I actually feel bad for Flip Saunders.  He took Detroit to the Conference Finals three years in a row but never failed to make it to the NBA Finals.  Flip took over a competent team but he failed as a coach to get his players to step it up enough. 

 Coaching is like a chess game.  Phil Jackson is a grandmaster at coaching but Flip Saunders failed at exploiting other team’s weaknesses.  Like many NBA coaches, Flip Saunders is a great regular season coach but lacks wisdom in coaching during the playoffs.  Coaching in the playoffs requires a coach to make adjustments game to game in a seven game series. 

I would not be surprised to see Flip Saunders coaching for another team next year.  He is an excellent coach that can take any team to the playoffs.  The real question is, will he ever take any team to the NBA Finals?