The Milwaukee Bucks are said to be aggressively pursuing former Coach of the Year winner Monty Williams, who might not have to wait long to land his next job as a head coach.
Williams had been the head coach of the Phoenix Suns since 2019. That was until he was also let go following another playoff disappointment versus Denver.
It was a largely up-and-down tenure for Williams in Phoenix. He racked up wins in the regular season like nobody’s business but eventually faltered when it mattered the most. He faced similar criticism to now-former Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer; he’s a brilliant regular season coach who comes up short when the lights are brightest.
But Budenholzer was not so much fired because the Bucks needed an upgrade; many in the organization have implied that something just needed to change. The truth of the matter is that even with Budenholzer’s shortcomings, there simply aren’t a lot of available coaching candidates better than him.
Pros and cons of hiring Monty Williams as the next Bucks head coach
With reports coming in that Williams is heavily favored to take on the Bucks job, now is as good a time as any to dissect the merits of this possible hiring.
Let’s take a look at how Williams might impact the Bucks should the Bucks’ pursuit prove fruitful. Here are the pros and cons of Monty Williams as the next coach for the Milwaukee Bucks.
The pros of the Milwaukee Bucks hiring Monty Williams
For all his limitations, Monty Williams is a proven winner with a Coach of the Year award in 2020 to show for it. Williams led the Suns to a 64-18 record in the regular season that year, which was the best record in the NBA. Even before that, it was Coach Monty who led the Suns to an 8-0 sweep at the NBA Bubble to push the Suns past the 30-win mark for the first time since the 2014–15 season.
He also led Phoenix to the NBA Finals in 2021 for the first time since 1993. We all know how it ends — but it also started with the Suns taking a commanding 2-0 lead over the Bucks.
The regular season might be just that — as Bucks fans should well know by this point — but at the end of the day, wins are wins. And Williams has shown he can eke them out in bunches against tough opposition.
Let’s talk about his coaching philosophy. Monty Williams is a strong defensive coach, and his former team is all the evidence one needs. The Bucks have struggled on defense in recent years, but Monty could easily help them improve on that end of the floor.
In the recently-concluded 2022-23 regular season, the Phoenix Suns finished seventh in defensive rating (112.3) and sixth in defended field goal percentage, per NBA.com/stats.
Even before that, Phoenix jumped from 29th to 17th in defensive efficiency in Williams’ first season. They never left the top 10 each year since then. Despite the prolific scorers on their roster, defense is where they have frustrated teams the most.
There’s no denying he has a proven record of steering robust defenses in this league. (Even if he did have talented defenders like Deandre Ayton and Mikal Bridges to execute his schemes.)
Just like those Suns, the Bucks also have players who are capable of guarding multiple positions, and they are all good at getting steals and deflections. They also have smart, snappy help defenders who can rotate on a string and contest shots. Williams would be able to maximize these talents unfettered by a strict adherence to drop coverage.
Secondly, Williams is also a players coach known for his ability to connect with his players and get the best out of them. He is a respected figure in the NBA and would be a great addition to the Bucks’ organization. This is important for a team like the Bucks, who have a lot of young players.
Similar to Bud, Monty also emphasizes the importance of communication, accountability, and trust in his team. It’s clear he wants his players to be able to communicate with each other on the court and trust each other to make the right plays.
It’s also for this reason that a number of young players developed well under Williams’ tutelage.
Mikal Bridges was drafted by the Suns in 2018 and developed into a key contributor on both ends of the floor under Williams’ coaching. In his first season with Williams as head coach, Bridges averaged 9.2 points and 4.1 rebounds per game. He was also eventually named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team. Today, he’s a surefire superstar on the Brooklyn Nets.
Cameron Johnson, who was drafted by the Suns the following year, also developed into a reliable shooter and scorer off the bench under Williams. In the 2021-22 season, Johnson averaged 12.5 points per game. He also shot 42.1 percent from 3-point range, which was the second-best mark among players who attempted at least four threes a game.
