After a two-day cooling period, Saunders didn't back away from his words, and even applied more pressure to his three captains -- Butler, Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison -- after Arenas said that the team had adopted a "losing mentality" in recent years.

"Gil can say that, but when you have the money that those three guys are making, you never talk about loser mentality," Saunders said about Arenas, Jamison and Butler, who will earn $16.2 million, $11.6 million and $9.8 million this season, respectively. "You're making $20 million; you're getting paid to win. Bottom line. Don't blame it on the guy that's making $300,000. This is a league where you get paid on your production and what your expectations are. It's up to them to change that mentality. They have to carry us."

Butler agreed. "When it all goes back, it's going to fall back on us," he said. "We're the captains, the leaders. . . . We got guys back healthy. We got to lead our ball club to wins.

"We've got to get it done."

"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives."
Winter is Coming

Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.