Phoenix Suns: How Monty Williams applied his 5 core principles

Phoenix Suns head coach, Monty Williams set forth on this new challenge with five core principles. Let’s see if and how he applied each one.

When first-year Phoenix Suns head coach, Monty Williams, took the reigns this offseason, his number one priority was to change the culture. This franchise, albeit with several iterations of efforts to escape, has been trapped within a culture of losing for a decade.

Some blame owner Robert Sarver. Okay, a lot of people blame Robert Sarver.

Be at some point you have to think this blind squirrel of an owner would trip, fall, and find a nut. That nut may very well be Monty Williams, who took this team made up almost entirely new players under his tutelage and thrived.

Well, “thrived” is a strong word, but this team did thrive at times. You can’t expect him a complete at 180 in his first year (although after the first 11 games, it looked possible).

I know Suns fans are tired of hearing these excuses but the man did inherit an unfathomable string of bad luck. Between suspensions, injuries, and illnesses, the Suns rarely had the full complement of its roster available, and whether that sounds like a copout or not, it is objectively true.

So what did Monty do to help change the culture? If not change, what did he do to at least point its trajectory in a more favorable direction?

One of the things I noticed was he bought into the culture the players started, endearingly dubbed the Valley Boyz. After one win, in particular, he embodied that Valley Boyz swagger by video-bombing Kelly Oubre during a postgame interview. Devin Booker screengrabbed it and his teammates helped circulate it around the Internet.

But what did Monty bring himself?

According to one of his preseason news conferences, he brought five core principles:

• Show up on time
• Work hard
• Defend
• Share the ball
• Gratitude

Now that the season is (likely) over for the Suns, let’s see if and how he applied each of these: