Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders has one piece of advice for Denver Nuggets interim coach Mike Evans: Be true to yourself.
"If you go in trying to please everybody, you're probably not going to please anybody,'' Saunders said. "And the most important person to please is yourself.''

Evans replaces Dan Issel, who agreed Wednesday to a buyout of his contract as coach and team president. Evans has served the Nuggets as a player, assistant coach, director of player personnel and television analyst. Now he gets to coach his way.

"When I was in the CBA," Saunders said, "I took the vow that if I ever got the job, I was going to coach how I wanted to because if it didn't work out I didn't want to look in the mirror and say, "If I would have done it my way, it might have been different.' If you're going to fail, fail the way you want to try to succeed.''