- Former Pistons executive Rob Murphy and his legal representatives are firing back at the woman who accused him of harassment, Tresa Baldas of the Detroit Free Press reports. His lawyer alleged the Pistons cleared his client months ago of sexual harassment following an internal investigation. The same counsel added that Murphy looks forward to defending his name through the judicial process.
MAY 14: The Suns made it official, announcing in a press release that they’ve parted ways with Williams. Jones issued a statement accepting responsibility for the decision, despite reporting indicating that it was Ishbia’s call (as detailed below).
“Monty has been foundational to our success over the past four seasons,” Jones said in a statement. “We are filled with gratitude for everything Monty has contributed to the Suns and to the Valley community. While it was difficult for me to make this decision, I look forward to continuing the work to build a championship team.”
Williams could become a “prominent candidate” in the Raptors‘ coaching search, Wojnarowski writes in a full story.
MAY 13: The Suns have decided to make a coaching change after their second-round loss to Denver, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The team has dismissed Monty Williams, who had served as head coach since 2019.
New owner Mat Ishbia made the decision to fire Williams, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). As first reported by John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 and confirmed by Wojnarowski, Williams still had three years and more than $20MM left on his contract.
Williams compiled a 194-115 record in his four years in Phoenix and took the team to the 2021 NBA Finals. He also earned Coach of the Year honors in 2022.
However, Ishbia opted to go in a different direction after the team was eliminated from the playoffs in embarrassing fashion in back-to-back second rounds. The Suns lost their last game of the season at home by 25 points this spring and by 33 points last year.
With Kevin Durant and Devin Booker under long-term contracts, Charania believes the Suns’ vacancy instantly becomes the most attractive in the league (Twitter link). Ishbia and general manager James Jones are focused on building a championship roster this summer, and they want to find the right leader to guide it.
The Suns will explore whether it’s possible to land current Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue, tweets Marc Stein. Lue stated that he wants to return as the team’s head coach after L.A. was knocked out of the playoffs last month, and the organization hasn’t indicated that it’s considering a change. Lue signed a five-year deal when he joined the Clippers in 2020, so he’s under contract for two more years.
One potential candidate to replace Williams is Mike Budenholzer, who was dismissed by the Bucks earlier this month after his team’s first-round loss, tweets Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports. A report on Friday from Jake Fischer indicated that Milwaukee was closely monitoring Williams’ status in Phoenix, so it’s possible that the two NBA Finals coaches from 2021 will end up exchanging teams.
Toronto and Detroit are the other franchises currently in the market for a head coach, and Williams may emerge as a candidate for those jobs as well. The Pistons reportedly scheduled interviews with their three finalists this week, but James L. Edwards of The Athletic suggests that the team may reach out to Williams before making a decision (Twitter link).
After falling short of a playoff appearance this year, the Bulls are open to reconfiguring their personnel to better fit maximum-salaried shooting guard Zach LaVine, writes Sean Deveney of Heavy.com.
Deveney notes that Chicago may be open to moving on from its two other priciest players, 32-year-old center Nikola Vucevic and 33-year-old All-Star small forward DeMar DeRozan. Vucevic is an unrestricted free agent, and Deveney writes that the Bulls are not necessarily interested in keeping him around long-term.
The team could consider flipping DeRozan for young Suns center Deandre Ayton, Deveney speculates.
There’s more out of the Central Division:
- After firing title-winning head coach Mike Budenholzer, Bucks GM Jon Horst is expected to conduct an expansive search in looking for his replacement. Eric Nehm of The Athletic examines a variety of possible Milwaukee head coaching candidates, including decorated longtime assistant coaches like Chris Quinn and Adrian Griffin and recent champion head coaches Frank Vogel and Nick Nurse, among others.
- This past week, as was previously reported, Pistons owner Tom Gores met with the team’s head coaching finalists: Bucks assistant Charles Lee, former Overtime Elite head coach Kevin Ollie and Pelicans assistant Jarron Collins. The team is not expected to hire a new coach until after the NBA draft lottery on Tuesday, per Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).
