NBA Coach of the Year is Monty Williams

After finishing as the runner-up for the NBA Coach of the Year in the previous season, Phoenix head coach Monty Williams claims the coveted award this time around

(News4usonline) – The NBA playoffs have yet to be decided. For the Phoenix Suns, a team that posted the best record in the league during the regular season, their Western Conference semifinals matchup with the Dallas Mavericks could go either way.

The series is knotted at 2-2. There are three games left to play in the series with Phoenix having the benefit of playing two of those contests at home. While their season hangs in the balance, the one thing that the Suns can bank on is head coach Monty Williams putting his best foot forward in leading his team.

He’s done it all season. And with Phoenix cruising to a 64-18 regular season mark and earning the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, Williams proved in his third season with the Suns that he is one of the best at what he does in the NBA.

Well, it turns out that Williams is the best at what he does after he was chosen as the 2021-22 NBA Coach of the Year, the NBA recently announced. After a 103-96 home defeat to Williams and the Suns back on Feb. 15, Los Angeles Clippers coach Tyronn Lue shared his thoughts on how Phoenix, under the guidance of Williams, was rolling through the season.

“They have a team full of guys that want to defend and that makes them great right there: taking that individual challenge every night and they do it,” Lue said. “They have a really good defensive unit. It is what it is. They did a great job, great game plan. Monty is one of the best in the game. They played well but I loved the way our team competed and we just came up short from the win.”

When the Suns made an appearance in Southern California to play the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 21, Phoenix jumped all over the Purple and Gold, coming away with a 108-90 win at Staples Center (later renamed Crypto.com Arena).

After the game, David Fizdale, the acting head coach for the Lakers at the time, talked about the defensive capabilities of the Suns.

“Probably more than anything that hurt was offensively, we got really stagnant,” Fizdale said. “They do that to teams. You watch them on film, and they get teams to stand, they get teams to hold. I thought in the second half, that was the difference. Our offense stalled out and allowed them to play off more misses
in transition. They were catching us in different matchup situations.”

For the naysayers that may have felt that last year’s NBA Finals appearance by Phoenix was a fluke after posting a 51-21 regular season mark, Williams and the Suns answered the bell emphatically. Under Williams, the Suns were dominant at home (32-9) as well as on the road (32-9).

The team came through with the winningest percentage in the history of the franchise (.780), and at one point, won 18 straight games.

With savvy point guard Chris Paul and mercurial closer Devin Booker leading the way, Williams turned Phoenix into a complete team. The Suns ranked third defensively and fifth in the league in offense. Williams finished as the runner-up in last year’s coach of the year award designation. After the season that Phoenix had, Williams was the runaway winner this year.

Williams tallied 81 first-place votes from a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters. He totaled 458 overall points to be the clear-cut winner. Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins finished second with 17 first-place votes and an overall tally of 270 points.

In that win against the Lakers, the Suns held Los Angeles to just 38 points total for the second half of that ballgame. Phoenix wound up winning the game by 18 points. How the Suns were able to throttle an offense like the Lakers with LeBron James and Russell Westbrook was an indicator of how well Phoenix has played this season.

“I thought was admirable for us to hold those guys to 38 points in the second half,” Williams said. “They missed a bunch of shots, but I thought our defensive energy was pretty good tonight. Offensively, we were 12 for 41 from three. I think we were three for 22 at halftime, and that’s not typical of us, so I’m glad we were able to get that out of our system after the way we scored the other day. So overall, we got the job done.”