We have officially hit April in the NBA calendar, and the Phoenix Suns somehow find themselves in the play-in positions in the Western Conference. A potentially tough battle awaits simply to make the postseason - and even if they can make it to the playoffs proper - there are plenty of series matchups they should be looking to avoid.
There are plenty of people who you can point the finger at for the Suns' woes this season - although Devin Booker should not be one of them - and one individual who has come in for more criticism than most recently is head coach Frank Vogel. Many fans in The Valley feeling that if somebody else were in charge, this season would have gone a lot differently.
But what if that somebody was former head coach Monty Williams? Well believe it or not, there is a growing number of Suns fans who would gladly take him back.
This comes off the back of a recent poll done at Valley of the Suns, in which we looked at who fans wish was coaching the organization at this stage of the season. The "other" option did win out - but between Williams, Vogel and current lead assistant Kevin Young in the battle for second place - it was Williams who came out on top.
Interesting conversation here today about Frank Vogel and who you’d like to see coach this team so we’ll make it official - who do wish was coaching this Suns team right now?
— Valley of the Suns (@ValleyoftheSuns) March 26, 2024
But for 25 percent of Suns fans to want coach Williams back is quite baffling, because he has had a difficult season with the Detroit Pistons. His first with a rebuilding team - and even though they are going nowhere fast - there are plenty of Pistons fans who are already sick of his strange substitute patterns and rotation choices.
When we checked in with Piston Powered - another site on the Fansided network - about their experience watching coach Williams this season, their response was short and to the point. Unsurprisingly to many, it was not positive either.
We are not.
— PistonPowered (@PistonPowered) March 26, 2024
Why then do so many Suns fans hold a flame for coach Williams? A large part of this is the rose-tinted glasses in which sports fans always look back on certain points in their fandom and a team's history. Coach Williams was at the helm when the franchise made the finals back in 2021, and he'll always hold a special place in the hearts of Suns fans as a result of this.
It is a bit like thinking about Chris Paul, and how great he was for this organization. You might even think he would have been a better option to have with this team over Bradley Beal this season, because he is one of the best point guards of all-time. Only if you've watched Paul with the Golden State Warriors, you know moving on was painful, but ultimately the right thing to do.
The other factor at play here is former center Deandre Ayton, who was shipped off to the Portland Trail Blazers last summer. Depending on who you believe part of Ayton's problems with the Suns in previous years stemmed from Williams being the coach. If that was true, then had the front office moved Ayton but Williams had stuck around, there is no telling where this group would be right now.
But this overlooks the fact that current head coach Frank Vogel is an excellent defensive mind, who has performed miracles to turn center Jusuf Nurkic into a viable option each night. He has also gotten as much as he possibly can from backup big Drew Eubanks, while Bol Bol seeing the court at all is frankly unbelievable.
How many of those things happen if coach Williams is still in charge here? Maybe those things happening in the first place explains why the Suns are where they are this season - but if you cast your mind back almost a year - there wasn't much complaining from Booker and Durant when Williams got canned. Even though they supposedly knew it was coming before it actually happened.
There has already been chatter that Williams is on the hot seat, while Pistons fans themselves are debating whether this is the worst team in the history of the organization. Yet they have Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Jaden Ivey and Ausar Thompson. Center Isaiah Stewart would get minutes for plenty of other teams in the league.
Is it not the job of Williams to get the most out of that young and exciting group? Instead he is in the first year of what will be a six season, $78.5 million deal, which if you're a Pistons fan is a frankly ridiculous figure. Coach Vogel might not float your boat because he keeps his emotions in check and the Suns have struggled. But another go around with Monty Williams? Would you really want that?