Monty Williams is now the head coach of the Detroit Pistons after coaching the Phoenix Suns for the past four seasons.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Williams was able to lead the Suns out of their 10-year playoff drought and into championship contention during his time as the head coach.
He finished his tenure with the Suns with a regular season record of 194-115. The Suns made a finals appearance and two other playoff appearances during Williams’ tenure.
The Suns were blown out in the elimination games of their last two playoff appearances which may have led to the dismissal of Monty Williams as head coach.
Phoenix moved on by hiring Frank Vogel and Williams was without a job but not for long. The Detroit Pistons didn’t waste any time in snatching up Williams.
Williams signed the largest deal for a coach in NBA history, six years, 78.5 million dollars. This shows that the Pistons believe in Williams’ ability to build a franchise into a winner.
He did it in Phoenix and in New Orleans with the Hornets/Pelicans at his first head coaching stop. Even with the reputation of a coach who turns losing teams into winning ones, Williams may have bitten off more than he can chew.
The Detroit Pistons are currently 2-20 and losers of 19 straight games. Monty Williams definitely knew he was going into a tough situation but losing 19 straight games couldn’t have been on his bingo card.
Did Williams have choices and decided to go there or was this the only offer on the table?
A coach with the experience of Williams should of had a plethora of options. The Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers are consider championship contenders and had a vacancy in the head coaching position.
The Bucks went with a rookie head coach in Adrian Griffin. The 76ers hired former Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. Only those teams know exactly why they hired who they hired but why wasn’t Monty Williams considered for a championship team. Why does he have to start from the bottom again?
How Do The Pistons Turn The Tide?
Monty Williams had a young franchise player to build around with the Suns. Devin Booker turned into a superstar which attracted Chris Paul to Phoenix. The Pistons’ best player is Cade Cunningham.
Is Cunningham good enough to attract free agents to Detroit? No disrespect to Detroit but it’s not a destination that has attracted star free agents in the past. So, Cunningham has to be that magnet for the Pistons to get star players.
The third year player is averaging 22 points and 7.3 assists per game. He is shooting 42% from the floor and 34% from three point range. No other player who has played a significant amount of minutes is scoring more than 12.6 points per game.
If the Pistons want to get better sooner rather than later. There needs to be a combination of talent development and addition of talent from free agency. Detroit will have to overpay for top guys. Who will be available to be “overpaid”?
The top free agents that the Pistons may have a chance of signing after this season are Raptors forward Pascal Siakam and/or Indiana Pacers guard Buddy Hield. Hopefully they are able to develop the young guys like Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, and Jaden Duran, among others and add a couple of veteran pieces.
This will go a long way in the rebuilding process of this team. If any coach can lead this team out of this dark place its Monty Williams.
