Grading Phoenix Suns Head Coach Monty Williams
Coach Williams always has a great hand on the pulse of his teams, as his relationships transcend beyond the court. The lengths to which his players are willing to expend themselves, in turn, exceed that of most others.
Monty does a solid job mixing and matching in the rotation pieces, better-positioning players across certain combinations so this hums at its highest frequency. His decisions to let Landry Shamet spend more time with Paul, Booker with Payne, and the Paul/Bridges/Booker trio with the remaining bench pieces best illustrates this.
He also rewards players like Bridges with more freedom within the offense, while still doing the same for stars such as Booker and Paul. This allows the Suns to diversify their offensive attack.
At the defensive end though, Williams continues to carry things over from last year, even jumping from a 111.5 defensive rating to this year’s aforementioned 104.9 rating. His half court defense also ranks second best, allowing just 87.1 points per 100 possessions.
He keeps pulling the right strings for this team and his grasp within the locker room seems as good as ever. He did mention a need (and want) to find more shots for Ayton, Johnson, and Shamet, even more-so with Booker’s absence. That likely makes the team even more versatile going forward, so keep an eye out for him to address that in this season’s next quarter
All these components of his coaching push the Suns closer to their peak potential as a team. As it stands now, Monty manning the sidelines has them well positioned.
Grade: A