Williams has shown he can trust young players to play through their mistakes and find ways to win games, something Budenholzer was always lacking. There’s no reason to think he wouldn’t be able to do it again with pieces like MarJon Beauchamp and A.J. Green, who have never been lacking in effort and work ethic.
Overall, Monty Williams would be a solid coach for the Milwaukee Bucks in navigating the post-Budenholzer era. He is a proven winner, a strong defensive coach, and a players coach. He would be a great addition to the Bucks’ organization and could help them get back to the top of the Eastern Conference after a humiliating loss to the eighth-seeded Miami Heat in five games.
At the same time, though, there are also some cons to the Bucks hiring Williams.
The consof the Milwaukee Bucks hiring Monty Williams
Coaching is an intricate yet oft-misunderstood component of the NBA’s daily grind. On your best days, you’re usually sitting on the sidelines while your players take in the glory from wins you helped put together. On your worst days, failures in what is supposed to be a team sport are framed as individual shortcomings. And those imperfections are placed front and center for the world to see.
Former Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer knows this experience all too well. After five years of clinching the most regular season wins in the league, Budenholzer was let go as the first-seed Bucks fell to Miami in five games. Despite an equally winning record, Williams was let go by the Suns organization for similar reasons, and it’s clear he’s not without his flaws.
To start, Williams is simply not the most innovative offensive coach, hard stop. His system consisted of a lot of pick-and-roll, but that he wasn’t able to make things work with the likes of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker in tow is alarming. Considering how often the Bucks’ offense has dried up in inopportune moments in years past, this flaw is certainly something to keep in mind.
For instance, the mid-range-happy Suns finished 27th in the league in drives per game with just 42.4 this past regular season. Their 277 passes per game were also middle-of-the-pack compared to other teams. 25.1 of their points per game were off pull-up shooting — good for third in the league in that statistic. The truth is that team with that much offensive firepower across all three levels has no business putting up such pedestrian numbers.
This kind of isolation-heavy basketball might not be to the benefit of the Bucks, as we’ve already seen time and time again. Having Giannis Antetokounmpo as the primary ball-handler at the top of the key is what eventually spelled the difference against Toronto in 2019. That setup is also among the main reasons the vaunted “Giannis Wall” worked so well in those playoffs and the year after.
Perhaps the biggest flaw of Monty Williams’ is that he’s also exposed himself as rather slowfooted when it comes to making in-game adjustments. The past few playoff exits are evidence of that. Just look at the four straight games they dropped against Milwaukee after speeding to a 2-0 lead in the 2021 NBA Finals.
As a result of this lack of adjustments, the Phoenix Suns have consistently been found lacking by way of composure, especially in the clutch. The stats back this up: per NBA.com/stats, the Suns’ ninth-ranked plus-2.2 net rating in the regular season dropped down to an 18th-ranked minus-2.7 in games decided by five points or less in the remaining five minutes.
Though there’s no room to doubt his pedigree as a basketball mind, there’s no escaping the fact that Williams has only been a head coach for four seasons. That could be a concern for some Bucks fans moving forward. After all, Milwaukee just let go of a longer-tenured coach in Mike Budenholzer and need a more experienced coach to right the ship.
Williams’ Suns teams have also found themselves on the receiving end of (not undeserved) criticism for being mentally weak. It’s rather telling that they’ve flamed out in must-win elimination games in humiliating fashion for two years in a row now — and to ostensibly lesser opponents, too.
It’s worth mentioning that these are shortcomings the Bucks have already seen before. At the same time, the Bucks would be a good fit for Williams. They have a talented albeit ageing roster that is ready to win now.
Ultimately, the decision of hiring Monty Williams is up to the Milwaukee Bucks and general manager Jon Horst as he assess every candidate. Williams is also set to be on the radar of all three teams looking for a new lead tactician going forward, which should necessitate a bit of urgency on Milwaukee’s part to make a decision. Expect Horst to weigh the pros and cons carefully before coming to a decision.
Stay tuned for more updates as the Bucks’ coaching search unfolds.