NBA on TNT analyst Reggie Miller sounds off on Phoenix Suns firing Monty Williams

Reggie Miller gets it.

He just hates that the Phoenix Suns fired Monty Williams two years after coaching them to the 2021 NBA Finals and just a year removed from a franchise-best 64-win season and NBA Coach of the Year honors.

“The coaches will always be the first to go because they’re expendable,” Miller said during an NBA on TNT media conference call Thursday morning along with Kenny Smith.

“It’s harder to get rid of $25, $30-million contracts like Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Chris Paul and Deandre Ayton. Easier to get rid of a coach than it is a player. That’s the easy part. Does it make it right? Hell nah. It’s not right.”

Williams, 51, received a multiyear contract extension last July, but was fired less than a year later after Phoenix’s season ended in embarrassing fashion for a second straight season.

“It is a great destination for whoever gets that job, but man, if you saw what they just did to Monty and he’s got Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, what do you expect?” Miller continued. “You want them to win 60-plus? You’ve got to win it all, right? Championship or bust. So be careful what you ask for.”

Smith sees it as new Suns team owner Mat Ishbia putting his “personal taste” on the team. Williams was hired in May 2019 under the ownership of Robert Sarver.

Ishbia, a 43-year-old billionaire mortgage lender, bought the Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury from Sarver for a record $4 billion.

“It’s just new ownership making an imprint,” Smith said. “(Ishbia) had some ideas about ‘when I own a franchise, I want to do this.’ I think it’s more of that than, oh did Monty do a great job, or is Chris Paul the player that they will want or is Ayton the guy. All those decisions were made prior to the ownership.”

Sarver chose to sell the Suns and Mercury after receiving a year suspension last September from any activities for both teams and fined $10 million for “workplace misconduct and organizational deficiencies” found during a 10-month NBA investigation.

Ishbia wasn’t 12 hours into officially being named team owner at his introductory press conference when the Suns traded Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Jae Crowder, four first-round picks and a pick swap to Brooklyn for Kevin Durant and T.J. Warren right before the Feb. 9 trade deadline.

With championship expectations, the fourth-seeded Suns fell short as No. 1-seeded Denver eliminated them from the playoffs in the Western Conference semifinals on May 11.

Two days later, Williams was fired.

“If you’re a new owner and you don’t win an NBA championship, then you go, ‘Alright, what am I going to do? I’m going to go into what I think is a good franchise,’” Smith continued. “To me, it’s more of that. It’s like personal taste and the decisions that will be made more than the acumen of what these guys have done. You’re just going to see the personal tastes of the ownership now.”

Monty Williams, Doc Rivers as ‘fall guys’

Smith’s “personal tastes” take prompted Miller to ask whether Ishbia going to contact Michigan State head men’s basketball coach, Tom Izzo about the vacant head coaching position. Ishbia was a walk-on on the 2000 Michigan State national championship team coached by Izzo. The two are very close.

“Hey, Reggie, if I was in ownership, you think I wouldn’t call Dean Smith if he was alive?” said Smith, who played for Dean Smith at North Carolina. “I’d be like, ‘Hey Dean, you want to be part of this?”

Miller felt like recently fired coaches Doc Rivers and Williams were the “fall guys” for their teams. The third-seeded 76ers, coached by Rivers, lost Game 7 of the East semifinals, 112-88, to the No. 2 seeded Celtics in Boston.

Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams talks with center Deandre Ayton during a timeout against the Denver Nuggets in the first quarter of the Western Conference semifinals at Ball Arena in Denver on May 9, 2023.

Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams talks with center Deandre Ayton during a timeout against the Denver Nuggets in the first quarter of the Western Conference semifinals at Ball Arena in Denver on May 9, 2023.

“Being a former player, I’ve been in that position,” Miller said. “My first few years, I don’t know how many coaches I went through in Indiana and as a former player, I feel bad because I didn’t live up to expectations. I didn’t keep his job. I didn’t help him keep his job.”

Miller then wondered when last time a head coach who had the current MVP and a former MVP on a team got fired that season or if that’s ever happened at all.

