By Mike Grimm
Pay attention, Doc Rivers.
Monty Williams has been dismissed as the Suns’ head coach, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
The same fate will fall on Rivers if the Sixers don’t beat the Celtics today and make the East finals against the Heat.
Williams won two Coach of the Year awards in four seasons with the Suns and was at the helm when the team went to the 2021 NBA playoffs.
Unfortunately, he was not able to force Kevin Durant to be a leader or to make Devin Booker score another 40 points in the Game 6 loss to Denver in this year’s playoffs.
Williams couldn’t force Deandre Ayton to be a professional, and he couldn’t make a top-heavy, hollowed-out roster play beyond its means.
Finally, Williams was unable to find a miracle cure for Chris Paul’s recurring playoff injuries, and so he’s out.
Oddly enough, the coach he faced in the 2021 NBA Finals – Mike Budenholzer – was unable to get Giannis Antetokounmpo to play well in the fourth quarter of two winnable games in the first round, and now both men find themselves without jobs. The words “panic,” “hasty,” and “scapegoat” all come to mind.
