People continue to say that about a guy like Flip, but you're talking about a guy who has been to four ECF/WCFs, won 60% of his games, and won 50 games 7 times, and 60 once. He may not in fact be the guy to get you over the top and win a championship, but last time I checked we weren't within megaphone shouting distance of that. And he's done everything else.
This is the thing. You look at Flip's record, and it's great and fine and you think of him as an accomplished coach who's just never gotten over the hump. Could share a table with Rick Adelman, JVG, Larry Brown (circa 2003), even Mike D'Antoni would be at that table. And honestly, Flip Saunders is head and shoulders above both Eric Musselman and Reggie Theus; you could stand Muss on Reggie's shoulders, and Flip is still looking down on them. In other words, you could do a lot worse, and we have the past two-plus years.
My problem with Flip Saunders is that, well, frankly, I can't stand him. I've followed the Pistons pretty closely, having family in Detroit. I've seen Saunders lose games for the Pistons with bad decisions. I've heard the grumblings from players (admittedly, a lot of the players the Pistons have had over the past few years have been "malcontents) about his decisions and rotations, his coaching style. And he does not seem to me like the type of guy who would take a young, raw, troubled team and turn them into a hard-charging, disciplined team with a future. Especially a team with no star player; the Wolves had phenom Kevin Garnett. Flip seems more like the guy who would lose his team somewhere toward the end of his second season, right as we're in the middle of the rebuild, trying to turn things around.
On top of that, there are some coaches that you look at and say "that guy won't ever win a championship". JVG is one of them, and I think Flip is also. I think of D'Antoni the same way. Others have Rick Adelman in that category. And this is all just intangible and extremely immaterial, and I'm not surprised that others don't feel the same way.
But Flip Saunders is, shall I say, not one of my favorites for next head coach of the Sacramento Kings.