- Former Pacers head coach and team president Larry Bird is serving as a consultant with Indiana’s front office once again, per Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files (subscription required). The Hall of Famer and former Pacers coach and executive recently attended the team’s first pre-draft workout workout at their practice facility on Friday. “Larry has been a consultant to basketball operations since the beginning of this past season,” head coach Rick Carlisle revealed. “It’s always great to have him in the gym!”
Kings draft-and-stash prospect Sasha Vezenkov is seriously considering the possibility of making the move to the NBA for the 2023/24 season, reports Marc Stein in his latest Substack story. In fact, Stein says one source believes a deal between the two sides is “trending toward inevitable.”
The No. 57 pick in the 2017 draft, Vezenkov had his NBA rights acquired last offseason by Sacramento. A year later, both the Kings and Vezenkov are coming off hugely successful seasons and may be in a better position to team up than they were in 2022.
The Kings snapped a 16-year playoff drought by posting their best record since 2004/05, while Vezenkov had an MVP-caliber season in the EuroLeague. The 6’9″ forward averaged 17.6 points and 7.0 rebounds per game on .546/.398/.857 shooting in 33 games (28.7 MPG) for Olympiacos and is attempting to lead the Greek club to a EuroLeague title.
Vezenkov is under contract with Olympiacos beyond this season, but has a buyout clause in his deal that’s believed to be worth approximately 1.5 million Euros.
Stein shared a few more tidbits from around the NBA at Substack. Here are the highlights:
- Pistons general manager Troy Weaver is believed to be a major supporter of head coaching candidate Kevin Ollie, according to Stein, who says the belief in coaching circles entering this week’s interviews with finalists was that Ollie was the frontrunner for Detroit’s open position. James L. Edwards III of The Athletic first suggested last week that Ollie may be in the lead for that job.
- After reporting last month that the Mavericks were in advanced negotiations with former Jazz executive Dennis Lindsey, Stein says Lindsey has joined the Mavs as a special advisor to general manager Nico Harrison and will be part of Dallas’ front office contingent at next week’s draft combine in Chicago.
- In the wake of the Suns‘ elimination from the postseason, a league-wide consensus that Deandre Ayton has played his last game for the team is “quickly forming,” Stein writes. We wrote earlier today about the expectation that the former No. 1 overall pick will be on the trade block this offseason.
Indiana will be hosting six prospects on Friday for the team’s first pre-draft workout, the Pacers announced in a press release.
The six players are UConn’s Andre Jackson, UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez, Missouri’s Kobe Brown, Creighton’s Arthur Kaluma, North Dakota State’s Grant Nelson, and Liutauras Lelevicius, a Lithuanian prospect who played for Zalgris II this past season.
Jackson (30), Jaquez (32), Brown (43), Kaluma (90), and Nelson (94) all appear on ESPN’s top-100 prospects list, while Lelevicius is unranked. The Pacers control their own lottery pick, two late first-rounders (26th and 29th), and two second-round picks (either 50th or 32nd, plus 55th).
Here’s more from the Central:
- Hiring the right head coach, having a successful draft, and acquiring forward depth in free agency are among the top offseason priorities for the Pistons, according to Mike Curtis of The Detroit News (subscriber link), who thinks the team should pursue Nets restricted free agent Cameron Johnson.
- Pistons center Jalen Duren, who was recently named to the All-Rookie Second Team, was mostly pleased with his debut season, but he’s going to work on his conditioning and consistency in year two, Curtis writes in another subscriber-only story. “Consistency is a huge word,” Duren said. “To be great, you have to be consistent. For me, it’s honestly just being locked in and trying to understand what’s going on. ‘Being where my feet are,’ I like to say, and try to take over games, dominate games and affect games in any way possible. … I feel like that will come. I’m excited about what I can be in this league.”
