The Phoenix Suns fired Monty Williams on Saturday, two years after he reached the NBA Finals and a year after he was named Coach of the Year.
Williams has had great success in his four regular seasons in Phoenix, winning 63% of his games. But three consecutive years of playoff frustration was likely too much for the Suns to overlook — especially after two straight years when Phoenix trailed by 30 points at halftime of playoff games at home.
ESPN and The Athletic first reported the decision.
“Monty has been foundational to our success over the past four seasons,” said James Jones, Suns President of Basketball Operations and General Manager. “We are grateful for all that Monty has contributed to the Suns community and the Valley community.”
Jones also said he had made the decision to fire Williams.
The Suns had a 2-0 lead going into the 2021 NBA Finals, only to lose in six games. They lost in the second round in each of the past two seasons, both times in an embarrassing home finale – last year to Dallas, this year to Denver.
“Neither day do I feel good,” Williams said after losing earlier this week to Denver, when asked to compare last season’s debacle to this year’s season-ending loss.
Saturday probably wasn’t very good either.
The Suns are now another high-profile coaching opening, after Toronto fired Nick Nurse and Milwaukee fired Mike Budenholzer. Nurse won the 2019 NBA title with the Raptors, while Budenholzer was the coach who beat Phoenix to a 2-0 lead in the 2021 Finals.
It’s the second major move The Suns have made in the three months or so since new owner Mat Ishbia closed the sale that gave him control of the club. In February, Ishbuya greenlighted a huge trade that brought Kevin Durant to Phoenix and gave the Suns the essence — he, former number one Devin Booker, DeAndre Ayton and Chris Paul — that the team hoped would be enough to deliver the title. .
It didn’t work out, at least, not this year. Paul was injured in the playoffs to continue his streak of bad luck on the health front in the postseason, Ayton sat out the final and Booker and Durant simply looked gassed by the time it was over.
Williams, after the season ended, blamed himself.
“I take it personally, because I don’t get our team ready to play in the biggest game of the year,” said Williams. “This is something I’m proud of that hasn’t happened. … This is something I have to take a hard look at, everything I do.”
Williams was the fifth longest-tenured head coach with his current team going into Saturdays — just four years. Gregg Popovich has been the head coach of San Antonio since 1996, Eric Spoelstra at Miami since 2008, Steve Kerr at Golden State since 2014 and Michael Malone at Denver since 2015.
Phoenix becomes the fourth team to currently have an Opening Game, along with the Raptors, Bucks and Detroit Pistons.
Of the last nine coaches who have led a team to the NBA Finals, only Kerr and Spoelstra still have the distinction of winning the series titles.
The others — Boston’s Amy Odoka, Los Angeles Lakers’ Frank Vogel, Cleveland’s David Platt and Tyrone Law, along with Budenholzer, Nurse and Alan Williams — were all kicked out by the team they brought to the Finals.
“When you look at really good coaches who lose their jobs shortly after winning a championship, it’s a completely different thing in our business,” Williams said Friday, adding, “It’s just part of the NBA economy.”
The Suns started 16-7 this season, and looked like a contender again. They were only 29-30 the rest of the way.
They used 26 starting lineups, and had Durant in just eight regular season games after the trade. They had to wait about a month after he picked up a knee injury in January to heal, then as he prepared for what was supposed to be his home opener with The Sun on March 8, he slid onto the field during warm-ups, and was injured. He injured his ankle and missed another three weeks.
The Suns were 12-1 in Durant’s first 13 games, five of them in the playoffs. And then they went 2-4 against the Nuggets, all four losses by double digits.
Williams fell.
Williams finished second in Official NBA Coach of the Year voting in 2021, behind Tom Thibodeau of New York. He was the Coach of the Year that season as selected by his National Basketball Coaches Association peers.
A year later, Williams was the winner in the NBA – and NBCA again.
Now, he’s out, and the sun will start over again.
This was Williams’ ninth season as head coach, after five seasons with New Orleans from 2010 through 2015. He was 194-115 with the Suns—the best 168-76 in the NBA since the start of the restart bubble near Orlando to finish the 2020 season.
Phoenix became one feel-good bubble story, going 8-0 to narrowly miss what could have been their most unlikely appearance. Williams was elected as the bullpen’s coach—it was the NBA’s official “coach of seeding games” award—and was a four-time Coach of the Month during his tenure with the Suns as well.
This started the march of success. Paul was traded to the Suns in November 2020. The franchise’s first Finals trip since 1993 is how the season ended, and the 64-18 mark last season was the best in Suns history.
In his nine seasons in total, he was 367-336 in the regular season, as well as 29-27 in the playoffs.
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