, Young Wolfpack.