There It Is: The Suns Fire Monty Williams, And Now Both Coaches From The 2021 NBA Finals Are Out Of A Job

Everyone had more than a feeling something like this was coming. Someone was going to be made into an inconvenient scapegoat once the Phoenix Suns got embarrassed off their home floor to close out their second straight disappointing playoff effort. Turns out, Monty Williams was the fall guy.

It's just crazy to me that Williams and Mike Budenholzer — who won the 2021 NBA Finals with Milwaukee — both got shitcanned less than two years after pushing their teams to the biggest stage in basketball. Where are these teams looking for an "upgrade" from those gentlemen?

I realize the Bucks flamed out in the first round, but the Heat were clearly sandbagging all along (they actually had a lot of injuries but SHH! this is more funner-er). But like…Milwaukee had the NBA's best record in the regular season. Monty Williams is only one season removed from guiding the Suns to SIXTY-FOUR WINS.

Good thing Phoenix gave Williams a really long runway when the front office decided to flip the entire team on its head and trade for Kevin Durant. Eight regular-season games. That's all the time Williams had with KD.

Burning through quality head coaches seems to be a trend around the ol' Association of late…

Eagerly anticipating any and all social media reaction from Suns players not named Deandre Ayton on this organizational decision. Unless Nick Nurse is walking through that door — the tandem of KD and Devin Booker is a strong selling point — you're not going to do much better than Monty Williams.

As for where Monty might find his next job, well…remember those 2021 NBA Finals I was talking about before? Yeah. The team that won has a coaching vacancy, and there was this interaction between the losing coach and Giannis Antetokounmpo:

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting.

I might laugh for an entire week if Williams goes to coach the Bucks and Budenholzer gets his next gig in Phoenix. Then they meet again in the Finals. IF THAT HAPPENS, then I will at long last entertain the conspiracy theories that the NBA is, in fact, rigged.

Did a postmortem sort of blog on the Suns getting scorched by the Nuggets in Thursday's Game 6 if ye be interested. Hinted at Monty's firing therein. Not an awful read.

Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok