MAY 14: The Suns made it official, announcing in a press release that they’ve parted ways with Williams. Jones issued a statement accepting responsibility for the decision, despite reporting indicating that it was Ishbia’s call (as detailed below).
“Monty has been foundational to our success over the past four seasons,” Jones said in a statement. “We are filled with gratitude for everything Monty has contributed to the Suns and to the Valley community. While it was difficult for me to make this decision, I look forward to continuing the work to build a championship team.”
Williams could become a “prominent candidate” in the Raptors‘ coaching search, Wojnarowski writes in a full story.
MAY 13: The Suns have decided to make a coaching change after their second-round loss to Denver, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The team has dismissed Monty Williams, who had served as head coach since 2019.
New owner Mat Ishbia made the decision to fire Williams, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). As first reported by John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 and confirmed by Wojnarowski, Williams still had three years and more than $20MM left on his contract.
Williams compiled a 194-115 record in his four years in Phoenix and took the team to the 2021 NBA Finals. He also earned Coach of the Year honors in 2022.
However, Ishbia opted to go in a different direction after the team was eliminated from the playoffs in embarrassing fashion in back-to-back second rounds. The Suns lost their last game of the season at home by 25 points this spring and by 33 points last year.
With Kevin Durant and Devin Booker under long-term contracts, Charania believes the Suns’ vacancy instantly becomes the most attractive in the league (Twitter link). Ishbia and general manager James Jones are focused on building a championship roster this summer, and they want to find the right leader to guide it.
The Suns will explore whether it’s possible to land current Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue, tweets Marc Stein. Lue stated that he wants to return as the team’s head coach after L.A. was knocked out of the playoffs last month, and the organization hasn’t indicated that it’s considering a change. Lue signed a five-year deal when he joined the Clippers in 2020, so he’s under contract for two more years.
One potential candidate to replace Williams is Mike Budenholzer, who was dismissed by the Bucks earlier this month after his team’s first-round loss, tweets Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports. A report on Friday from Jake Fischer indicated that Milwaukee was closely monitoring Williams’ status in Phoenix, so it’s possible that the two NBA Finals coaches from 2021 will end up exchanging teams.
Toronto and Detroit are the other franchises currently in the market for a head coach, and Williams may emerge as a candidate for those jobs as well. The Pistons reportedly scheduled interviews with their three finalists this week, but James L. Edwards of The Athletic suggests that the team may reach out to Williams before making a decision (Twitter link).
Called it. Nostradunker back on top!
This was Ishbia’s easy move. Let’s see how he addresses some of their other issues…
Chris Paul is gone next.
He’ll be named coach !!
While Paul knows the game better than most I feel he’d be too much of a perfectionist to be a good head coach.
Ishbia is an idiot for trading for old man Durant. The suns are dead put a fork in them. The Nets made a great trade getting Bridges and Johnson. Ishbia may be a good owner but I think he will find out how fats it is to win in the NBA.
You’re certainly entitled to your opinion but he acquired of the greatest players in the game without losing Booker. I suggest that losing Bridges and Cam mid-season hurt them certainly but a good off-season can regain that depth and hopefully provide Grant time to Mrs with the rest of the team.
I think moving away from Monty was a mistake tho. One of the reasons why Durant went to Phoenix was because of Monty. Durant is seeking consistency and the next coach is going to be his 4th coach in 4 years. Monty was a well like coach by players. That might be an issue. Health and depth were more of an issue
If Durant wanted consistency he should probably stop changing teams….
Zeke Thomas is behind the door?
Zeke is friend of Suns owner
Yea that makes sense. Shouldn’t be unemployed long. Could be the Sixers next HC.
Suns will build around KD and Booker, it’s really not that difficult.
I see two scenarios happening either a team takes CP3 as an upgrade to their current PG situation or he gets bought out joins the Lakers.
Ayton will garner a decent return.
Suns will be fine.
CP3 isn’t an upgrade at this point and if he is, your team has a terrible PG situation.
Only place CP3 should be heading is to retirement.
He could be a fine backup on a low contract for atleast 2 more seasons
‘Your team has a terrible point guard situation’ defines the Chicago Bulls. And he and coach for life Donovan are good buddies. Expect another mortgage the future move by AKME.
Shouldn’t be unemployed long? Who is rushing to hire him? He got fired for a reason.
Yes he was working with a bare bones lineup, but 2 years in a row now with unacceptable, embarrassing losses. Unless CP3 from cp3 years ago is also joining, what is Monty bringing to the table exactly? Suns haven’t impressed anyone in 2 years now. And he couldn’t get anything out of Ayton either!
Monty seemed like a good coach that has made the most of a badly constructed team a few years in a row. And he had Booker looking like Kobe.
I think this is more about a new owner wanting his own coach and that’s really it.
This was about James Jones saving his job.
He gutted the team for Ol Durant Bastard
and they fell flat. Shocking !
New owner fires Monty Williams … who was Coach of the Year last year but suddenly he can’t coach? Say what?
Alton is soft mentally and in his game.Old players get injured. The owner is a meddling fool. Fire the coach, that’s new.
Sure hope they build around Durant quickly since he will be 35 next year! Completely terrible knee jerk reaction by Ishbia.
Milwaukee
I guess Ayton won this debate ……
Always easier to fire a coach than to trade players. He’s a good coach. I wonder what the real reason was. You can’t win in playoffs. When you are missing two starters.
