Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Flip Saunders will likely miss the entire 2015-2016 season, as his health continues to deteriorate fighting cancer.
Saunders was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma back in August, and doctors told him his cancer was “very treatable and curable.” Saunders had originally planned to keep performing his duties as both coach and president of basketball operations, yet the Star Tribune claims that is no longer possible.
Since then there have been changes to the way his body handled the chemotherapy (and maybe how much cancer they’ve found) that have made it life threatening. Everyone involved has gone radio silent because of the family’s request for privacy and federal patient-privacy laws, etc., but between the complete silence, the lack of people visiting as far as I can tell apart from his immediate family and very inner circle while he remains hospitalized here in Minneapolis and the things I’m hearing second-hand, well, none of it is good.
Bench coach Sam Mitchell will fill Saunder’s position as interim head coach until he is capable of returning to the court.
[h/t: Bleacher Report]