JUNE 2: In a lengthy press release, the Pistons announced that Williams is officially the team’s new head coach. The Pistons also described how the agreement came to pass.
“I couldn’t be more proud to have Monty joining us at this important time to lead us into the next decade of our future,” said Gores. “He embodies all of the qualities we want in a leader for our Pistons franchise, and most importantly a teacher and mentor for our players. He will have an impact on every aspect of our franchise, on and off the court.
“After spending some time with Monty, it’s clear that he’s found a unique balance between achieving victory at the highest level while at the same time nurturing a culture of growth, development and inspiration. I’m beyond excited. This is a huge win for us.”
MAY 31: Monty Williams has reached an agreement to become the next head coach of the Pistons, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The former Suns coach will receive a six-year contract and the deal is expected to be finalized within a few days, sources tell Charania.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports Williams’ salary as $78.5MM, which makes it the largest coaching contract in league history (Twitter link).
The agreement also includes two additional team option years and could reach $100MM with incentives, according to Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo. Owner Tom Gores was heavily involved in the recruitment of Williams, Goodwill adds, as was general manager Troy Weaver, who worked with Williams in Oklahoma City.
Williams rejected Detroit’s initial interest and had planned to take a year off before coaching again. However, Gores remained in contact with Williams and was able to get him to reconsider, Goodwill writes. The team prepared an offer and negotiations began over the weekend, sources tell Goodwill, adding that Gores and Williams held their first meeting Sunday night in Los Angeles.
The Pistons began an interview process shortly after Dwane Casey resigned to take a management role after the regular season ended. Former Overtime Elite head coach Kevin Ollie, Bucks assistant Charles Lee, and Pelicans assistant Jarron Collins were reported as the three finalists for the position way back on April 21, but the Pistons waited to see if a more experienced coach would become available.
With a young roster highlighted by former overall No. 1 pick Cade Cunningham, the Pistons are hoping that Williams can transform them the same way he turned around Phoenix after arriving in 2019. Williams took the Suns to the NBA Finals in 2021 and compiled a 194-115 record in four seasons, but new owner Mat Ishbia opted to make a coaching change after a second straight disappointing playoff exit.
OK Monty ….. time to make your mark.
Plenty of talent on this team. Go get it
What do you mean by plenty of talent? Top 4 seed? Top 6? Next year? I doubt they make the play in.
That team is loaded with talent. And will be adding yet another to pick. Play in is reasonable if they don’t have any major injuries.
Yeah that must be it …… find another sport
The Stones need some luck.
It’s on!!
Terrible deal but it’s the nba
Hating will get you no where. . . . Focus on Nurse getting Embiid over the hump.
Great deal for Monty, especially when he’s fired in a few years because the team still sucks and he goes and gets a better gig.
Since you kno the future, which stocks are going up over the next 3 months?
Because I’m sure you’ve never had an opinion which involved making a future prediction in your life. /s
Yeah, jeez, apparently I can’t have opinions.
@Simonmike I guess kno is slightly better than using no…
That is a lot of greenbacks, but this might be the best spot for Williams
First thing he should do is sending Bagley and Hayes to China. Give more playing time to Duren and Wiseman. Draft Jarace Walker and sign Cam Johnson.
You might be back, but you still don’t understand how the league works. Bravo.
Jarace Walker has a guarantee from the Pistons at #5. This is why he is no longer doing workouts.
Good news!
He’s going to be a great coach for Wiseman
Sarcasm
Williams is a lot like Mark Jackson for me…
Too religious to coach everyone and highly overrated as a result…
Monty has to be happy with his payday though… Getting paid by the Suns and thr Pistons to do nothing in a few years…
I don’t think he gets the Suns money if he gets another job. That’s why the huge payday. He was due to make 10 million in each of the next two years sitting on his couch. It took a contract like this for him to say yes.
Williams does indeed get paid by both teams. Coaches contracts aren’t subject to the CBA. He’ll still get $10 million for the next two seasons from the Suns in addition to the $12 million a year from the Pistons.
