Suns hire Monty Williams to be the 20th Head Coach in franchise history

[Split T]

I’ve only seen it from the one reporter..Ashley Nevel(I think) She also went on the solar panel podcast and said a lot of the same things. She also said she knew Igor would be gone for awhile...like some time during the season. But I think that was just her feeling, not that she actually had info.

Kelly Oubre did say in his end of season media interview that it was hard for him to understand Igor at first.

[iLLmatic]

It's all conjecture at this point. We fired a guy after another season of a poorly assembled team. I'd appreciate some stability.

[Superbone]

I thought they wanted Ty Lue?

I'm very skeptical at anything this front office does, so while I think the extra experience is nice, I need to see results on the basketball court before I start to get excited.

What do you prefer? By all accounts, this is universally viewed as a great hire. With a 5 year commitment showing stability. I swear, some fans are never happy with anything we do.

How about not firing Igor after 1 year?

According to several accounts, players said they struggled to relate with him and communicate with him. Add that to the terrible record and I'm not sure you just stick with him just because.

I could be missing it, but i have only seen one account (one reporter) putting it in writing, and only on BSOTS. And this is the quote:

I’ve talked to several Suns players (who will remain anonymous) about the coaching situation. One player said that Kokoskov is a great assistant coach but not a head coach. Another told me that many of them would leave huddles or practice confused about what Kokoskov wanted them to do on the court. There was definitely a cultural and communication barrier between him and his players and it showed in many situations.

So one player anonymously told her that many players were confused...

Maybe that is true, and maybe he is a bad communicator. But if there are multiple sources reporting this, I guess I am missing them. I didn't see anything on The Athletic or AZ Central.

Do you remember the Boston game where we blew a huge lead and we didn't foul at the end and Morris sent the game into OT on a three? I'm sure you remember afterward when the players said they didn't think they were supposed to foul but Igor said they were supposed to foul.

[Indy]

What do you prefer? By all accounts, this is universally viewed as a great hire. With a 5 year commitment showing stability. I swear, some fans are never happy with anything we do.

How about not firing Igor after 1 year?

According to several accounts, players said they struggled to relate with him and communicate with him. Add that to the terrible record and I'm not sure you just stick with him just because.

I could be missing it, but i have only seen one account (one reporter) putting it in writing, and only on BSOTS. And this is the quote:

I’ve talked to several Suns players (who will remain anonymous) about the coaching situation. One player said that Kokoskov is a great assistant coach but not a head coach. Another told me that many of them would leave huddles or practice confused about what Kokoskov wanted them to do on the court. There was definitely a cultural and communication barrier between him and his players and it showed in many situations.

So one player anonymously told her that many players were confused...

Maybe that is true, and maybe he is a bad communicator. But if there are multiple sources reporting this, I guess I am missing them. I didn't see anything on The Athletic or AZ Central.

Do you remember the Boston game where we blew a huge lead and we didn't foul at the end and Morris sent the game into OT on a three? I'm sure you remember afterward when the players said they didn't think they were supposed to foul but Igor said they were supposed to foul.

I do. And we all knew you need to foul there and we aren't NBA players or coaches. I am sure we were all yelling at the screen to foul. But the guys that get paid to do this weren't reminded by their coach that they needed to foul, or were reminded but couldn't understand him? You don't need your coach to tell you to foul in that situation. It is one problem from having a team assembled of mostly low-basketball IQ guys.

[In2ition]

It was odd at the time that a guy as respected around the NBA and seemingly a great guy would garner 3rd place on the player poll of a coach least like to play for.
http://arizonasports.com/story/1905697/ ... ayer-poll/

[Indy]

It was odd at the time that a guy as respected around the NBA and seemingly a great guy would garner 3rd place on the player poll of a coach least like to play for.
http://arizonasports.com/story/1905697/ ... ayer-poll/

It was. It means about 15 guys around the league, who weren't on the Suns at that time, said they wouldn't want to play for him. I assume it was guys that already did at some point (as lead assistant?) or had good friends that did and hated him.

It was equally weird to see Pop, Spoelstra, Gentry and Snyder make the list. No surprise to see Thibs topping it, though. I am assuming one of the guys that said Pop is currently doing something we have never seen in the playoffs.

[AmareIsGod]

One report. A couple of reports. Several reports. Regardless, it was reported. It wasn't hard to miss that something like that existed. I listened to many interviews with Igor and always wondered how well the young guys would connect and understand him.

We can all act oblivious and overly PC about the subject. The reality is, European players will get along great and understand Igor as their head coach. Urban American players will struggle. I never thought he was a good fit as a head coach with his heavy and hard to understand accent. Once it was blatantly obvious he wasn't going to fight for his guys and stand up for them with the refs, I knew his days were numbered.

[AmareIsGod]

It's odd that a few here are vehemently defending Igor. What was it that made it apparent he needed another season or two? Other than his accolades with Utah as an assistant, was it not apparent there were language and cultural differences that made him a tough fit with our roster? He wasn't doing a good job when we did have vets that wanted to be off-loaded to another team and the young guys struggled to understand him or had low basketball IQ, something he didn't help develop along the way.

