The Minnesota Timberwolves announced Tuesday that coach and president of basketball operations Flip Saunders has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. The team release said that Saunders has been undergoing chemotherapy after being diagnosed eight weeks ago. He is expected to continue his duties with the team.

"I am taking it step by step and day by day to understand how to best manage this process," said Saunders, who has attended to all of his team duties throughout the period of diagnosis and treatment and has been told by doctors that his condition is a "very treatable form of cancer."

"I want to thank Dr. Burns as well as my medical team at Mayo Clinic for their hard work in diagnosing my situation and creating a plan to help me achieve a cancer-free outcome. I am attacking this with the same passion I do everything in my life, knowing this is a serious issue. I also know that God has prepared me to fight this battle."

As noted by a CBSSports.com report, Saunders joined the Wolves organization in May 1995 as the general manager before moving on as coach of the team in December of that year. He steered the expansion franchise to eight straight playoff appearances from 1997 to 2004. He was relieved of his coaching duties in February of 2005 after a 25-26 start to the season.

He moved on to coaching stints in Detroit and Washington and returned to the Wolves in May 2013, taking over the front office post he currently holds. In June of the following year, he took over coaching duties as well.

While the Wolves have been one of the worst teams during Saunders' tenure as president, he has managed to accumulate a slew of young talent. The current roster features the likes of Andrew Wiggins, and 2015 No. 1 pick Karl-Anthony Towns, along with Ricky Rubio, Zach LaVine, Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng.