Williams seeks path for lost group of Pistons
The only thing Monty Williams can do at this point is remain encouraging and motivate his young Pistons to avoid giving up, even though the rest of the NBA has no sympathy for their issues and that record losing streak.
Williams had just been fired by the Suns this past summer and was considering taking a year off when he was lured by Pistons owner Tom Gores to help resurrect the moribund franchise for a whopping $78 million.
The Suns fired Williams after four years because of some of his curious lineup decisions and strategies in the playoffs. Two years ago, his team was humiliated at home in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals by the Mavericks. And last season, despite the presence of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, the Suns were thumped out of the playoffs by the eventual champion Nuggets.
Williams’s reputation didn’t take much of a hit after the Phoenix experience because in 2021, he did take the club to its first NBA Finals in 28 years. But a reclamation project would be laborious and exhausting, regardless of his hefty salary.
He is learning that lesson first-hand. The Pistons are a complete mess, having lost an NBA record-tying 28 consecutive games entering Saturday’s matchup with the Raptors.
The Pistons came to Boston as 17point underdogs Thursday, but led by as many as 21 before the same issues that have plagued them returned. Detroit has one of the league’s worst benches, it’s last in the NBA in turnovers, and 29th in 3-point shooting.
The Pistons padded their roster with lottery picks, but many of those players are hanging on to their careers, having already lost their status as prospects.
Former No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham is a sparkling player, but he’s beginning to take these losses personally. Williams has to devise a way to keep his young players encouraged and avoid contentment with defeat. One of the toughest aspects of building a team through youth is preventing those players from accepting losing and just enjoying the life.
But it’s incredibly difficult for 20somethings to believe they can win when they haven’t in two months.
“I think the improving part is something we don’t have a problem with in the locker room,” Williams said. “I think the leadership part is something that I’m proud of what Cade has done, things that you guys don’t see that he’s been able to do every game. That to me is something that I’m proud of.
“It’s human nature to get caught up with everything that’s happened with our team. I take a lot of pride in that
I’m not doing what I’ve been paid to do here. But all we can do and what we will do is continue to get after it every day, and when a guy is down, I think you have to allow someone to be human.”
Williams inherited an unenviable situation. The Pistons haven’t won a playoff game since 2008, suffering three first-round sweeps in the meantime. They have lived in the draft lottery but made some questionable choices.
They hit on Cunningham, but missed on Killian Hayes and Sekou Doumbouya. They acquired James Wiseman and Marvin Bagley III, but neither are good enough to lead a franchise. Their veterans, Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks, are good enough to help a winning team but not good enough to lead a losing one.
So, what do the Pistons do? Hope for the No. 1 overall pick in a draft that doesn’t have anything close to a Victor Wembanyama? Clean house of their young players? Clean house in the front office?
Gores endorsed the maligned Troy Weaver as general manager, and Williams just got hired about five months ago, so the Pistons are basically stuck in neutral.
“I don’t want guys necessarily faking emotion,” Williams said. “But it’s OK to express yourself after frustrating losses. And we’ve had enough to be expressive. I don’t think there’s a balance. For me, I’m trying to navigate my way through it all in a way that’s beneficial to the locker room and the organization.”
Williams said he’s had conversations with Cunningham about persevering through the difficult times, and he’s been through nothing but in his twoplus seasons in Detroit.
“I talked to him about how much I appreciated how he’s grown,” Williams said. “I talked to him about these are the times where your stuff is [in public], whether it’s character, integrity, leadership. This is when you build it. You’re not going to build it on a beach. You’re not going to build it in a parade. You’re going to build it in times like this. I’m not surprised to see him lead the way he has. I don’t want him putting himself out there and trying to take it all on. It’s not on him. He’s playing his tail off and doing everything he can to help us.”
While Williams has been encouraging, he has also been brutally honest with the state of the franchise and his players. Former lottery pick Jaden Ivey spent some of the early schedule coming off the bench, a demotion after a sparkling rookie season. Wiseman and Bagley are given spot minutes, despite both being former top-three picks.
Williams is doing anything he can to win a game, and inject some positivity into a franchise that desperately needs any sign of hope.
“I’m not one to make up stuff, I kind of shoot straight,” he said. “So I have to be mindful of how hard this has been on a young team and guys who had expectations for a season that hasn’t gone that way yet. I’m aware of how things can change and I’ve been a part of it my whole career. I share a lot of my experiences.
“The league is pretty unforgiving when you’re not going well. But things can change. There’s a lot of stuff that I talk about. We’re pretty tight. When you go through tough times, you get pretty close.”