The Detroit Pistons announced on Wednesday that the club would be relieving head coach Monty Williams of his duties effective immediately.
Williams, a 2x NBA coach of the year winner, was one season into his massive 6 year deal after being let go by the Phoenix Suns. Detroit will now be forced to payout the remaining $65M on his contract over the next 5 years.
The Pistons finished an NBA worst 14-68 last season. But once again, the ping pong balls didn’t fall their way as the club fell to 5th overall in terms of NBA draft selections on lottery night.
While Detroit did not get into specifics as to why they were parting ways with Williams after only one season, insiders around the league speculate that there were some philosophical differences between the coach and the front office in terms of playing time for some of the team’s younger players.
New team president Trajan Langdon will reportedly oversee the selection of a new head coach personally this summer.
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