When you lose a game seven, particularly in the devastating fashion the Phoenix Suns did, a response surely has to emanate quickly. The seeds of an on-court response are grown in the short-term aftermath, remaining connected and united in what could prove a divisive loss.
But instead of rallying around his players, head coach Monty Williams chose to undertake the exact opposite approach this offseason.
Phoenix Suns big man Deandre Ayton has revealed he’s had no contact with head coach Monty Williams since the team’s playoff defeat.
It’s hard to fathom any coach going over four months without speaking to their players. That extrapolates tenfold in regard to the Suns, an organization that’s had its share of offseason issues on top of the playoff loss.
Then you come to Ayton specifically, the player who bore the brunt of game seven, then remained with the franchise only when they forced him to find a max offer elsewhere. His recent interviews show someone who’s going through the motions, saying the right things but with a spiritless attitude that makes people question it.
How is this actually possible? 🤦🏻♂️ https://t.co/xkseIMonfX
— Valley of the Suns (@ValleyoftheSuns) September 27, 2022
Williams says Ayton isn’t alone, that he ‘hasn’t talked to a bunch of guys as he wanted to give everybody a break’. That’s a fair sentiment… for a few weeks maybe. Now over four months removed from that playoff loss, key figures at the Suns aren’t providing assurance that the loss won’t have further, more permanent effects.
Williams has built up enough equity for people to trust in what what he’s doing. Still, any experience of general human relationships would suggest this may have been the wrong path to take.
Right now, Ayton’s attitude looks like someone whose well and truly disenchanted, something Williams and others should have been addressing well before we arrived at this moment.