Monty Williams‘ record-setting six-year, $78.5MM contract with the Pistons will have a major impact on some of the league’s top coaches, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN said on NBA Countdown (YouTube link).
“It’s going to significantly impact the head coaching landscape for high-level coaches, including (the Heat‘s) Erik Spoelstra and (the Warriors‘) Steve Kerr,” said Wojnarowski (hat tip to RealGM). “Both of those coaches have one year left, next season, on their deals. Both, I’m told, in the $8 million annual range right now. Both coaches, when you talk to owners and executives around the league, if they were on the open market might be able to get what (Denver Broncos coach) Sean Payton got: in the neighborhood of $20 million per year.
“It’s hard to imagine Erik Spoelstra leaving a Miami organization where he started 28 years ago as a video intern, where he’s spent 15 years as a head coach with two championships.
“Steve Kerr is going to be a different situation. His president/GM Bob Myers announced last week that he’s leaving. This is an aging roster. The worldview for Steve Kerr may look different. Watch his negotiations this summer on an extension.
“One other coach who is going to benefit from Monty Williams changing the pay structure of NBA head coach is Clippers coach Tyronn Lue.”
Here’s more from around the basketball world:
- Which players are likely to exercise their player options? Which teams will exercise their options on players’ contracts? Which players on partially guaranteed and non-guaranteed contracts will be waived before free agency? John Hollinger of The Athletic predicts all of those decisions. The former Grizzlies executive believes Jazz guard Talen Horton-Tucker ($11MM) will decline his option and test free agency, writing that his age (22) could help him get a new contract for the full mid-level exception or better. According to Hollinger, the Lakers will likely decline their $16.6MM team option on guard Malik Beasley, while the Magic will retain Gary Harris‘ $13MM deal, which is currently non-guaranteed (it will become guaranteed if he’s still on the roster July 1).
- Mike Vorkunov, Fred Katz and James L. Edwards III of The Athletic draft the NBA teams they think have the top assets to offer in hypothetical trades for star players this offseason, with two caveats: The team’s best player cannot be included for the star, and the outgoing pieces will be both players and draft picks. The Thunder are selected No. 1 by Vorkunov, followed by the Magic at No. 2 (Katz), and surprisingly the Trail Blazers at No. 3 (Edwards).
- Marshall Glickman, the acting CEO of the EuroLeague, announced he will step down from his post when his contract expires at the end of July, tweets Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com. As BasketNews relays, a previous report indicated that Glickman’s work relationship with EuroLeague president Dejan Bodiroga was strained, which made have contributed to the decision. Glickman has been acting CEO since last September.
Thts greatest strength – He’s young
I struggle to see a 8 figure deal on the open market but it be fun seeing him try… bet the Jazz wouldn’t mind
I know that the agents of the coaches will play Monty’s contract as breaking the ceiling, but it doesn’t really.
Yes, Detroit is paying him $78M over 6 years, but he was due $21M over 3 years to do nothing. As far as Monty goes, he is only getting $57M in new money over the next 6, or just under $10M/year.
It is still toward the top of the market, but there are other factors to consider.
Again, I realize how the agents will waive away those factors in negotiations – they wouldn’t be good at their jobs if they didn’t.
Outside of Gregg Popovich the three best head coaches are Erik Spoelstra Steve Kerr and Tyronn Lue.
Monty Williams is a solid head coach but that was a major overpay. He’s in that 10-15 range in head coaches. The Detroit Pistons are desperate for somebody to turn it around.
Gregg Popovich might coach two more seasons and then retire. If he stays healthy Victor Wembanyama will make that San Antonio Spurs job extremely attractive and Steve Kerr might have his eyes set on it. Who knows. The Golden State Warriors could try to lock him up.
Erik Spoelstra will get a major bag and he’s worth every penny. I would love to see him get the first $100 million dollar deal for a head coach. He’s likely to never make it to free agency as a coach so the extensions might just keep coming in.
Tyronn Lue definitely going to get a crazy bag but I don’t think it’s going to come from the Los Angeles Clippers. They might blow that team up after this season and come in with a 1st time head coach and do a total rebuild.
I can see Tyronn Lue getting a job like the Minnesota Timberwolves. Chris Finch is a terrible head coach and if he was black he would’ve been fired. When you allow a team to score 21 straight points and not call timeouts I would’ve got rid of him after that Memphis Grizzlies series last year.
At this point in their careers, Spoelstra is the best coach in the league. Kerr has been top 3 for awhile, but he’s slipping. Lue is also slipping. He was best during the Clippers Jazz series in the bubble.
Pop is still crafty, but there comes a point where it’s more about consistency than top quality. Same thing happened to Sloan, but Sloan had a degenerative disease that sped up his retirement.
Spoelstra, on the other hand, has put on a masterclass these playoffs. They’ve beaten the best teams in the East and won a game in Denver already, as an 8th seed?! Pretty astounding!
The only trouble is that they’ve played the most games in the shortest amount of time. They’re likely running out of gas or at least they can’t practice as hard because of it. Makes the real games a bit more of these big runs back and forth late in games. I see the series going 4-2 Denver, partly because of that.
With the 2k-ization of NBA FO’s, it’s not hard to imagine the market for top HCs going to 20 mm per year. When you don’t understand something, you can easily end up paying more for it. It won’t change what coaches do, of course, or make it more impactful, but you can say the same thing about a lot of players.
Steve Kerr is the most overrated coach in sports history. Just like when he played with Jordan and pippen the best thing for him to do is shut up and sit in the corner. And when they allow you to shoot or speak you best not miss. Other than that stay out of the way. The NBA has a serious problem with how they treat coaches. 3 of the last 5 championship coaches were fired. In the NBA the best players win not the best coaches. Recycling coaches does not work. A babysitter like Kerr can win 4 rings with the best players. A legend like Pop can get the number 1 pick with no talent. Vogel, Nurse, and Bud being fired is laughable.
It’s true. You can’t always scapegoat the coach when teams lose. Now when they have superior talent and keep losing then there’s something wrong. I think Snyder, Monty, and Rivers fell into this category.
Bud didn’t do anything wrong losing to a better coached team, the Heat. Sure, they would’ve faired better with Spoelstra as their coach, but that doesn’t mean Bud deserved firing.
Vogel was a silly firing, but did look bad with their roster and record. However, that was more the front office goof of bringing in really old guys and trading away their bench.
Nurse was just a situation of stagnation. Their roster wasn’t changing enough and they expected a different result. A new coach isn’t going to change things much. They needed a star player after Kawhi left. They never did enough to get one. Just going to be more of the same, but a different coach. Huzzah! Lol
It will be interesting to see how good of a coach Monty really is in Detroit. The Suns could’ve just been CP3 choking or getting injured every year, and not Monty. We’ll see.