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After firing, Monty Williams part of Detroit Pistons list you don’t want to be on

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6 months ago

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After firing, Monty Williams part of Detroit Pistons list you don’t want to be on

Monty Williams’ time with the Detroit Pistons is up after just one season.

His firing Wednesday came just over a year after the franchise signed him to a historic contract worth $78.5 million over six years. He then led the Pistons to the worst single-season record in the team’s history, 14-68, and failed to show progress with the young team.

With the firing of Williams and the departure of general manager Troy Weaver, it will be a total teardown for new president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon.

Williams joins a list of failed Pistons coaches that has grown since owner Tom Gores brought the franchise in 2011. His .1707 winning percentage puts him down as the worst coach, statistically in franchise history (minimum 50 games coached), just below interim coach Richie Adubato (.1714) who went 12-58 after replacing Dick Vitale in 1980.

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Here is where Williams’ tenure stacks up in terms of the shortest in the history of the Pistons (excluding Adubato and other interim coaches) who are now searching for the 38th coach in team history.

1. Maurice Cheeks, 2013-14 — 50 games

Record: 21-29 (.420).

Cheeks, the second coach Gores hired after buying the team, only lasted 50 games in the 2013-14 season before he replaced with John Loyer. It may not have been Cheeks’ fault entirely; with the signing of Josh Smith as a free agent and trading for Brandon Jennings, they still went 8-24 (.250) under Loyer. The Pistons decided to go with a full rebuild after the season, also parting ways with president of basketball operations Joe Dumars then.

2. Earl Lloyd, 1972-73 — 77 games

Record: 22-55 (.286).

Lloyd, the first black man to play in an NBA game, was fired seven games into his second season in 1972-73, handing off the keys to Ray Scott. He took over midway through the 1971-72 season for Butch van Breda Kolff, and was eventually inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a contributor in 2003.

T-3. Ron Rothstein, 1993 — 82 games

Record: 40-42 (.487)

Rothstein followed in the footsteps of legendary coach Chuck Daly, taking over in the 1992-93 season. He was an assistant under Daly in the 1980s then left to become the first coach of the Miami Heat. The Pistons finished 40-42 in the lone season under Rothstein but missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade and decided to go another direction. Rothstein has enjoyed a career as an assistant coach and broadcaster since.

T-3. Michael Curry, 2008-09 — 82 games

Record: 39-43 (.475).

Curry took over as head coach for the 2008-09 season after the Pistons lost in the Eastern Conference finals to the Boston Celtics the previous year under Flip Saunders (while recording their most recent playoff victory). He led the Pistons to the playoffs with a 39-43 record, the franchise’s first losing record since 2000-01, but was swept in the first round by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Dumars said the franchise needed a more experienced coach than Curry, a first-time head coach, at the time.

T-3. Monty Williams, 2023-24 — 82 games

Record: 14-68 (.171).

Williams lasted just one season after he failed to show any progress with a young team featuring several high draft picks, including 2021 No. 1 pick Cade Cunningham. Rotation decisions, such as starting Killian Hayes over Jaden Ivey at guard for the first half of the season, (before Hayes was waived at the trade deadline) or consistently going to all-reserve lineups despite repeated ineffectiveness, partially led to his demise. Things went south immediately beginning with the fourth game of the season with an NBA-record 28-game losing streak and didn’t get much better from there, prompting the Pistons to fully start over.

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