- Josh Richardson, Kelly Oubre, Max Strus, Gary Trent Jr. and Jalen McDaniels could be the types of wings the Cavaliers choose to go after in free agency with their mid-level exception, Kelsey Russo states in a mailbag for The Athletic. I don’t see Trent falling to that price point, especially since he could just opt in to his $18.8MM player option if he isn’t confident about getting a better payday, but the other four might be attainable (whether or not they’d be a good fit is another story).
First named as the frontrunners for the Pistons‘ head coaching job back on April 21, former UConn and Overtime Elite head coach Kevin Ollie, Bucks assistant Charles Lee, and Pelicans assistant Jarron Collins are still considered the finalists for the position, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
A previous report indicated that the top candidates for the Pistons’ coaching vacancy would meet with the organization’s top decision-makers, including owner Tom Gores. Charania confirms that those meetings are happening this week and that they’ll involve Ollie, Lee, and Collins.
Interviews with ownership typically represent the final stage of a head coaching search, so barring a new candidate entering the mix at the 11th hour, it seems possible that the Pistons could make a decision by the end of the week.
Here’s more out of Detroit:
- James L. Edwards III of The Athletic identifies 10 free agents who make sense as potential targets for the Pistons this summer, starting with former Detroit forward Jerami Grant. Edwards’ list includes noteworthy restricted free agents like Cameron Johnson and Austin Reaves as well as less heralded unrestricted free agents such as Torrey Craig and Yuta Watanabe.
- Shawn Windsor of The Detroit Free Press (subscription required) believes the time is right for Pistons general manager Troy Weaver to pursue an established veteran in free agency to supplement the team’s young core. Johnson and Khris Middleton are among Windsor’s suggestions.
- Keith Langlois of Pistons.com looks ahead and considers what to expect from former No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham in 2023/24 following a lost season. As Langlois details, Cunningham has tried to make the most of his injury absence, using his time off to bulk up and to work on his three-point shot.
- In case you missed it, we published our Pistons offseason preview last week.
- The Pistons need to prioritize perimeter shooting and defense, as well as veteran guards, during the offseason, Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press opines. Veteran options for their perimeter needs includes the likes of free agents Jerami Grant and Cameron Johnson (restricted), while Dennis Schroder and Patrick Beverley could fill the other need, unless they bring back free agent Cory Joseph.
Rookie of the Year winner Paolo Banchero was a unanimous choice for the 2022/23 All-Rookie First Team, the NBA announced today (via Twitter).
Players receive two points for a First Team vote and one point for a Second Team vote, and Banchero received the maximum possible 200 points.
Here’s the full five-man squad, listed in order of their total points received via voters:
Magic forward Banchero (200)- Thunder guard/forward Jalen Williams (199)
- Jazz center Walker Kessler (195)
- Kings forward Keegan Murray (185)
- Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin (170)
The All-Rookie Second Team was announced as well, with a couple of teammates headlining the group (Twitter link).
- Pistons guard Jaden Ivey (142)
- Pistons center Jalen Duren (85)
- Rockets forward Jabari Smith (72)
- Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan (66)
- Rockets forward Tari Eason (47)
In my opinion, the most surprising omission from the All-Rookie Second Team was Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard, who received 46 points. Nembhard was actually listed on one more ballot than Eason, but Eason received two First Team votes versus Nembhard’s zero, giving him a narrow edge.
That’s not to say Eason (or anyone else) was undeserving — he had a strong season as a tenacious offensive rebounder and defender. I just thought Nembhard should have been honored because he started the majority of the season for a competitive Indiana team and was frequently tasked with guarding the opposing teams’ best player, as Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files notes (via Twitter).
According to the NBA (Twitter link), others receiving votes included Trail Blazers guard Shaedon Sharpe (36), Hawks wing AJ Griffin (26), Nuggets forward Christian Braun, Thunder center Jaylin Williams (seven), Mavericks guard Jaden Hardy (four), Spurs guard Malaki Branham (three), Pelicans guard Dyson Daniels (two), Hornets center Mark Williams (two) and Bucks wing MarJon Beauchamp (one).
