Monty Williams unplugged, 2.0: On Deandre Ayton, moving forward after NBA Finals loss and more
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Harmony can be so fleeting.
That’s true as a general statement, but even more so when it comes to pro sports. You take all these elite athletes, most of whom never chose their specific place of employment to begin with, and try to merge their athletic talents with a managerial team of owners, executives and coaches around them (most of whom they don’t truly know) while working toward the shared goal of winning games and maybe even winning the whole damn thing.
Trust has to be earned — or not. Respect has to be earned — or not. Teamwork has to be prioritized from top to bottom — or not. And so on.
As I made the 20-minute drive from downtown Phoenix to the Suns’ shiny new practice facility on the outskirts of the desert city last week, just hours after their season-opening loss to Denver and three months removed from their finals run that no one saw coming, this was where my thoughts had wandered. And that was before the controversy surrounding Suns owner Robert Sarver would be revealed the next day.
At the time, before Sarver would release a series of statements preemptively denying allegations of sexism and racism in a “proposed” ESPN story, the most concerning Suns situation that was publicly known involved fourth-year big man Deandre Ayton. The 23-year-old who was taken first overall in 2018 — and who had his best moments as a pro during the Suns’ playoff run while playing such a pivotal part in their success — was miffed that he hadn’t been rewarded with a five-year max contract in the offseason.
While the Suns had kept their core intact (and more) by reaching agreements with Chris Paul, Mikal Bridges, Landry Shamet, Cam Payne and others, there were some people close to the team who wondered if Sarver’s insistence on letting Ayton get to restricted free agency next summer might change the mood in the locker room. The central question, clearly, was whether Sarver was truly all in on the prospect of winning a championship.
I had spoken with Suns general manager James Jones and Ayton’s representatives about the contentious matter just a few days before for this story but was curious to connect with Monty Williams about the matter. The third-year Suns coach may be the best manager of personal relationships there is in today’s NBA, and the job of maintaining the chemistry that helped them last season would fall at his feet more than anyone else.
Independent of that angle, I’m always eager to hear Monty’s musings, if you will. He is one of the league’s most thoughtful and inspirational people, someone whose personal struggles have been well-chronicled and whose ability to lead the way in this Suns renaissance has been quite impressive. We had a long conversation at Las Vegas Summer League about his journey as a coach, about the pain that came with falling to Milwaukee and the process of learning from it and moving forward from there.
As his Suns look to return to basketball’s biggest stage, this was the continuation of that conversation. No matter what happens next with Sarver, Ayton or anyone else in the Suns’ orbit, it’s Williams’ job to keep his players focused and, ideally, harmonious. That’s the goal, anyway. Distractions be damned.
This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
So updating the chat we had in Vegas, I wonder, from an energy and emotion standpoint, how has it evolved from the pain of the finals that we discussed, the unpacking that everybody did during the offseason, to now? What kind of energy did everybody come into camp with, and carry forward, given what you’ve all been through together?
I just thought, and I still believe, that there’s a great deal of focus — not on getting back, just to grow. We know it’s unbelievably hard to get back, you know? When you look at teams in the history of the game, Utah lost (against Michael Jordan’s Bulls in 1997 and) they got back (in ’98). They lost the game, and they got back up, but it’s hard. You just don’t see that. So the first day of camp, we put (the finals loss) to bed, and we’re not gonna talk about it. It is what it is. We feel like we have a better team this year, but we want to maximize this group. And that’s been the focus.
Any team film sessions where you actually watched that finals tape together?
(Shakes his head no)
I felt like I wouldn’t be doing it for the wrong reason. I felt like I’d be doing it because Pop (San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich) did it or because I heard somebody else did it.
After the Spurs lost the 2013 NBA Finals to Miami in such heartbreaking fashion, Popovich showed his team film from their painful past in the following training camp as a motivational tactic. Williams, of course, played for Popovich during his playing days, worked with him in a front-office capacity from 2016 to 2018 and considers him one of his closest friends and mentors.
(What Pop did in 2013) is well-documented, so I was like, “What can I do? What can we do that’s authentic to us?”
So what was it?