Seriously Tacocat? Wow I did not know that. That sounds pretty unusual to me and I thought that’s why guys sit at home and get paid. Good info, thanks!!
Absolutely incorrect. This new contract, because of the dollar figure, Phoenix will owe him zero dollars. If the first year of his Detroit contract called for him to make (for example) $6mil, Phoenix would still be on the hook to him for $4 mil – since he was owed $10mil by them. With the new employment, Phoenix would just have to cover the difference – IF there was one.
That’s why teams that fired their coach absolutely WANT the coach to get a new hc job immediately, rather than sit at home collecting money from the former team.
Phoenix is not on the hook for $21 mil to Williams anymore.
That’s how it works for players based on e collective bargaining agreement. Coaches are not in that system. He’s getting paid by both teams.
Whatever amount Williams was to earn next season (I mentioned $10mil previously as an example), if his per season amount is higher next season with Detroit, then Phoenix doesn’t owe him any more money for that year – and likely, any following year.
If Williams was due $7mil next season, his $10mil contract cancels that out. He’s not making $17mil next season between Detroit and Phoenix.
Nowwwwww…. If Williams and Detroit shrewdly backloaded the contract to where Phoenix is “covering” the majority of the first few years… I don’t think that’s even technically allowable. Like, Detroit can’t say the first year of the contract is for $2mil – and then Phoenix lawfully still has to offset the rest ($5mil) per their contract.
Bottom line, with this new deal – highest in league history – Phoenix is now off the hook for any money previously owed to Williams when let go.
@Jump Shot
According to Colin Ward-Henninger @ CBSSports you are just plain confused. It’s OK, there’s alot of that going around these days.
“Williams now becomes one of the league’s highest-paid coaches, and he is still owed over $20 million over the next three years from the Phoenix Suns, who parted ways with Williams after four seasons earlier this month.”
link to cbssports.com.
So even the news reporters have this messed up. I believe that it’s always been the case where if you take another job you’re not collecting the old salary. You can sit at home and collect that guaranteed money but not both.
That seems to be what’s coming out now. But yes I’ve read both scenarios online from many different sources. Hilarious how this is playing out. Yes he is, no he isn’t.
Be sure to highlight that under: “Just Because You Read It In Print Doesn’t Mean It’s True… Clearly”.
Colin was obviously confused! Haha
Phoenix is off the hook and doesn’t owe Williams not even $1.
But, hey Viking, I’m sure you typed that with a ton of confidence that you were correct.
Thing is, you read it….
I lived it.
Ooops…. I’m not supposed to say that! *sorry
Incredible that people would think Williams would get paid by both teams. Now, there’s several situations where it’s happened (Mike Brown with the Cavs/GSW, for example), but the money situation has to be waaaaaay different than Williams’ situation.
No need to preach… I’m sure you all are up to real time on it by now.
And too much Doc in the sense of an unimaginative offense and underperformance in the playoffs.
But I guess he’ll develop the young players. After that, it may get ugly.
Headline makes it sound like he took some serious convincing. Contract confirms…
Yup, absolutely had to be convinced. 20 million to sit at home for 2 years or you better pay up big time if you want me.
That’s shrewd agent-work…
And they got what they wanted!
Also… a quote today from brightsideofthesun.com
“Back in Phoenix, there’s no dead money owed to the coach anymore. Williams’ Pistons deal more than offsets his Suns deal, so Ishbia has a clean slate with which to work.” (towards a new head coach)
It’s laughable how people would think Williams was about to get his full money from both teams.
Wtfudge..
Wow Monty getting a FAT STACK
Watching Pistons fans celebrate as if they suddenly became a contender, I can’t help but pity the poor things. Between Weaver and Monty, they’ve got a lot invested in overratedness.
But when you’re coming off a 17-win season with a coach who should at least do a decent job of developing young talent, I guess the only direction you can go is up…for now, anyway. The problem is you’ll also be paying him when you expect to compete, at which point his faults will become crystal clear once more.
