Last season was miserably bad. Monty was handed a bad roster and I think they needed to confirm what they had in Killian Hayes and he obliged them. He also needed to see for himself who else could play both offense and defense. Weaver made some of the most head scratching trades and drafts that were off the mark. Monty was not the one out there turning the ball over like bobble head give-a-ways.
I’m not married to Monty Williams but this roster mess by Weaver was the teams undoing
The oddest thing that Monty seemed married to was going full bench in most games. He hardly ever staggered it so either Ivey or Cade were on the court at all times.
Yup the rotations were my biggest gripe. There was no staggering of the few good players they had. They’d be in a tight game and then go a 6 minute stretch with no Cade or Bojan/Ivey and they’d go like -12 over that stretch and suddenly the game was over
A. No, they didn’t.
B. If they really wanted to see what they had in Killian, they shouldn’t have been looking at a starter version of Killian. They should have been giving him more minutes to run the bench unit to see if he is even a viable rotational piece. He was never going to be a starter.
The best way to find this out would have been to put lineups on the floor that made sense together. Putting 3-4 non shooters around Cade doesn’t provide any information. Put a real lineup on the floor that makes sense together and see if Ausar or whoever can integrate with a real lineup.
Can’t believe we have people out there justifying Monty’s coaching last season.
And then he’d make comments in the postgame that made you question whether he even understands modern basketball. Like 2 months into the season, he made a comment like he was shocked that Ivey played better with the ball in his hands. You’re the coach and Ivey played a ton with the ball in his hands last year when Cade was injured. Did you even watch any game film of the team you were inheriting? And then he’d make comments like wow the team looked better with more shooters. Gee, ya think? And I’m not even getting into the starting lineup at the beginning of the season surrounding Cade with Killian, Ausar, Stewart and Duren. Could you possibly put together a lineup that made less sense around Cade? (Or any player for that matter). 4 non-shooters in a starting lineup is, well, not good.
Cade
Hayes
Thompson
Stewart
Duren
Is an OBVIOUS non-starter to a complete idiot
It was their third most used lineup, and when Hayes was cut it was #1
I’m sorry, Monty did terrible
So did weaver
When a team is that bad there are multiple failure points
The idea of “needing to confirm what you had in Hayes” is hysterical to me
I do also wonder whether Troy knew that Monte Morris was going to miss the first half of the season when he went after him. But, he’s gone now so it doesn’t matter all that much.
The idea of Morris was a good one and Weaver had a few others but he had way more terrible ones than the alternative
I wonder if weaver knew he needed to win to keep his job. Seems like a year ago people still believed in him. Helped avoid panic contracts.
My now three year old receipts on Weaver are immaculate
Weaver did three good things:
He signed Jerami Grant
He traded for Bogdanovic and Burks
All of those were high value moves
He then undermined them all by refusing to deal them at peak value
“Clean cap sheet” is fine but you have to use that for something
Take bad contracts for draft picks
Sign usable players
He did neither
They aren’t going to sign a max guy, at least not a max guy worth it
Dead serious
JB Bickerstaff just taught a bunch of young guys to play real basketball
Don’t know if he’s a “going for it” coach for the step after but he’s shown he can get guys to defend
Hopefully, it’s a relatively quick evaluation to know that Monty was bad last season which is enough to fire him.
I would be happy with Atkinson. If we go by Brooklyn Nets tenure, he would fit in well with the Pistons with a bunch of young players developing and playing well into a playoff team.
Langdon has been with the New Orleans Pelicans since 2019, and, to my knowledge, has had a very powerful voice when it comes to basketball decisions in New Orleans, despite being under David Griffin, who relied upon Langdon heavily. The Pelicans made the postseason three times in the five years that Langdon was general manager, and that is with Zion Williamson missing big chunks of seasons, including an entire season due to injuries. New Orleans also won 40-plus games twice in those five years.
Am I reading this wrong, or is this positing “they almost went .500 two separate times!” as a selling point?
They went 42-40 two years ago and 49-33 this past year.
that does not scream “roll out the red carpet” to me!!! this was part of an answer to a question about not being proven. the question and the first paragraph of the answer:
Langdon is clearly qualified and deserving, but with the Pistons needing to show much improvement (and quickly), wouldn’t it have been better to hire someone proven, who’s already been successful? (Dennis Lindsey, John Hammond?) — @Nick_Nice21
I get where you’re coming from as Langdon has never been the head decision-maker running an NBA team, but I don’t think it is fair to say he’s not “proven.”
then the paragraph i posted above. the “winning 40 games” is a selling point. but there are 82 games in a season! 40 games is not that great??
It would probably be worthwhile to just go back and look at GM/PBO/equivalent titles to see what hiring guys who haven’t actually done the job looks like compared to those who have.
Obviously teams can’t only hire those who’ve done the job before but the claims about who did what in a front office seem…speculative? And potentially not very useful.
even if you give him 100% of the credit for the pelicans during his time there, is that a good thing? is there enough success in that org to say anyone should be hired from it? i am unclear!
They’ve certainly been a team who’s been trending up, going from 30 to 31 to 36 to 42 to 49 wins over the last five years. And, as that blurb points out, much of the improvement has come with Zion missing chunks of time. That seems to point to a balanced roster.
