Ceiling/Floor: Detroit Pistons Hire Monty Williams

Welcome to Ceiling/Floor where I dissect trades, signings, firings and hirings in order to determine the best case and worst case scenarios.

Breaking: Monty Williams and the Detroit Pistons have agreed in principle on a six-year, $72 million deal for Williams to become the franchise’s new head coach, sources tell me and @JLEdwardsIII. The deal is expected to be finalized in the coming days.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 1, 2023

The Detroit Pistons have hired Monty Williams as their new head coach.

Ceiling

Going into last season, I predicted the Pistons would sneak into the playoffs. They did not. But they also lost their star point guard, Cade Cunningham, like, day one so we’ll count it as an incomplete. Regardless, adding the two-time Coach of the Year makes me confident in saying next season will be the year Detroit returns to the postseason.

Monty arrived in Phoenix and took a 19-win team to a 34-win team to an eventual NBA Finals appearance. I love the aggressiveness of the Pistons to miss out on Victor Wembanyama and immediately turn and acquire a championship-caliber coach. Most teams would wallow in pity and run back the same bullshit until their next chance to get a generational star.

Coach Williams’s offense demands players make quick decisions in under .5 seconds when they get the ball. Turning Cade Cunningham into a quick decision-maker alongside Bojan Bogdanovic will be able to surprise teams over the course of a long 82-game season similar to what the Orlando Magic did in the second half of last season.

Under Williams’s fast-paced, defensive-centric philosophy, I could see Jalen Duren becoming a household name this season especially with Cade back throwing lobs his way.

There are also some former players who could fill out key roster spots like Cam Johnson or Torrey Craig or even Jae Crowder. The Pistons could easily sneak into the play-in game next season.

Floor

Typically, coaches as great as Monty Williams don’t get fired following a series where one of the best players is out with an injury and the other star is limping from an injury he suffered before the regular season ended.

I get the feeling players don’t really fuck with Monty. In 2023, it’s difficult to run a team while being super religious and making players hold hands and pray and always preaching like, it’s a lot to bring to a workplace. It’s why Mark Jackson was fired from Golden State and was never hired again.

Monty has suffered terrible loss and it’s cool he has his faith or whatever but I think he rubs guys the wrong way especially DeAndre Ayton as the two men had reportedly stopped speaking to one another.

Ayton wasn’t alert on defense and didn’t make quick decisions on offense. He and Williams had beef. Bad news for Marvin Bagley and James Wiseman who are similar players to Ayton. Maybe Monty will inspire two players who have already had their original organizations give up on them. But I get the feeling it’s going to end up more like the Ayton situation though.

I’m also curious if Cade Cunningham is potentially injury-prone and misses a lot of games next season thus dropping the Pistons to the bottom of the standings again to no fault of Monty.

This team could jump Monty Williams at halftime while Cade limps over in crutches to break it up.

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