Yeah it’s a bit crazy…
They might have a worse season under Monty even with another high pick added and a trade or 2 made…
The only thing that could make them a playoff team is if there’s a team looking to tear down and rebuild and the Pistons have the right pieces to trade for the stars…
Monty might be the right guy in DET, to the extent anyone can be. The contract had to be long (in years) to be any good (in total $$), and it is.
In DET’s shoes, though, I’d have been more hesitant about bribing a guy out of taking a year off. He might be doing that because he needs it to re-charge. This team needs a HC that brings energy from the start, while they’re still listening to him.
Great deal for Monty. But the Pistons just reset the market for HC pay and I can’t see a path where they contend for a championshipnin the next 3 years
What are you talking about? Playoff teams are not going to overpay any coach.
Only in the sports industry fired someone get fired by one team inferring some level of ineffectiveness and then immediately signs the highest coaching contract in nba history. Go Monty!
Long as nobody hire doc rivers and think he gonna do something he not a good coach I still don’t know what’s his specialty it’s not defense nor offense but doc need to call it quits unless he go to a rebuilding team …mike bud not a good coach either
?
Truth he was going to wait till next year or when someone else was fired during the season. Then Pistons offered crazy money. Don’t blame him for getting as much cash as possible.
They won’t even make the play-in.
The way coaches have been getting fired recently, I didn’t think coaches had this kind of value anymore. Though I like the match, it seems unnecessarily long in term.
Good luck, Monty. You’ll need it.
No offence to Monty, but the guy is not Pop or Phil Jackson. $13M a year is lunacy to spend on a good, not great coach. This is the Rudy Gobert deal for coaches.
Agreed. Not like he is some kind of a super coach or something. A good coach is needed because its very hard to win with an incompetent coach and they got a good coach but there are tons of those out there. Pistons have severely overpaid for Williams, but seriously what does it matter? Billionaire NBA owners throw their money around like play money anymore.
If the Pistons are willing to enter the luxury tax when the time comes that’s one thing. If not, having him on the books will not help. Won’t kill them, but it won’t help.
But more than anything else, it reeks of a front office a) which didn’t do a real search and just went with the well-known guy possessing the certain narrative, or b) which isn’t confident in its ability to pick a head coach. Neither should inspire a ton of confidence, especially with a front office that has as many misses as it has hits recently.
Monty Williams was doing quite well with the Suns before they traded for Durant- which, in my opinion, wrecked their team. He had them contending and, when I watched them, very competitive. Durant came mid season and really threw all that out the window. It was a stupid trade and the Suns will be worse than the Pistons in a couple years so Monty will likely come out a winner.
Everybody saying this is a bad deal just wait lol.. Monty will lead the Detroit Pistons back to contention as early as next year.. Detroit been on a tanking frenzy last few years trying to collect young cheap assets.. they are a team with alot of fire power and young core that can make big splash in free agency or the trade market.. Let’s say they trade for bridges and sign cam Johnson 2 of Monty’s guys.. with cade coming back.. ivy, cade Cunningham, Mikel Bridges, bojan , wiseman/Duran . You telling me that team won’t compete ? Maybe they don’t get bridges.. let’s say they sign kuzma and grant.. or maybe they sign Middleton and kuzma.. ivy, Cunningham, Middleton, kuzma, wiseman.. bojan being 6th man.. anyway you slice it Pistons will have #5 this year and another player or 2 from free agency or trade market.. DETROIT BASKETBALL… They hired Monty cause ppl want to play for Monty.. can’t attract players without an established hc
As you can see from my handle I am Christian if you meet Monty he is the Tony Dungy of basketball. Ayton is a spoiled hateful young boy. He will lead this team and they will be better for it. Like Steph and Mark Jackson. Jackson lead Curry to faith that gave him inner strength to be the great he is.
This isn’t church. This is sports. Thank you.
Don’t get why they paid him. I’m sure he would have signed for less. Not my money. I just hope he helps Pistons bigs get better. Cause he didn’t do it for Ayton.
Pistons can only go up now. So it’s set up for Monty to succeed.
“How the agreement came to pass” Pretty sure it was the boatload of cash they offered him :-)