We got Monty Williams on a 5 year deal and a new training facility on the way. But let's harp on poor Igor and pretend there weren't clear barriers with language and communication. I guess I'm just an uneducated knucklehead for struggling to understand him myself whenever he spoke.

I blame the FO for hiring him in the first place when all of the other choices fell through. McD always struggled to grasp the human element. It's why he was a pretty terrible GM. All X and O's with the personality of celery. Of course he'd figure a stoic boring thick accented foreign coach would be a great fit for a mangled roster of analytics and no cohesive chemistry. James Jones deserves credit for recognizing it and moving on from it instead of trudging through another disaster of a season.

[Superbone]

http://arizonasports.com/story/1932821/ ... ed-lakers/

The Lakers job was never reported to have been offered to Williams, but he did interview twice. As the Suns went into their second interview of Williams last Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported that both Williams and Ty Lue had impressed Lakers brass.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Los Angeles appeared quite close to offering Williams the chance to coach All-Star LeBron James. On The Woj Pod, Wojnarowski said that James did not tell Lakers management that he would prefer Lue, his former coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers, over Williams.

“He didn’t tell the Lakers you have to [hire Lue] because they were ready to move toward Monty Williams,” Wojnarowski said, “and I think the Lakers … never really took seriously the possibility he was going to take the Suns job and he did and I think — I know it surprised them.”

[Indy]

I haven't seen anyone vehemently defending him. At least what I am saying is the FO is doing a spin job to explain why they hired a coach to a multi-year deal, didn't give him the two things they said any coach would need to be successful (PG, PF), and then fired him less than 12 months after they hired him. It isn't about Igor for me. It is about the incompetence of our organization, and it starts at the top.

[Superbone]

From the same article I just posted:

“I think that’s the right choice. LeBron James has three, four years left in his career,” said former All-Star Tracy McGrady on ESPN’s The Jump. “This is a great core group … these guys are only getting better. Devin Booker is going into his prime. I think he’ll do wonders for those young core guys.”

McGrady’s ESPN colleague Brian Windhorst agrees.

While overlooking a concerning past history for the Suns under owner Robert Sarver, who has fired three permanent head coaches and one GM in the past five years, Phoenix’s roster brings appeal.

“I’m very excited about Booker and Ayton,” Windhorst told Bickley & Marotta on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station. “Just looking at what you have, young stars in-house, good pick coming, market that you can get free agents in … there’s a lot of boxes to check where this is good job, good job, good job, good job.

“I think it’s a better job than the Lakers job,” Windhorst added. “Now if the Lakers get the No. 2 pick in the lottery and trade for Anthony Davis on June 15, then it’s a different conversation. But today, in the vacuum that we’re in right now, I feel like the Suns job was the better job, and that’s probably why Monty Williams was glad to take it when it was offered.”

[iLLmatic]

I haven't seen anyone vehemently defending him. At least what I am saying is the FO is doing a spin job to explain why they hired a coach to a multi-year deal, didn't give him the two things they said any coach would need to be successful (PG, PF), and then fired him less than 12 months after they hired him. It isn't about Igor for me. It is about the incompetence of our organization, and it starts at the top.

I agree with you 100% Indy.

[iLLmatic]

So what's the over/under Monty gets fired after year 3?

[Superbone]

So what's the over/under Monty gets fired after year 3?

I think you just set it. I’ll go with the over.

[AmareIsGod]

Over. I believe in the man.

[Superbone]

Over. I believe in the man.

Here’s to some stability for a change. Time to rise from the ashes.

[Hermen]

Maybe Igor didn't want to dumb down the plays like the previous coaches had to, so the players didn't understand him.

[carey]

I do. And we all knew you need to foul there and we aren't NBA players or coaches. I am sure we were all yelling at the screen to foul. But the guys that get paid to do this weren't reminded by their coach that they needed to foul, or were reminded but couldn't understand him? You don't need your coach to tell you to foul in that situation. It is one problem from having a team assembled of mostly low-basketball IQ guys.

This just happened to a Popovic coached team where everyone watching knew they had to foul but the players didn't. Would you say the Spurs are a bunch of low IQ guys?

[Indy]

I do. And we all knew you need to foul there and we aren't NBA players or coaches. I am sure we were all yelling at the screen to foul. But the guys that get paid to do this weren't reminded by their coach that they needed to foul, or were reminded but couldn't understand him? You don't need your coach to tell you to foul in that situation. It is one problem from having a team assembled of mostly low-basketball IQ guys.

This just happened to a Popovic coached team where everyone watching knew they had to foul but the players didn't. Would you say the Spurs are a bunch of low IQ guys?

I don't know. Would you say they are poorly coached and Pop can't communicate well?

[Indy]

But to play along, I would say they don't have a lot of high IQ guys like the used to. Rudy Gay and Patty Mills are probably the smartest.