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Monty Williams, Cade Cunningham and Isaiah Livers | Photo: Detroit Pistons
In 2022, Monty Williams was named the NBA’s Coach of the Year, and had great seasons in Phoenix, beginning with an incredible 8-0 run in the Orlando ‘bubble’ of the Covid-19 season that suggested the Suns were on the right track. Although the Phoenix team did not make the playoffs, the team was still optimistic.
In the very next season, the Suns finished in second place in the Western Conference, and with Williams as the head coach, they turned the so-called “bright future Suns” among the fans into a team that is finally ready to fight for the NBA trophy. In 2021, the “Dog” with its leaders Devin Booker and Chris Paul reached the finals, where they lost 2-4 painfully but convincingly to the Milwaukee “Bucks”.
At the time, Williams was among three finalists for the Coach of the Year award, but did not receive it. The following season, the “Dogs” continued excellently – the first place in the West and the status of the favorite for the NBA title, but… they were shocked by the Dallas “Mavericks” in the second round of the playoffs. Another chance to win basketball’s most prestigious trophy was blown.
With this loss, Williams began to receive his first serious criticism. NBA an insider Kevin O’Connor regularly pointed out that Williams is clearly unable to adapt well to different situations during the game and change tactical plans like Erik Spoelstra or Tyronn Lue do, for example, which experts consider a significant disadvantage.
Williams was named the NBA’s best coach this season, but one later (2022/23), when the “Dog” lost again in the second round, it was considered a failure and he was fired.
The NBA’s highest-paid coach with a tragic background – the story of Monty Williams
Money takes its toll…
During the offseason, Williams wanted to take a break from basketball and get some rest, spend time with his family. He had earned enough money to afford it. Despite rumors of several teams interested in him, he still said no until the Pistons appeared on the horizon.
Detroit put an incredible contract on the table and was ready to make Williams the highest-paid coach in NBA history – more than such greats as Erik Spoelstra, Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr or Rick Carlisle.
78.5 million dollars in six years – these were the conditions that made Williams immediately reconsider and return to the NBA, but as it turns out in the end – “Pistons” attracted him almost by force and he can say whatever he wants, but also against his will, because his desire was to rest, not train the team. But the amount of money was too big for any person not to think quickly.
“Piston” motivation
Detroit general manager Troy Weaver and the rest of the management had a shared vision that Williams would be the right coach for the team, despite the fact that at the time he was thinking about recreation and family, not basketball. Williams planned to return later to an experienced team that could be led to the playoffs just like the Suns, but the Detroit club’s obsession with Williams and the bag of money on the table was too much. In this situation, Williams was happy to enjoy the immense trust and willingness to pay him, but what about the motivation? It was and is hardly at the level it would have been if he had cleared his head for a while and returned to the coaching profession in another team with 100% energy.
Many did not understand – why did “Pistons” offer such a big contract at all? What was the thought underneath? Such that this coach had worked well with “Suns” and made this team a contender for the title? And why exactly him and not, for example, well-known names like Doc Rivers, Kenny Atkinson, Terry Stotts or Mike Badenholzer, who were available? All of these questions lead to the conclusion that the Pistons management is probably incompetent if they want at all costs to get a coach who does not want to coach at the moment and whose history as a head coach can only be rated as “good” and not “great” “.
“[Pistons have] already started a new losing streak. I’m just not sold on the talent that’s on this team. I like [Jalen] Duran, I like Isaiah Stewart, after that, blow this whole thing up, let’s start fresh.”
-Lou Williams
(via @RunItBackFDTV)pic.twitter.com/7bZcW7f4Tu
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) January 2, 2024
Drafts high picubut no result…
The Pistons have taken Nos. 7, 1, 5 and 5 in the last four drafts, and you’d think the results should start to show. Instead of Killian Hayes in the 2020 draft, Detroit could choose Tyrese Halliburton, Tyrese Maxey or Devin Vassell. But Hayes was highly regarded at the time and not much can be blamed there as other teams also missed out on the aforementioned players.
In 2021, the first number in the draft was Cade Cunningham and it was a completely logical choice. Currently, only Scotty Barnes could be a bigger star from this draft, but back then nobody even put Barnes in the TOP3, so you can’t really blame him. Cunningham is the best player on the Pistons right now and everything is fine with this pick.
In 2022, the fifth pick was Jaden Ivey, and no one criticized Detroit for it, on the contrary – praised it, because Ivey was considered the dark horse. There was no significantly better player behind him, so for the third year in a row a very consistent player choice.
In 2023, Detroit took the talented twin, Ausar Thompson, while his brother Ayman went one pick higher to Houston. Ausar was arguably the best player for the Pistons at the start of this season, and as it turns out, that choice was also a no-brainer. The Pistons have used their draft picks well over the last four years picubut why all these players together does not work?
𝙁𝙄𝙉𝘼𝙇!! pic.twitter.com/ICfuESuVyn
— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) December 31, 2023
Trying to win, but not succeeding
Ladies and gentlemen… 28 straight losses and an NBA record. A total of 30 losses in 33 games and convincingly last in the entire league. Detroit has every chance to become the worst team in league history this season, as the Philadelphia 76ers have had two of the worst NBA seasons to date – in 1973, they finished the season with a 9-73 record, and in 2016, they deliberately lost, with a 10-72 record. The Pistons can be even worse without even trying to lose on purpose.
Williams’ decisions have also raised many questions. Since the return of Bojan Bogdanovic, the talented Thompson has been missing from radar and barely plays 10-15 minutes, and Ivy is often left on the bench. There’s also no denying that Detroit’s roster outside of recent draft talent and Bogdanovich is pretty sad, with draft busts James Wiseman and Marvin Begley, exhausted veterans Alex Burks and Joe Harris, and a stack of let’s not name it.
You can also understand a coach who doesn’t have much opportunity to rotate the squad, which is complete garbage. At the same time, where are the managers of the “Pistons” basketball operations looking, if until recently there was information that Bogdanovic, who absolutely does not fit into the team’s “time zone”, but is a high-quality basketball player who could be traded for draft capital to a better team, does not exist at all planned to replace…
Where exactly is the problem?
Sometimes in sports it happens that the players and the coach together cannot show even a mediocre performance and no one understands why. There is only one answer – the “Pistons” made a big mistake with the appointment of Monty Williams as the head coach, but all the drafted players as a whole show absolutely nothing and this means that painful deals have to be made. And it looks like that could involve not only player trades and coaching changes, but also a search for a new general manager and other managers. Club owner Tom Gores has to swallow a toad and have to start all over again.
Cunningham’s statements that the Pistons are not as weak as the table shows and that there is no team they feel like in the slaughterhouse it’s even understandable, because it’s not like they’re losing every game by minus 30. They’re even fighting as hard as they can, but at the end of the day, Detroit doesn’t even have much to think about, because it’s obvious that this lineup, including coaches and management, isn’t working and sooner or later (preferably sooner) it is necessary to start another much more ambitious rebuilding, because this one has suffered a fiasco.
“Pistons” ends the year on a positive note and finally wins
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