I can talk to them about my own pain. I talked to them about how bad I felt when it was 77-77 at the beginning of the fourth quarter (in the Game 6 finale). That was the moment, and I couldn’t help them. You know, that was what I told them. I was just being vulnerable.
As Williams detailed, he shared this on the first day of training camp on the same training facility court (the one on the right in the picture) where they watch film every day.
I just told them, I ain’t talking about it anymore. That’s how I feel. It took me a few weeks to get over it. Now let’s move forward.
Do they just hear it, process it and move on? Did guys respond?
Not to me. I wasn’t even looking for that. I was just wanting to share with them, like, that’s where I was. I know you had your own situation, but we don’t need to dwell on it. We’ve got a new season. More expectations. Let’s move forward.
As the leader here, and a guy who is so good when it comes to the interpersonal stuff, what’s your perspective on DA (Ayton) and the question of whether there might be a butterfly effect negatively from his situation? And if so, how do you massage that?
Yeah, I don’t believe there will be because you still get to play ball. We all still get paid. For me — and I can’t speak for anybody else — my goal is to help guys win and get paid. So when a guy doesn’t get what he wants, and (the two sides) don’t agree, I take that like I didn’t do enough, you know what I’m saying? Like, that’s my job. And that’s how I look at it. You know what I mean? I heard all the stuff (about his situation), and I’ve been privy to information and conversations. But for me as a leader on the floor, that’s what I take seriously. Now I’m not the reason guys get paid. But when they don’t get what they want, or negotiations go awry. I’m like, ‘Well, how do I help them out?’ Because that’s my job is to help that guy achieve all those goals. That’s how I look at it.
If I’m in your shoes, I probably want to know (with Ayton), like, “OK, we know what happened. But are we still (on the same page)?” Do you have to have that conversation?
I’ve never had that with him. He and I have always been pretty straight. Yeah. You know, he knows how much I care about him. I tell him. I tell all of our guys how much I care about them. I love them. Why should that situation be any different than any other? That’s not my deal. I don’t do that. I do the X’s and O’s.
The narrative would be — and this is not media, this is around the league — that if a guy doesn’t get what he wants contract-wise there might be a chance he changes how he plays. So now he’s a year out (from restricted free agency), and maybe he says, “Let me let me put my hand up in the post a little more often, and let me do the dirty work a little bit less.” Those are the ideas.
Yeah, but those things are general statements where people are using one brush to paint. You can’t (do that). I think the one thing that he has shown is that he wants to win. I mean, if you watched him last night (against the Nuggets), he didn’t go out there and take 25 shots. I mean, he still played within the scheme.
Ayton took 10 shots in the opener against the Nuggets, including three missed 3-pointers, and finished with 15 points and six rebounds. In a win over the Lakers on Friday, he had eight points (on 10 shots), 15 rebounds, two steals, two assists and a block. In a blowout loss to Portland on Saturday, he had eight points, three rebounds, an assist and a block. He hasn’t attempted any 3s since the opener.
I just think that’s who he is. He probably doesn’t get enough credit for how unselfish he is. We want him to be more selfish. We want him to be more aggressive, but I don’t foresee that happening. The young man wants to win, and that’s what I’ve seen since I’ve been with him from Day 1.
When I said hello to you last night, you said you were happy to be employed, which I loved. When I went (to the hotel that) night, I found myself saying, “All right, I’ve got to have that same humble energy.”
I just don’t take it for granted man (laughs). Like, this is 20, almost 30 years in the league, man (for him) and I still get excited about free (stuff), you know what I’m saying? Why would I not? Like, it blows me away when I see guys not excited about being in the league, you know what I mean? This ain’t no “got to,” it’s a “get to.”
I get that. We certainly fill different lanes, but the last few nights — after all of last regular season not having any in-person (media) access — I go to a Lakers-Warriors one night and to your game the next. And because the media access has gotten better, and we can get on the court again and be part of it, I was like a kid in the candy store. We’re back to doing it. I do feel lucky to be part of it, so I hear that for sure.
It’s not something I take for granted anymore. I don’t get to choose, you know? One day somebody may say (he’s out), and it’s over. I’ve already dealt with that (when he was fired by New Orleans in 2015). Once you’ve been fired, you’re like, “OK, my name’s not on the front.”
