Minneapolis/St. Paul – The Minnesota Timberwolves have announced Sam Mitchell has been relieved of his interim head coaching duties, effective immediately, and the team will initiate a search for both a new head coach and a new head of basketball operations. Due to the sudden onset of Flip Saunders’ illness leading to his untimely death, the team was unable to conduct a search for these two critical positions in the timetable leading up to the start of the 2015-16 season. In these unusual circumstances, Sam Mitchell was named to interim head coach and Milt Newton was asked to act as the head of basketball operations, filling the void left by Saunders.