Joel Embiid was named 2022-23 MVP while James Harden won the award for the 2017-18 season.

“Looking at the game, again, as a former player, these dudes got to look in the mirror, man. Joel, I love you. James, I love you. Look in the mirror. KD. Come on man. I don’t know how this fell on Monty in the Valley of the Sun.”

Miller said Williams is a “great communicator” and is from Hall of Famer’s Gregg Popovich’s coaching tree, but he acknowledged how Phoenix’s last two postseasons ended in the West semifinals.

The Suns as the top overall seed lost Game 7 to Dallas, 123-90, last year after trailing by as many as 46 points. Phoenix was eliminated by Denver, 125-100, this year in Game 6. The Nuggets led, 81-51, at halftime after leading by as many as 32 in the first half.

Both of those elimination-game losses happened in Phoenix.

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) shakes hands with Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton (22) after winning Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals, eliminating the Suns, at Footprint Center in Phoenix on May 11, 2023.

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) shakes hands with Phoenix Suns center Deandre Ayton (22) after winning Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals, eliminating the Suns, at Footprint Center in Phoenix on May 11, 2023.

However, Miller is still questioning the decision to fire Williams.

“Be careful what you wish for, people in the Valley of the Sun,” he said. “Be careful.”

Miller later asked about the Suns finding a coach who has had similar success to Williams in terms of being an NBA Coach of the Year. Mike Budenholzer (2015, 2019), Nick Nurse (2020), Rivers (2000, Magic) and Williams (2022) all received the honor.

Rivers (Celtics, 2008), Nurse (Raptors, 2019) and Budenholzer (Bucks, 2021) have won an NBA title as head coaches.

“Does that mean you’re going to go out and get and find a coach of that caliber?” Miller said. “Is Coach Bud or Doc on the way to the Valley of the Sun? Where are you going to find someone of that caliber who has won Coach of the Year? Just be careful what you wish for.”

Rewinding back to Paul and Ayton, Smith noted how both ended this season injured and that he’d “expect” for the Suns to lose Game 6 to Denver without those two.

Paul missed the last four games of the Denver series with a left groin strain he suffered in the second half of Game 2 while Ayton sat Game 6 with a rib contusion suffered in Game 5 after taking a knee from a driving Bruce Brown in the first half.

“I don’t even know how good they are together,” said Smith, as Durant only played eight regular season games with the Suns after the trade.

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) and Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant (35) talk during a timeout during the second quarter of the Western Conference semifinals at Ball Arena in Denver on May 9, 2023.

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker (1) and Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant (35) talk during a timeout during the second quarter of the Western Conference semifinals at Ball Arena in Denver on May 9, 2023.

Durant missed 10 games with a left ankle sprain suffered in pregame warmups March 8 before what would’ve been his home debut.

“I have no clue,” Smith continued. “I didn’t know what to expect when the playoffs started how good they would play together, Devin Booker and Durant. I had no clue. Again, what you’re going to see over the next couple of weeks is the personal tastes of ownership. It doesn’t mean that player was the reason why you won, lost or could not win. If I come in and I take over a company, you’re going to see my personal tastes. That’s what it is.”

Miller concluded the call by saying he would’ve liked for the Suns to give Williams an opportunity to coach Booker, Durant, Paul and Ayton for essentially half of next season and then make an assessment.

“I would’ve said, ‘Hey Monty, we’re going to give you 40 games next season and we’ll make a decision after those 40 games,” Miller said. “You get training camp and 40 games and then we’ll base our whole assessment on that. Then, you look at their record and you then decide, OK, we tried it and then you fire him during the season. I would’ve given him 40 games.”

Cleveland fired David Blatt during the 2015-16 season with a 30-11 record and elevated Ty Lue to the head coaching positions. LeBron James and the Cavaliers won the 2016 NBA Finals over Golden State in coming back from a 3-1 series deficit.

Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: NBA on TNT Reggie Miller, Kenny Smith debate Suns firing Monty Williams



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