The Toronto Raptors might need to put all of their coaching plans on hold until they get a chance to sit down with former Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams. Who would have thought that he would end up being available at this point in the season after winning Coach of the Year so recently?
Williams was canned after his Suns were knocked out of the postseason picture by the Denver Nuggets. After trading for Kevin Durant, it looks like owner Mat Ishbia was intent on competing for a championship, and anything below winning it was deemed a failure.
The Raptors have already been linked to Williams, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. While coaches like Jordi Fernandez and David Adelman have already stated their claim for one of the 30 best jobs in the basketball world, Williams is operating on a completely different plane.
The Raptors would be complete fools if they looked at the current coaching market and chose not to bring Williams into the fold. The Raptors won’t get many chances to hire a head coach, and Williams could be one of the few names out there who could lock the position down for a long time.
3 reasons the Toronto Raptors must hire Monty Williams.
3. Postseason success
While Williams’ history with the Hornets led to just two playoff wins, he was often not handed tons of deep teams and had to lean on the brilliance of a young Chris Paul. The Suns were a laughingstock before Williams became the coach, and he helped turn them around quickly.
Williams, who won just under 63% of his games as the coach of the Suns, went 27-19 in the postseason, winning five playoff series in the last three years. In that same span (with Kawhi Leonard, mind you), Nick Nurse has won as many series as you and I combined.
Monty Williams will help the Toronto Raptors win in the playoffs.
While he did have a great team at his disposal, elements of that great team were banging their head against a wall, trying to escape the lottery before he came to town. While Budenholzer has a ring, his history of underperforming with a much more talented team might be held against him.
Williams’ firing was a genuine surprise, as there aren’t many coaches that have performed as consistently excellent as he has in the last few seasons. Would a neophyte coach be that skilled when push comes to shove in the postseason picture?