Monty Williams gets a lot of credit for quickly turning the Phoenix Suns into a contender.
They won just 19 games during the 2018-19 season, just before Williams was hired as head coach. They improved by at least 10 games during his first three seasons — reaching 34 wins in 2019-20, 51 wins and a Finals appearance a season after and 64 wins and the No. 1 seed in the West in 2021-22.
During his introduction as the Detroit Pistons‘ head coach Tuesday, Williams clarified that it takes a lot of buy-in to reach success. He had it from his players in Phoenix. And the early signs suggest he has it in Detroit as well.
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Almost every player on Detroit’s roster, with the exception of Bojan Bogdanovic, attended Tuesday’s news conference. It’s a rarity, Williams said. Every member of the young core, including Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey, made a point to attend. He was touched by the gesture.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a press conference for a coach and all of the players show up,” Williams said. “That’s what I see. A hunger, a desire. They all want it. It really gets to you when you think about it. I could go on and on about what I’ve seen on film. I’ve also talked to them about what we need. We need to do some things a lot better. They’ve all been willing, they’ve all been receptive.
“I remember my first meeting with Devin Booker, he was like, ‘Coach, whatever we need, I’ll do it.’ That allowed for us to have the kind of success that we had there. I want to do more. I want to do different. I want to make sure it’s unique to the team. I look at these guys, I see a lot that excites me.”
It was Williams’ show, but he, Tom Gores and Troy Weaver all spent significant time talking about the Pistons’ players. It’s fitting, considering Williams won’t be able to accomplish much if the roster doesn’t have the talent to win. And he’s excited about the upside.
It starts with Cunningham, who sat in the front row and is in the midst of an important offseason after undergoing shin surgery in December. Regardless of what the Pistons do in the draft and free agency, they will need the 2021 No. 1 overall pick in peak form next season if the franchise is going to make a significant leap forward.
They’ll also need strong contributions from their 2022 rookie class — Ivey and Jalen Duren — as well as from their extension-eligible young players: Killian Hayes, Isaiah Stewart and James Wiseman.
Williams said the early signs he’s seeing reminds him of his former young players — Booker, who became a star before Williams’ arrival in Phoenix but made three All-Star games under his tutelage, and Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson.
“You see the same things you see with Cam and Mikal, just hungry, in the gym all the time ready to take a jump,” Williams said. “I look at Jalen and I’m like, this young man is going to be an All-Star soon, and Wise, how do we get him? Both those guys have a chance to be special. Cade’s Cade. You don’t take it for granted but he has so much room to grow. Jaden’s just, everybody wants to compare him to Russell (Westbrook). I think he’s Jaden. You don’t have to compare a guy. I think he’s going to be his own, unique player. He has the work ethic, so you know he’s going to get better.”
Williams is taking over a team that has already undergone most of the dirty work of rebuilding. He won’t have to deal with the difficulties that Dwane Casey endured his last three seasons — issues such as buyouts of veterans such as Blake Griffin cramping the salary cap and the frustrations that come with coaching one of the NBA’s youngest rosters.
There will still be growing pains, but the Pistons wanted Williams because he has shown he knows how to handle them. He has a tough task ahead as the team looks to improve on a 17-win season.
Williams knows what the team needs to accomplish first.
“Compete,” he said. “That’s something I always felt like gives you a chance to be good on both ends and even in transition. The ability to compete every possession, which is hard to do. But the ability to sustain a high level of competition allows for you to have, or approach success. Like Alonzo Mourning said, hard work doesn’t guarantee success, but without it you’ve got no shot, and that’s had a huge impact on me from an athletic standpoint.
“My family members taught me that early on. Watching my mother work eight to 10 hours a day and then go to school three or four hours at night, that’s competing. That’s something that I feel like gives you a chance to pull a game out or make a team quit. We call it the wear-down effect. That’s something that, if you look at the teams that I’ve been a part of, that’s probably the No. 1 thing that we try to do is have a team that competes every single night.”