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The Phoenix Suns have parted ways with head coach Monty Williams, who led the team to the 2021 NBA Finals, after the team’s 25-point blowout defeat to the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 of the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.
The 51-year-old’s dismissal took place late on Saturday and comes only two days after Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Co. capitulated at home against Denver, led by two-time league MVP Nikola Jokic.
‘We are filled with gratitude for everything Monty has contributed to the Suns and to the Valley community,’ Suns general manager James Jones said in a statement announcing Williams’ firing.
Perhaps the embarrassing nature in which Williams’ team crashed out of the playoffs led to some uncomfortable questions, one of which the Suns front office might have felt pressured to answer immediately after the team’s season was all but over.
Williams’ four-year tenure in Phoenix ends with a 194-115 record (63 percent). Under the guidance of last season’s coach of the year award recipient, the Suns nearly won their first ever NBA championship in 2021 but ultimately lost to the Milwaukee Bucks, who also fired their head coach, Mike Budenholzer, this month, in six games.
Monty Williams, who led the Suns to the 2021 NBA Finals, is out of Phoenix’s head coaching job
The 51-year-old’s dismissal took place on Saturday, two days after Denver eliminated the Suns
Suns general manager James Jones released a brief statement announcing Williams’ firing
There is no clear front-runner to replace Williams, according to ESPN.
The report added that he had three years and more than $20 million left on his contract and is widely expected to become a frontrunner for other teams in the market for a new coach, including the Toronto Raptors.
New Suns owner Mat Ishbia, who was involved in an on-court bust-up with Jokic this postseason, is setting high expectations in Phoenix, with the aim to finally bring an NBA title to the Sun Valley. The Suns have never won basketball’s ultimate prize since the club’s founding in 1968.
What’s more is that the team’s early postseason exit comes nearly three months after a blockbuster trade for Kevin Durant was completed at the league’s trade deadline in February.
However, Durant landed in the Southwest with an injured ankle and has missed all but eight games before the start of the playoffs.
Often criticized for a lack of leadership skills, the 34-year-old averaged 29 points, 5.5 assists and 8.7 rebounds in 11 games in this year’s playoffs. He was one of the team’s two top scorers, as expected, with Devin Booker leading the charge in both scoring and assists.
The Suns guard averaged 33.7 points, 7.2 assists and 4.8 rebounds against both the L.A. Clippers (Suns won in six) and Denver. He, along with Durant, former No. 1 pick Deandre Ayton and veteran point guard Chris Paul were expected to deliver a title to a franchise starving for success.
It just didn’t work, at least, not this year. Paul got hurt in the playoffs to continue his run of bad luck on the health front in the postseason, Ayton sat out the finale and Booker and Durant simply looked gassed by the time it was over.
Kevin Durant, Deandre Ayton, Chris Paul and Devin Booker were expected to win it all this year
Suns owner Mat Ishbia saw enough to warrant Williams’ dismissal after seeing his team lose in embarrassing fashion (25-points), nearly three months after a blockbuster trade for Durant
‘Neither day feels good,’ Williams said after the Suns’ Game 6 loss to the Nuggets on Thursday, when asked to compare last season’s 30-point debacle to this year’s 25-point season-ending loss.
‘I take that personally, not having our team ready to play in the biggest game of the year,’ he added. ‘That’s something that I pride myself on and it just didn’t happen. […] That’s something I have to take a deep look at, everything I’m doing.’
Ishbia clearly took a deep look as well, and decided to make the change.
It’s anyone’s guess what other changes are coming. The roster surely will change, and so will the system with a new coach in place.
The Suns now become yet another high-profile coaching opening, along Milwaukee, and Toronto. The Raptors fired Nick Nurse earlier in May, four seasons after having won the franchise’s first NBA title in 2019.
