Flip Saunders "positive" KG will re-sign with the Celtics

Star Tribune
One reason Rivers brought in Saunders was his great relationship with Kevin Garnett. And Saunders said that KG played like he did with the Wolves in 2003-04, when he was named league MVP.

"I remember when we drafted KG [in 1995], we said to him his first year, we played him as a small forward and I told him you're going to be an All-Pro player as a power forward but you're probably going to end your career as a center," Saunders said. "And with Garnett playing center, the Celtics after the All-Star break had the third-best record in the NBA."

Garnett really showed great strength at center in the postseason, averaging 19.2 points -- his highest playoff average since 2007-08 -- and 10.3 rebounds per game.

Saunders is positive Garnett, who is a free agent, will sign for another year with the Celtics, who have some rebuilding to do.

"Positive" is a pretty strong word, but Saunders does know KG and according to the Str Tribune interview Saunders was "basically in on every team meeting, every players meeting, every coaches meeting (and in the) the locker room" with the Celtics, so his opinion does count. So in case you're keeping count, tons of teams want KG, but so far the people that have spoken to him have either said he's coming back to the Celtics or retiring. I think Saunders choice of words might have been a little too "positive" (No pun intended. Seriously.), but they are a good sign no doubt.


The other interesting part about Saunders' KG quotes is the section on Garnett's position maturation. Unfortunately the 6'12" Garnett reportedly doesn't feel the same way. I guess Danny can always tell KG he'll be a forward again, sign another O'Neal to play center and when said O'Neal busts an "O'Neal" and gets injured, KG will be forced to play center again. Because the fact is KG is still a dominant player when he plays center. Not so much anymore at power forward. Unfortunately his pride in his "craft," as KG refers to it won't let him realize this.