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Ryan Saunders set to be Grizzlies lead assistant
Michael Scotto: Memphis Grizzlies head coach Tuomas Iisalo will add Ryan Saunders as lead assistant coach, league sources told @hoopshype . Saunders was recently an assistant coach for the Denver Nuggets. Before that, Saunders was the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves. First @DrewHill_DM .
Chris Haynes: Sources: Denver Nuggets are not renewing contracts of assistant coaches Ryan Saunders, Popeye Jones, Charles Klask, and Stephen Graham. They played integral role in securing 2023 NBA championship. Contracts expire at end of month.
Chad Hartman: Yesterday on what would have been Flip’s 70th birthday, Ryan and Hayley Saunders welcome their daughter Grace Leigh, somewhere Grandpa is immensely happy to share his birthday with his Granddaughter!! Love this!
To replace Connelly at the top of the front office, the Nuggets elevated Calvin Booth, who was hired in 2017 from … Minnesota. Malone also has two former Timberwolves coaches, Ryan Saunders and David Adelman, on his staff. All of that familiarity, including the four games per season they play against each other in the regular season as Northwest Division foes, should make for one of the purest second-round matchups in the playoffs. The two sides know each other too well for any tricks or gimmicks to work when the series opens in Denver on Saturday. Connelly drafted or traded for many of the players who took the Nuggets to the title. He hired Malone and Booth. Nori used to carpool with Malone to and from the Denver airport and remains tight with Nuggets star Nikola Jokić.
Chris Finch signed a multi-year extension in April 2022, with league sources telling The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski that the coach has two seasons remaining on the deal and a third (2026-27) that is a team option. He was originally hired to replace Ryan Saunders in February 2021.
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Three years ago Wednesday, the Timberwolves replaced head coach Ryan Saunders with Chris Finch after a road loss on a Sunday night to the Knicks. In the early hours of Monday morning, when the chaos of what had just happened had quelled, Finch said he texted Karl-Anthony Towns, the franchise tentpole with whom he would have to form a good relationship if his first stint as NBA head coach would be a successful one. Finch sent the text with a tinge of uncertainty. He knew Towns and Saunders were close. Finch wasn't sure how Towns might welcome him, or if Towns might hold it against Finch for replacing someone with whom he had such a strong bond.
Towns could have ignored the text, maybe said he was asleep since it was so late. But he didn't. "I said how excited I was to come work with him," Finch said. "Then he called me right away." Their relationship began with that call, and Finch was grateful for it then, and he remains that way nearly three years later.
Fast forward to Saturday, when Finch is recalling that time while serving as the head coach of the Western Conference All-Stars in a hallway of Gainbridge Fieldhouse. As he spoke with his back against a wall in a crowded hallway near the court, some of his temporary charges like Stephen Curry, Paul George and Anthony Davis, whom he coached as an assistant in New Orleans, come walking past. "That was not lost on me at the moment, and it's never been lost on me," Finch said of Towns' initial overtures. "It's been everything for the relationship. It points to really what a great person he is in terms of — he's referred to himself as a servant leader. That's what servant leadership is about. It's what can you do to make those people around you, their experiences, better or easier? He paved the way for me in that regard."
After coaching the Nuggets’ to the first NBA championship in franchise history, Michael Malone’s entire coaching staff is expected to return for the 2023-24 season, a source told DNVR. That group includes Malone’s front-row assistants — David Adelman, Ryan Saunders, and Popeye Jones — as well as Charles Klask, Ogi Stojakovic, and more of Malone’s support staff.
Ryan Blackburn: Michael Malone tells us about Michael Porter’s mental growth, confidence, and how much pride he takes in his defense. “End of games, he doesn’t want to be taken out…every time he comes out, he gives Ryan Saunders a death glare.”
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For Saunders, it’s been a big change from an organization that was rebuilding and trying to find its footing to one that has a real identity around Jokić and feels like it is ready to take the next step. “You go into work and focus on improvement,” Saunders said. “Coach Malone sets a great tone with that. They’ve had a lot of success over the years, and the continuity, you can tell, it really helps this group. It’s been fun to be a part of a different type of environment on a daily basis.”
Twenty-two months removed from one of the most unusual firings in recent memory, Saunders returns with a team that fancies itself a Western Conference contender and not a hint of bitterness in his voice for the way things ended with the Wolves. “Just looking forward to seeing familiar faces,” Saunders told The Athletic. “Looking forward to seeing fans that I remember seeing in the crowd, especially before COVID hit. That’s something that you kind of forget about too. In professional sports, jobs come and go, and all of a sudden you might be in a different situation than you were the day prior. The people you saw every day, the ushers, the security guards, the parking attendants, people who are just coming by your office to say hello from Mayo Clinic Square, you don’t see them anymore. I’m really looking forward to seeing that.”
Michael Singer: #Nuggets Nikola Jokic (health and safety), Jamal Murray (health and safety) and Aaron Gordon (illness) weren’t in Dallas for this morning’s shootaround. That’s not to say they couldn’t be here by Sunday for Game 2. Asst. Ryan Saunders (health and safety) is back with the team.
Harrison Wind: Nikola Jokic joins Bones Hyland and assistant coach Ryan Saunders in health and safety protocols. Saunders didn’t travel with the team from Boston to Chicago to end Denver’s recent road trip. Jokic will likely miss at least the Nuggets’ next two games: vs. Knicks, at Mavs.
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