Monty Williams Fired by Detroit Pistons After One Season
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00:00The big breaking news yesterday that we brought to you on the show, Monty Williams fired after
00:08only a single season in Detroit, just after an off season of signing a six year, 78 and
00:16a half million dollar deal that made him one of the five highest paid coaches in the NBA.
00:23So the Detroit Pistons, after finishing in debt last in the NBA, once again, with a 14
00:29and 68 record, decide to make this move.
00:33JY, when you saw the blockbuster news yesterday, what was your initial reaction?
00:37Honestly, was that a fake Wojt account?
00:41No, that was the first thing that came to my mind.
00:43I was like, wait a minute, they hired Trayton Langdon, the Alaskan assassin, a month ago.
00:50He's trying to work with money.
00:52They wait until one week before the draft and they decide to fire a coach that's got
00:58five years and 65 million dollars left on his deal.
01:02Now listen, simply put, it was a bad season for them.
01:05They were 2-1 and I think they went 63 days without winning a game.
01:1028 games in a row they lost.
01:13So to me, if you make the move, you make the move as soon as Trayton Langdon got hired.
01:18The crazy part is what happened afterwards.
01:21It looked like it wasn't Trayton that fired him.
01:24It was ownership that went and got Lonnie Williams.
01:28So listen, at the end of the day, Jaden Ivey didn't improve, they had the worst record
01:33in the NBA, and they still ended up with the fifth pick.
01:36I get it then, I just don't get the timing of it.
01:42How about this though, coach?
01:43You take a look at the surrounding situation here, because it's not as if you said, we're
01:47going to get a first-time head coach here, we're going to pay him lightly, let's just
01:50see how it works out, we'll give him a three-year deal.
01:52You made him, at the time, the highest-paid coach in NBA history, which usually sends
01:57a signal to your team, if the players are bad, they're leaving, because the coach makes
02:01so much money, he's going to be there and outlast some of the superstar players.
02:05And at the end of one year, he was gone, $65 million into his account.
02:10What could have gone wrong in that one year where ownership goes, boy, you made so much
02:14money and it didn't work out, let's cut bait right now and still pay you that big deal?
02:18What happened here?
02:19Well, I think just the development of some of the players.
02:22I mean, listen, Kate Cunningham had a good year, he actually was somewhat healthy.
02:25Jay Naby, he was coming off the bench, his representatives weren't happy, he maybe didn't
02:30take the next step.
02:31Jalen Duren looked well.
02:32The Thompson, one of the Thompson's who had played early in the year, then his minutes
02:36started to get reduced.
02:38They trade Bogdanovich, they trade Burks, they go Young.
02:42It's just, I don't know what their thought process is, except for the fact of, okay,
02:49we have four young players, we have a top five pick, we have salary cap room, we got
02:55a new basketball of operations, let's just clean slate, start it over and allow Trajan
03:01to pick his coach.
03:03The problem is, Donnie, is just why wait a month?
03:08That's the point that I'm just trying to wrap my head around.
03:10Something's going on that we don't know about, some kind of disagreement or something, because
03:14it makes no sense to hire Trajan Langdon, have him work with Monty, and then one week
03:19before the draft, you go ahead and you decide to get rid of him.
03:22And then now, if you're another coach coming in there, is this where you want to go?
03:27Because they just fired a guy with $65 million left on his deal after one year.
03:32What's to say they're going to fire someone else in a year?
03:34So interesting times in Detroit.