Andray Blatche isn't playing tonight. Nick Young is a bit banged up after his injury, but he will play.
Flip Saunders spent a lot of his pre-game press conference discussing his unique role as the coach of a team who has very clearly emphasized player development over winning. I asked him how difficult it is as a coach to have to manage minutes and get all of these young guys the kind of playing time they need to develop. In the process, he had a pretty interesting quote:
"Is it tough as a coach? Yeah. As a coach, more than anything else, you want to win. For 35 years I've coached, my main agenda is to win. That has to change."
I guess it's good to hear that he's being transparent about this like anyone else. Before that line, he had this to say.
"It's tough. How do you define who are the young guys? There's nine of them. The other guys that have to play are key guys like Howard, Rashard and now you got Bibby and Mo Evans. So it's a fine line."
He then talked specifically about what he meant by "managing minutes."
"I think, when you say minutes, minutes doesn't have to mean going out and playing 20 minutes. Last night, nine, 10, 11 minutes for Seraphin and Booker in a game like that are quality minutes. The big thing is that they get quality-type minutes; first-half minutes where we're in the heat of the battle, where what they do has an outcome of what's going to happen over the course of the game.