Minnesota Timberwolves head coach, President of Basketball Operations and part-owner Flip Saunders will not return to the team this season, team owner Glen Taylor confirmed on Friday.
Saunders has been battling cancer, having announced in August that he was receiving treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma, and was hospitalized in September following a setback with the disease, per ESPN.
Sam Mitchell has been named interim coach in Saunders’ absence, and General Manager Milt Newton will also take on more responsibility.
When asked if he expected Saunders to return in some capacity to the team this season, Taylor said, via the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “Not this year. I just think his illness, I mean, it’s serious. At this point, if he came back I still think he’d have a hard time to recover all his energy and all that because he has been in the hospital for a long time.”
“I don’t care how old you get or how experienced you get, these friendships that are in your lives are so important,” Taylor added. “They do affect your heart and your mind on a daily basis.”
In the meantime, Taylor said that Newton and Mitchell will have power to make personnel decisions and roster moves in Saunders’ absence.
“Milt’s handling it just the way I’d expect him to. He tells me what he thinks, and we talk about things, just the same as I did with Flip. Milt’s just stepped in. Sam has to be his own coach. He won’t do things exactly as Flip does, and I wouldn’t expect him to.”