Philadelphia 76ers assistant coach, Monty Williams, will officially become a head coach by agreeing to take the job with the Phoenix Suns.
Besides being on a coaching staff that’s in a playoff run, the Philadelphia 76ers assistant coach Monty Williams has had a busy postseason. The Sacramento Kings were interested in Williams taking over their head coach position before giving the job to Luke Walton. Williams was also in the running with Tyronn Lue for the Los Angeles Lakers job as well. However, it was the Phoenix Suns that was able to gain the veteran coach’s services.
Williams and the Suns have agreed to a five year deal, according the Shams Charania of The Athletic. This long term commitment to Williams should help bring some stability back to the Suns who have gone through four different head coaches in the past four years. Williams will take over Phoenix after the franchise was led by Igor Kokoskov this past regular season and went 19-63.
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The Suns have targeted Williams since they fired Kokoskov. He seems like a natural fit for the Suns as well. During his last head coaching job in New Orleans, he developed the super star big man Anthony Davis. He’s also been around talented big men like LaMarcus Aldridge when he was in the San Antonio Spurs front office and obviously Joel Embiid this past season. He’s the ideal coach to develop the Suns young big man Deandre Ayton.
His time with the 76ers being around multiple star perimeter players such as Ben Simmons, Jimmy Butler, Tobias Harris, and to a lesser extent J.J. Redick should help him coach and develop the Suns young core of wings that include Devin Booker. As a head coach, Williams has a record of 173-221.
Beyond his credentials, Williams has a good working relationship with the Suns front office. Suns Vice President of basketball operations Jeff Bower was a part of the New Orleans front office when Williams coached there and coached general manager James Jones when Williams as an assistant with the Portland Trail Blazers.
Sixers head coach Brett Brown had the following to say about Williams after news of him getting the Suns job broke.
The Phoenix Suns will be getting a committed basketball coach, who will be persistent, instilling a culture that has championship habits. He and his family will be missed, and we are all very appreciative of the time that he spent with us. pic.twitter.com/G7XsZ0TKbp
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) May 3, 2019
Such high praise coming from Williams soon to be ex-boss. It will be hard for the Sixers to find someone to replace Williams on the bench for next season, but surely he couldn’t be an assistant for the franchise in the long term.
The good news for the Philadelphia 76ers is that the Williams will stay with the Sixers until after the playoffs, according to Adrian Wojnaroski of ESPN. It would have been a big blow for the franchise to loss him during this postseason run.