Wolves’ Saunders to take leave to fight cancer; Mitchell will coach

Timberwolves associate head coach Sam Mitchell will serve as the team’s interim head coach while Flip Saunders continues to recover from cancer treatments.

The Wolves will announce the decision at a Friday morning news conference, according to a league source with knowledge of the situation. The Wolves on Thursday sent out a statement that said they will make a “major announcement” Friday.

The length of Mitchell’s appointment as interim head coach is uncertain, but it’s expected to be at the very least through October, which includes training camp, a seven-game preseason schedule and the season opener Oct. 28 against the Lakers in Los Angeles.

Yahoo!Sports reported Mitchell will coach at least half the season.

The team last month announced Saunders was diagnosed in June with Hodgkins lymphoma and would continue both of his jobs head coach and president of basketball operations uninterrupted.

When the team announced his diagnosis last month, it said Saunders’ doctors consider his cancer to be a “very treatable and curable form,” and owner Glen Taylor said he didn’t expect any changes in the team’s coaching and basketball operations.

“I don’t think it will impact him at all,” Taylor said then. “We can work around his schedule.”

Saunders, 60, now is believed to have completed chemotherapy treatments but continues his recovery.

Mitchell was head coach for two games last season when Saunders was ill for a January game against Denver and in March when Saunders missed a game at Toronto so he could be with his ailing father in Cleveland.

Mitchell coached Toronto for four seasons in the mid-2000s and was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2007.

He was given the title of associate head coach when he was hired as one of the team assistants in June 2014 after Saunders decided he would coach the team as well as manage it.

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