Pistons to part ways with HC Monty Williams

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Pistons are making a head coaching change. He reports that the team has decided to dismiss Monty Williams just one season into his six-year, $78.5M contract with the franchise.

Williams, who coached the Suns for four seasons from 2019-23, was let go by Phoenix last spring and appeared to be leaning toward taking a year off. After resisting Detroit’s initial overtures, Williams agreed to meet with Pistons owner Tom Gores and then-GM Troy Weaver. He ultimately accepted a massive contract that was the largest for a coach in NBA history at the time.

However, Williams’ first year in Detroit was a disaster from start to finish. The Pistons opened the season with 36 losses in their first 39 games, including 28 in a row, which set a new single-season record. The team — which entered the fall with aspirations of taking a step forward and vying for a spot in the postseason — had an overall record of 14-68, making it the worst season by winning percentage in the organization’s 76-year history.

The Pistons parted ways with Weaver earlier this offseason, replacing him with the new head of basketball operations, Trajan Langdon. Since Langdon’s hiring, multiple reports indicated that the new president would be given free rein to make a head coaching change despite the $65M+ in guaranteed money left on Williams’ deal.

According to both Vince Goodwill of Yahoo Sports and James L. Edwards of The Athletic (Twitter links), Gores made the final call on Williams within the last 24 hours. Langdon informed the veteran coach of the decision on Wednesday. Those reports don’t explicitly state whether or not Langdon recommended a change to Gores. Still, either way, the new top front office executive in Detroit now has the opportunity to bring in his own head coach for 2024-25 and beyond.

The Pistons will join the Lakers and Cavaliers as teams seeking new head coaches. While those other two clubs have been conducting searches for several weeks, Detroit is getting a late start, so we’ll see what sort of timeline the team has in mind for making a hire — the NBA draft is just one week away, while the Las Vegas Summer League schedule will get underway on July 12.

Some of the candidates under consideration for the jobs in Los Angeles and Cleveland figure to be on the Pistons’ radar. According to Goodwill, one notable name to watch is Pelicans associate head coach James Borrego, who is viewed as a legitimate contender for both the Lakers and Cavs. Detroit will strongly consider Borrego if he’s available, says Goodwill. The Pistons have already poached one assistant from Langdon’s former team in New Orleans this offseason, reaching a deal to hire Fred Vinson.

It’s unclear whether Williams will become a contender for either of the NBA’s other head coaching vacancies or if he’ll take that year off that he didn’t get in 2023-24. Certainly, with $65M+ in paychecks still coming his way, he’ll feel no financial pressure to get back to work anytime soon.

Due to the Pistons’ dismal showing this past season, Williams now has a sub-.500 career record as a head coach, having posted a 381-404 (.485) mark across 10 years in New Orleans, Phoenix, and Detroit. He won five playoff series with the Suns and made the NBA Finals in 2021.