Suns ‘fire head coach Monty Williams’ after 25-point blowout defeat to Nuggets in Game 6 

The Phoenix Suns have parted ways with head coach Monty Williams, who led the team to the 2021 NBA Finals, following the team’s 25-point loss to the Denver Nuggets in Game 6 of the second round of the Western Conference playoffs.

The 51-year-old was fired late on Saturday ESPNand it comes just two days after Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Co. capitulated at home to Denver, led by two-time MVP Nikola Jokic.

Perhaps the embarrassing nature of Williams’ team crashing out of the playoffs led to some uncomfortable questions, one that the Suns front office may have felt pressured to answer immediately after the team’s season was all but over.

Williams’ four-year tenure at Phoenix ends with a record of 194-115 (63 percent). Led by last season’s Coach of the Year award winner, the Suns reached the 2021 NBA Finals, where they lost in six games to the Milwaukee Bucks, who also fired their head coach, Mike Budenholzer, this month.

New Suns owner Mat Ishbia, who was involved in a pitched battle with Jokic this postseason, has high hopes in Phoenix as the goal is to finally bring an NBA championship back to the Sun Valley. The Suns have never taken home the Larry O’Brien trophy since the basketball club’s inception in 1968.

What’s more is that the team’s early postseason end came nearly three months after a blockbuster trade for Kevin Durant was completed on the league’s trade deadline in February.

However, Durant landed in the Southwest with an injured ankle and missed all but eight games before the start of the playoffs.

Often criticized for a lack of leadership skills, the 34-year-old averaged 29 points, 5.5 assists and 8.7 rebounds in 11 games in this year’s playoffs. He was, as expected, one of the team’s top two scorers, with Devin Booker leading in both scoring and assists.

The Suns guard averaged 33.7 points, 7.2 assists and 4.8 rebounds against both the LA Clippers (Suns won in six) and Denver. He, along with Durant, former No. 1 pick Deandre Ayton and veteran point guard Chris Paul, was expected to deliver a title to a franchise hungry for success.

“Not a single day feels right,” Williams said after the Suns’ Game 6 loss to the Nuggets on Thursday, when asked to compare last season’s 30-point debacle to the season-ending 25-point loss this year.

The Suns now turn into yet another high-profile coaching opening, passing Milwaukee and Toronto. The Raptors fired Nick Nurse earlier in May, four seasons after winning the franchise’s first NBA title in 2019.

More to follow…