Jeff Budlong, On the rebound

How could they? What were they thinking? Have they lost their mind?

The above are all questions Minnesota Timberwolves&8217; fans probably asked themselves at some point this year as they watched former head coach Flip Saunders and the Detroit Pistons roll through the regular season.

The Wolves struggled &045; to put it mildly &045; through the 2006 season and everyone including myself was blaming Kevin McHale and a series of questionable decisions on the fall from Western Conference finalist to lottery team.

One of the worst moves was getting rid of Saunders, a coach that had few black marks against him before last season.

But after watching this postseason unfold I have to believe I am not the only one who thinks folding on Flip may not have been as bad as it first appeared.

Detroit has been a power for the last three or four years. The Pistons made their name on defense under Larry Brown and turned that formula into a NBA championship.

Now, in less than a year, Saunders has turned the Pistons from a defensive minded group to a middle-of-the-pack looking club ready to pull up stakes and go home for the summer.

Saunders hasn&8217;t been able to get Chauncey Billups to perform like he has over the last couple of postseasons. Rasheed and Ben Wallace are both unhappy with the latter &8212;

Wallace likely to leave town in free agency after the season.

Richard Hamilton is a solid player, but Dwayne Wade has shown why he is one of the best in this series and Tayshawn Prince &045; despite being the lone member of the starting five not to be an all-star this year &045; has looked like the only one of late.

In the Miami series many of the Detroit players seem far more interested in taking shots at their first-year head coach rather than making many in the games. There were a fair share of blowups for the Timberwolves when Flip was leading the way, and with players like Rasheed Wallace it is not surprising to see it in Detroit. But when Ben Wallace is griping you have to take notice because Mr. Hard Hat and Lunch Pail is the heart of the team.

Detroit has not looked dominating at any point during this postseason. It struggled against Milwaukee in the first round and was tested all the way to a seventh game against Cleveland. LeBron James is a special player, but I believe the Pistons under Brown would have solved the riddle of the first-time playoff player faster than the seven games it took Saunders.

In less than a season the Pistons have gone from team unity with a dominating starting five to one that appears to be fractured and falling apart.

It is said that postseason basketball is all about adjustments. To me that means, this is where the head coach really earns his money. Avery Johnson, still wet behind the ears in terms of coaching experience, did a masterful job against San Antonio in helping the Dallas Mavericks win a big series, and yet Saunders still struggles despite much more experience in late May.

For years, we looked at the Timberwolves supporting cast, we looked at Kevin Garnett, we looked at lost draft picks, we looked at questionable free agent signings, but maybe we should have looked at the man at the front of the bench.

One postseason doesn&8217;t make a coach instantly great or automatically horrible. Flip may yet figure it out, but for a guy that was seemingly handed a team with all the answers he can seem rather clueless.