The Phoenix Suns should worry about only one person in their entire franchise: Devin Booker. If Monty Williams accepts the head coaching position, hopefully it makes Book happy.
According to reports, the Phoenix Suns’ empty head coaching position is Monty Williams‘ if he wants it, a potential boon for the franchise if it all comes together.
It appears that it is now up to the current Philadelphia 76ers assistant coach if he wants to move this far west – or if his sights are a little bit farther.
League sources say that the Suns' job will be Monty Williams' job if he wants it ... but Williams, as a coach in demand, has the rare ability to be choosy about where he wants to coach next
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) May 2, 2019
The Phoenix Suns are in perilous times right now.
They haven’t made the playoffs in almost a decade; they have only one bonafied star on their roster; their fanbase is both frustrated with the product on the court and the process with which it is put together, and fed up with both ownership and management who organize the pieces; the guy that most fans wanted hired as the new general manager was hired instead by New Orleans; and in probably the biggest dagger to the side, he then took the franchise’s long-tenured head athletic trainer with him.
This is a lot for a franchise to go through, but it must be especially rough for a single player in only four years of his career – exactly what is happening to the youngest player to ever score 70 points in a game, and one of only 10 players in NBA history to drop 50+ pts in back-to-back games:
In my headline I said that “hopefully” the potential hiring of Monty Williams makes Devin Booker happy, an odd statement to make about a player who has never really shown any signs of actually being upset with anything other than his exhaustion with losing.
He has never really said anything publicly negative about his teammates, coaches, management, or ownership.
Phoenix Suns
And yet, one cannot help but think that a 22-year-old star, who is about to begin earning his first dollars from a major contract extension, knows that he’s really good but also knows that his teams have been absolutely horrible his entire career (and for at least three seasons, intentionally so) has GOT to be unhappy on some level.
That is why the hiring of Monty Williams (if it goes through) has got to not only be the hire that the Phoenix Suns will finally stick with for a few years, but that will also be the kind of hire that both helps make the team competitive, and makes (keeps) Devin Booker happy with his situation.
After all, while he is about to enter into the first year of his max extension, that does not mean that he is ultimately happy with the way things will go for the next season and if things continue in a downward spin, not still demand a trade at some point in the very near future.
Imagine that Williams does not accept the offer that it whoever is finally hired puts the team in another Igor Kokoskov-type situation where nothing really gets better (and on top of that, that James Jones fails to find enough talent to surround Booker, especially at point guard).
Would anybody in the basketball world be shocked if Book decided to just finally pull the pin on the grenade of the franchise that he controls and demand a trade?
It certainly would not shock me – and something tells me that it will not shock any of you reading this either.
The Suns need to hire a head coach who will join the franchise with little to no learning curve.
Aside from learning names and offseason hobbies, he has to not only know exactly how to run a team, but demand respect from his players and bosses, assert complete control, implement both offensive and defensive plans, and most importantly, show flexibility when things appear in any way different from what he may have imagined.
These are the traits and qualities of a successful head coach, the kind of coach that Devin Booker must desperately want leading his team, as that is the kind of coach who will more than likely lead his team to a winning season, one capable of making a run in the playoffs.
The kind of qualities that it appears the Phoenix Suns (and other teams in the league) believe Monty Williams has, and if it is announced in the coming days that the two sides have agreed on a deal, the kind of head coach that is perfect for this young team.
That is all Suns fans want, that is all Devin Booker wants, and if Monty Williams is the guy, hopefully he is the hire that makes Book happy, because even though we have no idea if he is unhappy, time is not on the side of the Phoenix Suns.