With all of the love for new Detroit Pistons coach Monty Williams circulating this week, it’s important to remember one maxim, true across all pro leagues: Coaches are hired to be fired (or mutually part ways with, if you’re Dwane Casey).
Rare is the coach that lasts for a generation — or even half a decade — with a franchise, especially in the NBA. When Casey finished his fifth season in Detroit, he was the fifth-longest tenured coach in the league (behind Denver’s Michael Malone, Golden State’s Steve Kerr, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich). And now he’s out, and Williams is in.
That coaching shuffle leaves a lot of experience in the recycling bin, just waiting for another shot at the top job, and the Pistons, as is their M.O. under owner Tom Gores — hey, Stan Van Gundy! — went with one of the biggest names available: Williams won the NBA Coach of the Year Award just a year ago, after leading the Phoenix Suns to a franchise-record 64 wins.
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But Williams is far from the first Coach of the Year to change jobs soon after winning. In fact, of the past 15 NBA Coach of the Year winners, seven have gone to coaches who have since changed franchises (with a couple handling a couple franchises after their wins): Casey, Mike Budenholzer, Tom Thibodeau, Scott Brooks and Mike Brown, with 2020 winner Nick Nurse just changing jobs this offseason as well.
(Consider that a quick hiring list for Gores if Williams doesn’t work out…)
The good news for Pistons fans: Of the five to precede Williams, four improved their franchises’ win totals in their first season (by an average of seven wins), and four (though not the same four, oddly enough) took their teams to the playoffs in Year 1.
With that in mind, let’s look back at Williams’ five Coach of the Year predecessors and how their transitions fared:
2018: Dwane Casey, Raptors
Going, going … Casey’s seventh season in Toronto brought 59 wins and the top seed in the East with a mostly homegrown roster (led by guard DeMar DeRozan). But the Raptors didn’t even make the East finals, getting swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers in Round 2. Two days after that final loss, Casey was picked as the NBA’s top coach by his fellow coaches. (The NBA’s official award would come a few weeks later.) Two days after that, he was out as Raptors coach.
The next stop: Less than a month later, Casey was hired by the Pistons on a five-year deal worth about $7 million a season. “I knew Dwane was good, of course. He’s got all the accolades, the track record, everything. His demeanor is amazing. But the thing that really drew me, though, was he was hungry. How do you get hungry after being coach of the year?” Pistons owner Tom Gores said at Casey’s introductory news conference. “He checked every single box. I heard he was the safe choice, and he safe for sure. … But he has a lot of upside, too.”
Year 1 was a moderate success, as the Pistons added two wins and made the playoffs for the first time since 2016. But that was due in large part to a career year from star Blake Griffin, and when he was hurt late in late March, the Pistons struggled. The postseason brought more of the same, with a four-game sweep by the Milwaukee Bucks in which the Pistons lost by an average of 23.8 points. And then, the rebuild: The franchise’s winning percentage was .303 or lower in each of Casey’s final four seasons.
2015: Mike Budenholzer, Hawks
Going, going … Budenholzer’s second season in Atlanta was a revelation, as the Hawks improved by 22 wins en route to the top seed in the Eastern Conference despite no major additions via the draft or free agency. But the dream season hit a roadblock in the East finals, as the Hawks were swept by the Cavaliers. The next two seasons appeared to be steps backward, and with the departure of star Paul Millsap before the 2017-18 season, the Hawks cratered to a 24-58 finish, last in the East. Two weeks after the 2017-18 season finale, Atlanta and Budenholzer agreed to part ways.
The next stop: Three weeks after that, Budenholzer was in Milwaukee, where the Bucks had gone 44-38 in a tumultuous 2017-18 that featured head coach Jason Kidd getting fired in late January, 45 games into the season. Under Budenholzer, the Bucks thrived, leaping to a 60-win season and the top seed in the league. Yes, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s MVP performance helped, but Budenholzer also turned the Bucks from No. 19 in defense to No. 1, shaving nearly five points (from 110.1 to 105.2) off their defensive rating and winning a second Coach of the Year nod.
Still, the playoffs brought disappointment, with Milwaukee getting bounced in the East final by the Raptors. After another No. 1 seed and another playoff exit in 2020 — in a season disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, of course — Budenholzer and the Bucks finally broke through in 2021, winning it all despite finishing just third in the East during the regular season. Two playoff disappointments (and a partial change of ownership) since then, however, left Budenholzer fired after the 2022-23 season.
2011: Tom Thibodeau, Bulls
Going, going … After 20 seasons as a well-traveled NBA assistant, Thibodeau was handed the reigns in Chicago after the Bulls won 41 games for the second straight season and were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Cavaliers … in five games. His reputation as a defensive wizard quickly paid off, with the Bulls going from 13th in points allowed (99.1) to second (91.3) and from 11th in defensive rating (105.3) to first (100.3). That first squad won 62 games and made the East finals, as Thibodeau won Coach of the Year, but his next four all won 50 games or fewer (though all made the playoffs). Add in his personality clashes with management, and a basketball style deemed ugly at times, and Thibodeau was fired in late May 2015, a couple weeks after another loss — this time in six games — to the Cavs.
The next stop: Again, Thibodeau sat out all of the 2015-16 season before getting picked up by the Minnesota Timberwolves — and given personnel control, as well. The T’Wolves improved from a dismal 29-win season … but only slightly, winning 31 games in Thibodeau’s inaugural season — and 2016 No. 1 overall plck Karl-Anthony Towns’ second season — and missing the playoffs again. Year 2 brought a further 16-win improvement, but the T’wolves managed just one playoff win in Round 1 against the Houston Rockets. That was Thibodeau’s final full season in Minneapolis, as he was fired halfway into Year 3, with the T’wolves two games under .500.
After sitting out the 2020-21 season, Thibodeau was brought into New York to turn around the Knicks, who’d won only 21 of 66 games amid COVID-19’s chaos. In Year 1 at Madison Square Garden, Thibodeau led the Knicks to 41 wins in 72 games and won Coach of the Year for the second time. (He finished tied for seventh in voting this past season, after getting the Knicks their first playoff series victory since 2013.
2010: Scott Brooks, Thunder
Going, going … Was Brooks a partial architect (along with general manager Sam Presti and future Pistons GM Troy Weaver) of the Thunder’s rebuild following its move from Seattle to Oklahoma City, or merely a beneficiary of three consecutive drafts that delivered Kevin Durant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook. Either way, the Thunder made a 28-win improvement, jumping to 50 wins, in his second season, nabbing him a Coach of the Year nod. But the Thunder were unable to win it all despite that trio — coming closest in the 2012 NBA Finals — and a 45-37 finish in 2014-15 was Brooks’ last in OKC.
The next stop: Brooks didn’t coach in 2015-16, but landed with the Washington Wizards (who’d won 41 games that season) for 2016-17. Brooks led the Wizards to an eight-win improvement, a playoff berth and a first-round series win before falling to the Boston Celtics in seven games. That was the high-water mark of his time in D.C., though, with just one more winning season and two more playoff berths before being fired in June 2021.
2009: Mike Brown, Cavaliers
Going, going … Brown was hired in Year 2 of the Cavs’ first LeBron James era and immediately took them to the playoffs in 2005-06. But it wasn’t until his fourth season in Cleveland, when the Cavs went 66-16 and earned the top seed in the league that he earned the Coach of the Year nod. A year later, he was done there, fired after a 61-win season was ended a second-round upset by the Celtics in which James appeared done with the Cavs.
The next stop: After taking the 2010-11 season off, Brown was hired to follow in some immense footsteps: Replacing Hall of Famer Phil Jackson on the Los Angeles Lakers’ bench. Under Brown, the Lakers went from 57 wins to 41 (though the 2011-12 season was only 66 games due to an owners’ lockout). The postseason result was virtually the same, however: A second-round exit, though Brown’s squad won one more game — one — than Jackson’s. That didn’t save him in his second season in L.A. — he was fired five games in as the Lakers opened 1-4 after adding perennial All-Stars Steve Nash and Dwight Howard over the offseason.
Brown was back on the bench the following season, in a familiar spot: Cleveland, albeit without James to prop up the Cavs’ playoff hopes. That lasted one season, in which the Cavs won just 33 games and finished five games out of the postseason. Brown then redeemed his coaching legacy with six seasons as an assistant with Golden State before getting the top job in Sacramento last season. The Kings wound up as one of the league’s surprise successes, winning 48 games to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2006 — snapping the league’s longest playoff drought — and earning Brown his second Coach of the Year award.
Contact Ryan Ford at rford@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @theford.