Timberwolves owner on Flip Saunders: 'Eventually I want a different coach'

Fresh off winning the NBA Draft Lottery, the Minnesota Timberwolves are poised to roster three consecutive No. 1 picks, with top 2013 and 2014 choices Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins already plying their trade in the Twin Cities.

While a turnaround won't happen overnight, adding a potential future stud like Jahlil Okafor or Karl-Anthony Towns to a promising young nucleus should help the Wolves end the NBA's longest current playoff drought (11 years) in the not-too-distant future.

Whether Flip Saunders is the coach that will lead them there is another question. In fact, according to Wolves owner Glen Taylor, Saunders - the team's president of basketball ops, who installed himself as coach after Rick Adelman stepped down last year - isn't even a lock to be back on the sidelines next season.

"It’s not definite," Taylor said after his team won the lottery, according to ProBasketballTalk's Brett Pollakoff. "But in my mind, with the effort that he put in this year to bring this team along, it’s probably 90 percent. If he sees somebody and he changes his mind, he certainly could convince me. I think eventually I want a different coach, and I want him to be the GM. My guess is that he’ll go another year."

Asked whether the franchise's recent development will affect Saunders' willingness to let go of the rope, Taylor said there won't be an issue.

"It won’t change," he said. "I think that Flip will change if he sees somebody in the coaching ranks that he really respects, and thinks in the long run that they will be the right guy for this team, then I think he’ll make that decision."

In his second go-around in Minnesota, Saunders coached the Wolves to a league-worst 16-66 record. He previously coached the team from 1995 to 2005, returning after detours with the Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards. He has amassed 330 more wins than any other coach in franchise history, and remains the only Wolves coach to lead the team to the postseason.