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On the second day of training camp, players again echoed Antawn Jamison's sentiment that the new iPod Touches that Flip Saunders gave them before camp were awesome. Saunders credited his son, Ryan, the Wizards assistant coach for statistical analysis, for coming up with the idea to place video and diagrams from his 250-page playbook on the high tech devices.

"Players are in that age right now, where they love an iTouch or whatever," Saunders said. "Talking to the players, they've all gone through it a lot. It's another resource for them, besides having a playbook. They can see video. They can see the plays on paper. They can see a lot of things."

Saunders told his players in the summer that he planned on doing it, but it still caught some of guys off guard when it really happened. "I was surprised. It was an expensive gift," Caron Butler said about the iPods, which retail at about $200 a pop. You factor in 14 of them and it was a pretty nice investment to spread Saunders's message.

Saunders will pass along updates throughout the season, and keep players on their toes from time-to-time with surprise entries, from what I understand. In addition to watching the players, Butler said Saunders has planned out the entire schedule, from traveling, bus rides, flights, all the way through June. Yes, June.

"Everything. When we leave, whatever you need," Butler said. "You don't have to ask any questions. You don't need nobody to print nothing up, it's already right there."

Mike Lee with more info on the iTouches. Am I the only one who finds this story pretty kickass?

over 2 years ago Headshot_tiny Mike Prada 13 comments 0 recs  | 

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There you go bwoods

Ryan Saunders, Flip’s son, is the Wizards assistant coach for statistical analysis…

And you were worried the Wizards didn’t have a stats guy…..

Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......

by Rook6980 on Sep 30, 2009 5:53 PM EDT reply actions  

To clear this up

He’s the guy charting plays and giving whatever information he sees to Flip. He’s not really involved in player evaluation for Ernie.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Sep 30, 2009 5:56 PM EDT up reply actions  

Yep – I understood that….

He’s charting plays for Flip – not evaluating players for Ernie….

Which, by the way, I think is more important than having it the other way around…..

Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......

by Rook6980 on Sep 30, 2009 6:00 PM EDT up reply actions   1 recs

Generally agree

about which is the higher priority. Although, one mistake on the player evaluation end can mess up the team for quite a while.

by bwoodsxyz on Oct 1, 2009 10:17 AM EDT up reply actions  

AND yes

I think the iTouch thing just goes to show how much thought Saunders puts into everything. Reading all the reports out of camp so far, he seems to be extremely organized (having a schedule already drawn up for the entire Training camp, what to do when, etc…) – What struck me about the iTouch thing is not that he has the plays on them, or even that he apparently bought them for every player himself, but that the schedule for the entire year (up through June next year) is on each iTouch. Talk about organized.

Practices start precisely the minute they were scheduled for …(I been monitoring the Wizards Training camp blog with Dave Johnson).. and everything seems to flow seamlessly.

Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......

by Rook6980 on Sep 30, 2009 5:59 PM EDT reply actions  

I agree

He would have bought the guys CD players at best. Complete with a fanny pack attachment. Maybe throw in 2 extra AA batteries, just to show he cares.

You have to hate losing more than you love winning.

by Mr MaLoR on Sep 30, 2009 9:30 PM EDT up reply actions  

Like the move

Shows the players that this is a guy who cares about making his team work harder, while also shows that he wants them to still have fun while playing. This should be a great help to the chemistry coach and the players have.

You have to hate losing more than you love winning.

by Mr MaLoR on Sep 30, 2009 9:29 PM EDT reply actions  

"It was an expensive gift"

Wha?

According to my calculations, even if Butler played every minute of every game it would still take him less than 6 seconds of game time to earn enough to buy his own iTouch.

It is the equivalent of giving someone who earns 50k per year a gift worth $1.20.

Nice gesture and an absolutely brilliant thing for the players to have, however.

by MR on Sep 30, 2009 10:28 PM EDT reply actions  

Hey

$3,000 bucks is $3,000 bucks….

Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......

by Rook6980 on Sep 30, 2009 11:01 PM EDT up reply actions  

Assuming that he purchased the $199 iTouch, and assuming Flip makes about $4.5 Million, it’s the equivalent of $2.22

Bullets Forever - where "Dagger ! " happens......

by Rook6980 on Sep 30, 2009 11:03 PM EDT up reply actions  

I was referring to the recipient, not the giver with my calculations.

Brilliant move on Saunder’s’ part in any case. (Note the lack of a reference as to WHICH Saunders).

by MR on Sep 30, 2009 11:08 PM EDT up reply actions  

I'm not positive about this

But I’d think the team paid for the iTouches, not necessarily Saunders. I’ll ask though.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Sep 30, 2009 11:18 PM EDT up reply actions  

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