In case you missed it, more NBA awards will be coming later this week. The All-Defensive teams will be announced on Tuesday, followed by All-NBA on Wednesday and the Teammate of the Year award on Thursday.
The Rockets completed their head coaching search a week-and-a-half ago, hiring Ime Udoka to replace Stephen Silas. However, there are still three NBA teams still in the market for new coaches.
[RELATED: 2023 NBA Head Coaching Search Tracker]
Interestingly, those three clubs – the Bucks, Pistons, and Raptors – are at very different stages in terms of their development, so even if they consider some of the same candidates, they’ll likely have very different expectations for their new hires, especially in the short term.
Milwaukee won a title in 2021 and expected to make it back to the NBA Finals in each of the last two seasons. The fact that they only won a single playoff series during that stretch is why Mike Budenholzer is out of work — his replacement will be expected to make deeper postseason runs with a roster headed by two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
While the Bucks’ roster has championship upside, the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement will limit the front office’s flexibility going forward and could hamstring the team’s ability to make additional upgrades. It also may force management to make difficult decisions on upcoming contracts for key contributors on the wrong side of 30, including Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez.
Detroit is on the opposite side of the spectrum, having won no more than 23 games in a season in any of the last four years. There are some promising young pieces here – including Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey, Jalen Duren, and whichever player the team drafts in the top five next month – but the Pistons are all about unrealized potential.
No one on the roster has made an All-Star team, and the next step for the club will be contending for a play-in spot, not a championship. So while a new head coach will be expected to help Detroit take a step forward right away, there won’t be any immediate expectations of winning playoff series.
The Raptors are somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. The team’s 41-41 record this past season was a disappointment, given the presence of former All-Stars like Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet, along with 2022 Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes and three-and-D standout OG Anunoby. But the roster probably lacks the star power and depth necessary to legitimate vie for a championship.
Toronto traded away its 2024 first-round pick with minimal (top-six) protection, so the team won’t want to take a step back next season, even if it makes some significant roster changes. The new head coach will be expected to get the Raptors back to the postseason and not just to make a quick exit.
We want to know what you think: which of the NBA’s three current head coaching vacancies do you view as the most and least appealing jobs? What sort of candidates do you think would be good fits in Milwaukee, Detroit, and Toronto?
Head to the comment section below to share your thoughts!
The Pistons could hire a new head coach soon, according to James L. Edwards III of The Athletic, who reports in his latest mailbag that the top candidates for the job are set to meet with owner Tom Gores next week in Los Angeles.
Bucks associate head coach Charles Lee, former Connecticut and Overtime Elite coach Kevin Ollie, and Pelicans assistant Jarron Collins are considered the leading candidates. However, Edwards believes that Ollie, a former NBA player, is the frontrunner for the position.
Here’s more on the Pistons:
- DeJanai Raska says she was sexually harassed and assaulted by former assistant GM Rob Murphy over a period of several months, she tells Tresa Baldas of The Detroit Free Press (subscriber link). There are too many details to list here, but Raska reported her allegations to the Pistons last fall. The team put Murphy on leave, but didn’t announce that he was fired until after Raska sued both the organization and Murphy. “I grew up in the city really looking up to the Pistons, the Bad Boys … and to be treated this way is heartbreaking,” Raska said.
- Who are the top five prospects Detroit should be considering with its first-round pick, which can land no lower than fifth overall? Edwards ranks those players in order for The Athletic. Obviously Victor Wembanyama is No. 1, but Brandon Miller edges out Scoot Henderson for No. 2. Rounding out Edwards’ top five are Henderson, Houston forward Jarace Walker and Arkansas guard Anthony Black.
- On a related topic, if the pick does land fifth in the lottery — and there’s a 47.9% chance that it will — who should the Pistons select? Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (subscriber link) makes the case for Villanova wing Cam Whitmore, arguing that his physical tools and flashes of shooting make him the best choice at that spot.