thelesterlee
The Detroit Pistons finished a disgusting 2022-23 NBA season with only 17 wins. Naturally, their head coach, Dwane Casey, “stepped down” from the position but the damage was already done. Their coaching job was perhaps the least desirable in the league. Cade Cunningham was the only good NBA player on the roster and that man only played 12 games.
So when it came time to lock down a veteran coach who had recently been to the Finals, the Detriot Pistons had to pay extra for their sins. Monty Williams signed a 6-year, $78.5 million contract to coach this miserable team making him one of the Top 5 highest paid coaches in the entire league.
Detroit Pistons win totals:
2022-2023 (the year before Monty): 17
2023-24 (with Monty): 14
Monty Williams is one of the highest-paid coaches in the history of professional basketball and he managed to win FEWER games. Not only did the Pistons lose more with Monty but they set a new NBA record with their 28-game losing streak.
And now, on Juneteenth of all days, Monty Williams will be getting paid $65 million over the next 5 years to do absolutely nothing. Monty was freed from his job and given a littleeeee bit more than 40 acres and a mule.
FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST
What went wrong with Monty Williams?
The signs were present before Monty got his own parking space at the Pistons facility. In Phoenix, he had a public dispute with big man, DeAndre Ayton, and although Ayton himself is a whole-ass weirdo, maybe the head coach shouldn’t engage in a public feud with the guy the organization drafted over Luka Doncic. He also had a problem with Jae Crowder.
I imagine Erik Spoelstra has had some difficult personalities in Miami. Dion Waiters took an edible and had a panic attack on the team plane and I have no idea how Spoelstra feels about any of these players but Monty has a shitlist of enemies from Phoenix.
As far as what specifically went down in Detroit, Monty seemed to be messing around all season. The rotations made no sense. The team had no offensive or defensive identity. Killian Hayes was on the court faaaaar too often for a player shooting 38% from the field over his career. Jaden Ivey is reallyyyy good at basketball and he had to sit on the bench watching Killian Hayes do shit like this:
The Pistons coaches couldn’t believe this turnover 😅 pic.twitter.com/K1wraxgQUZ
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 13, 2024
Monty Williams was coaching as if he could not wait to be fired. Detroit is currently funding this man’s retirement. Welcome to the Scammer’s Hall of Fame, coach Monty.
What’s next for the Detroit Pistons?
The big move of the Pistons offseason was bringing in Trajan Langdon from the New Orleans Pelicans and making him the new team president. Langdon was responsible for convincing Pistons owner, Tom Gores, to go ahead and fire Monty so they could move on from the stench of this past season.
The Pistons weren’t even rewarded for their ineptitude. The draft lottery landed them the no.5 pick in a draft absent of a potential franchise-altering star, certainly not as late a no. 5.
But they have a ton of cap space. Are Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey and Tobias Harris the new Big 3???
Good luck to the next coach, man. Hopefully it’ll be someone who, ya know, actually wants to be there and can win more than 14 games.
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Is Monty Williams one of the biggest finesers in the game? Leave a comment below. Respond on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Or shoot me an email at Deadseriousmailbag@gmail.com. Let’s chat, bay-beeeee. Let me know if you think Monty is a good coach so I can show you more Killian Hayes clips.
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