Suns fire coach Monty Williams after 4 seasons with the club

The PhoenixSuns fired Monty Williams on Saturday, two years after reaching theNBA Finals and a year after he was the overwhelming choice as thecoach of the year.

Williamshad great success in his four regular seasons in Phoenix, winning63% of his games. But three consecutive years of playofffrustration was likely too much for the Suns to overlook —especially after two straight years of Phoenix trailing by 30points at halftime of elimination games at home.

ESPN andThe Athletic first reported the decision.

“Monty hasbeen foundational to our success over the past four seasons,” saidJames Jones, the Suns’ president of basketball operations andgeneral manager. “We are filled with gratitude for everything Montyhas contributed to the Suns and to the Valley community.”

Jones alsosaid he made the decision to fire Williams.

The Sunshad a 2-0 lead in the 2021 NBA Finals, only to lose in six games.They lost in the second round in each of the last two seasons, bothtimes in an embarrassing home finale — last year to Dallas, thisyear to Denver.

“Neitherday feels good,” Williams said after the loss earlier this week toDenver, when asked to compare last season’s debacle to this year’sseason-ending loss.

Saturdaylikely didn’t feel good, either.

The Sunsnow become yet another high-profile coaching opening, after Torontofired Nick Nurse and Milwaukee fired Mike Budenholzer. Nurse wonthe 2019 NBA title with the Raptors, while Budenholzer was thecoach who overcame Phoenix’s 2-0 lead in the 2021 finals.

It’s thesecond major move made by the Suns in the three months or so sincenew owner Mat Ishbia closed the sale that gave him control of theclub. In February, Ishbia green-lighted a blockbuster trade thatbrought Kevin Durant to Phoenix and gave the Suns a core — him,Devin Booker, former No. 1 pick Deandre Ayton and Chris Paul — thatthe team hoped would be enough to deliver a title.

It justdidn’t work, at least, not this year. Paul got hurt in the playoffsto continue his run of bad luck on the health front in thepostseason, Ayton sat out the finale and Booker and Durant simplylooked gassed by the time it was over.

Williams,after the season ended, blamed himself.

“I takethat personally, not having our team ready to play in the biggestgame of the year,” Williams said. “That’s something that I pridemyself on and it just didn’t happen. ... That’s something I have totake a deep look at, everything I’m doing.”

Williamshad been the coach with the fifth-longest tenure with his currentteam entering Saturday — just four years. Gregg Popovich has beencoach in San Antonio since 1996, Erik Spoelstra in Miami since2008, Steve Kerr in Golden State since 2014 and Michael Malone inDenver since 2015.

Phoenixbecomes the fourth team to currently have an opening, along withthe Raptors, Bucks and Detroit Pistons.

Of the lastnine coaches to take a team to the NBA Finals, only Kerr andSpoelstra are still with the franchise they got to the titleseries.

The others— Boston’s Ime Udoka, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Frank Vogel,Cleveland’s David Blatt and Tyronn Lue, along with Budenholzer,Nurse and now Williams -- have all been fired by the team that theybrought to the finals.

“When youlook at really good coaches who have lost their jobs shortly afterwinning a championship, that’s something that is just differentabout our business,” Williams said Friday, adding that “it’s just apart of our NBA economy.”

The Sunsstarted 16-7 this season, looking every bit like a contender again.They were only 29-30 the rest of the way.

They used26 starting lineup combinations, and had Durant for only eightregular-season games after the trade. They had to wait about amonth after acquiring him for a January knee injury to heal, andthen as he warmed up for what was supposed to be his home openerwith the Suns on March 8 he slipped on the court during warm-ups,hurt an ankle and missed three more weeks.

The Sunswere 12-1 in Durant’s first 13 appearances, five of those in theplayoffs. And then they went 2-4 against the Nuggets, all fourlosses by double figures.

AndWilliams took the fall.

Williamswas second in the official NBA coach of the year balloting in 2021,behind New York’s Tom Thibodeau. He was the coach of the year thatseason as chosen by his peers in the National Basketball CoachesAssociation.

A yearlater, Williams was the NBA’s winner — and the NBCA one yetagain.

Now, he’sout, and the Suns will start anew.

This wasWilliams’ ninth season as a head coach, after a five-season runwith New Orleans from 2010 through 2015. He was 194-115 with theSuns — an NBA-best 168-76 since the start of the restart bubblenear Orlando to end the 2020 season.

Phoenixbecame one of the feel-good stories of the bubble, going 8-0 tonarrowly miss out on what would have been a most improbable playoffappearance. Williams got elected as coach of the bubble — “coach ofthe seeding games” was the official NBA award — and was a four-timeCoach of the Month in his tenure with the Suns as well.

Thatstarted the run of success. Paul got traded to the Suns in November2020, the franchise’s first finals trip since 1993 was how thatseason ended, and last season’s 64-18 mark was the best in Sunshistory.

In his nineseasons overall, he’s 367-336 in the regular season, plus 29-27 inthe playoffs.