The Phoenix Suns made the tough call to fire Monty Williams as their head coach. Williams is one of the most successful head coaches in franchise history and was the engineer of one of the biggest turnarounds in the league over the last few years.
However, following another brutal, and early, playoff exit, the Suns opted to move on from Williams and would ultimately hire Frank Vogel as their next head coach, going a mile further by paying top dollar to build a strong staff around him.
Now, Suns president of basketball operations and general manager James Jones spoke about the decision to move on from Williams.
“A hard decision had to be made about, ‘Where do we go next?’” Jones said of firing Williams (h/t ClutchPoints). “And moving forward, I just felt we needed an injection of a different voice, different energy.”
Suns majority owner Mat Ishbia added his thoughts during an appearance on Arizona Sports 98.7 on Tuesday.
“After the season, James and I regrouped over what happened and what we felt we could do better,” Ishbia said. “And the decision was, ‘Monty Williams is a great coach. He’s done a lot of great things for our organization.’ But it was time to make a change and look for the guy that was going to take us to the next level, the championship level. The place that we’re going to go and we want to stay for as long as we possibly can and hopefully, for years and years.”
That lead to to the Suns tabbing Vogel, the former head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, Orlando Magic and Indiana Pacers, as their next head coach.
“We set out a few years ago to become a franchise that many would call elite, and we’ve taken some steps toward our goal of winning a championship,” Jones said. “But as we look forward, we needed another leader, someone that could elevate us to the next level. And through this process, after talking to many great candidates, many amazing coaches, we settled on the guy who we think has all the qualities: leadership, honesty, integrity, championship experience, a love for the game, a passion for the community.”
