Fired Suns coach Monty Williams got himself a massive six-year $78 million dollar deal with the Pistons, a job he reportedly didn’t even want.
Williams could collect even more than that if incentives and options are applied – in price bracket of $100 million, Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports reports.
So what does this mean for other coaches around the league?
“It’s going to significantly impact the head coaching landscape for high-level coaches including Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and Golden State’s Steve Kerr,” ESPN Insider Adrian Wojnarowski said. “Both of those coaches have one year left, next season, on their deals. Both, I’m told, in the $8 million annual range right now. Both coaches, when you talk to owners and executives around the league, if they were on the open market might be able to get what Sean Payton got – in the neighborhood of $20 million per year.
“It’s hard to imagine Erik Spoelstra leaving a Miami organization where he started 28 years ago as a video intern, where he’s spent 15 years as a head coach with two championships.
“Steve Kerr is going to be a different situation. His president/GM Bob Myers announced last week that he’s leaving. This is an aging roster. The worldview for Steve Kerr may look different. Watch his negotiations this summer on an extension.
“One other coach who is going to benefit from Monty Williams changing the pay structure of NBA head coach is Clippers coach Ty Lue.”
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst also got word that Williams didn’t even want the job at Detroit but the pay packet in the deal was just too good to refuse.
“I mean, the Suns were planning on paying him next year,” Windhorst said on The Hoop Collective Podcast. “All of these other teams knew that Monty was going to take care of his family and be with his family and take the year off.
“And it got to be so much money that the ‘taking care of your family’ inversed because it was like, ‘Well, wait a minute, I want to do what’s best for my family here but maybe what’s best for my family is taking this freaking amazing offer.'”
Williams is a former Coach of the Year with a .522 career winning percentage, which a struggling team like the Pistons will need to harness.
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