If the Suns are smart they trade him still. It doesn’t need to be one or the other.
Honestly I don’t think they should trade him. Just messing around. But I do wonder what really happened. And would be interested in Ayton if they do make him available.
Only Mike they should consider is D’Antoni. Come back and finish the job Mike.
No thank you. The Suns actually played good defense in ‘20-‘21 and made the Finals. D’Antoni is a brilliant offensive coach but his teams don’t play adequate defense. Even the Warriors had to play decent defense during their title runs. When they didn’t, they lost (see: 2016 Finals).
Am I the only one who was blindsided by this?
Nope. The leash for head coaches is shorter than ever in the NBA. There are only three guys whose jobs are safe: Pop, Kerr, Spo
Pop should have been canned a few years ago, but the Spurs wanted to make sure he became the all-time win leader while still with the team.
Add Donovan to that list, with his ‘secret extension’ of a mystery length, never announced to the public. Perhaps blackmail was involved in that one.
Yes, you are. If Budenholzer can be fired, Monty could too.
Not exactly. Not in these times.
Bit blind-sided indeed but I did know there was a big gross over-grown tree (Phx) in the direction the car came from so I’m not all that surprised by the smash job
Ishbia obviously cares, and that’s good. Kind of. Dolan used to care, and it wasn’t good for the Knicks. Now he cares a lot less, and it’s better for the Knicks. Way too early to declare Ishbia a young Dolan, but the early returns aren’t good.
Before even picking out his office, he pushed the FO to make an asset depleting deal for KD. When it doesn’t work out (at least for this season), his response is talk of changes and then fire the HC. In truth, real changes will be hard precisely because of the KD deal, so maybe this was the one thing he could do immediately. Still doesn’t mean its a good move, or, worse, whether that was even a factor in making it.
Let’s give it a full season before we pass judgement on the new owner. Here are the facts: The previous regime turned the franchise around and it resulted in a Finals appearance. Unfortunately, they fell short against the Bucks. They ran it back the next season, winning 64 games, but flamed out in spectacular fashion in Game 7 at home against a team with one great player and several “meh” role players. That was a bad look. They followed it up with a barely-above .500 effort this season with essentially the same roster. I applaud Mr. Ishbia for having the courage to trade for KD. He saw the same thing that discerning Suns’ fans see: a team that was fundamentally flawed and needed a shakeup. Here’s hoping he hires the right coach to (finally) bring the O’Brien trophy to Phoenix. They should attract a few good free agents who will offer a discount to play for a ring with KD & Book. PS Monty will make the Suns’ Ring of Honor for his good work over the past 4 years and will land on his feet somewhere.
That’s a solid, fair take on things. I’m not sure they’ll have the flexibility or trade assets to upgrade from here. But maybe there’s a plan.
Ishbia buys the team, straight away trades for KD, gets involved in something with Jokic and now sacks a really good head coach.
You still have a nearly 40 year old point guard, and a centre has underperformed in the playoffs and has shown signs of displeasure for a year on a max deal.
The typical overly involved owner
Expect a big offseason for the suns…..
Makes sense. Williams basically put Ayton in the doghouse because their personalities don’t match. Be curious what another coach can do with Ayton. Also couldn’t figure out what to do with his bench i feel like they had solid bench pieces in Shamet, Warren and and Landale.
“Solid bench pieces”, okay there guy.
Williams put Ayton in the doghouse because that’s where dogs belong. With players like him, it’s ALWAYS “let’s see what a new coach can do with him”. Spoiler alert – the answer is nothing because there’s lots of talent there but no heart, no drive, no willingness to put in the work that’s needed to be great.
About time, no surprise there. The way he handled Ayton the last 3 years was no way to carry on.
Bad move. Williams will be off the market fast. Milwaukee is my guess. Toronto could be another and thinking the Knicks may be another if they move in from Thibs.
Hard to say if it’s a good or bad move until we see who is brought in to replace him, just like with the other prominent names let go. All are mid-tier, or perhaps a bit above mid-tier, head coaches so it won’t be easy to replace them, but it’s not impossible either.
Personally, I think it was the right time to move on from Monty, but now the real work begins.
Wouldn’t be surprised if bud & Monty switch roles.
Huge huge mistake
Some team just got realllll lucky tonight
What a free agent market this year for coaches!
He’s one of those stuck in his ways coaches…
As was shown with Ayton, coaches need more than 1 gear…
Veteran coaches want Doc to win today… they don’t like when young, “unproven” coaches come in and win. Upcoming assistants are rooting for Mazzulla today. This game could actually have a bearing on current coaching searches.
Regardless who wins this one game the perception of Doc is in stone and the perception of Mazzulla that he was too young/inexperienced for that job will not change.
Hey wash wizards… take adv grabbing some of these nice fired coaches….
Chris Paul, who is 37 got hurt. DeAndre Ayton got hurt. They traded away all of their complimentary pieces …. And you fire Monty Williams????
Got to do better than this.
Suns only have a 2nd rd pick this yr (52nd). They do have both their picks in 2024 draft. So…… they could trade their pick in 2024 for one in 2023. Or they can buy a late 1st rd pick. You can find a 3-4 yr college player that can come in and help. But it seems FA will be the way to find rotation help and depth. Imo this is their biggest issue, along with a new coach.
Durant is starting to leave a trail of coaches in his wake.