Should Monty Williams Have a Spot on Billy Donovan's OKC Thunder Coaching Staff?
As he prepares for his NBA debut, new Oklahoma City Thunder coach Billy Donovan is looking for experienced basketball minds to round out his staff and help smooth his transition from college to the pros.
Should ex-New Orleans Pelicans coach Monty Williams be one of those men?
According to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, Williams is on Donovan's long list of candidates: "Donovan has a targeted interest in several potential candidates, including ex-New Orleans Pelicans coach Monty Williams, Chicago Bulls assistant Andy Greer and Portland Trail Blazers assistant Nate Tibbetts, league sources said."
Per Wojnarowski, Donovan is expected to retain assistants Mark Bryant and Darko Rajakovic from Scott Brooks' staff, as well as add former Florida assistant and Alabama head coach Anthony Grant. Billy Schmidt, another one of Donovan's pupils with the Gators, could also join the staff.
Donovan will be under a lot of pressure to succeed immediately. He's replacing a moderately successful coach in Brooks and inheriting a talented roster with championship aspirations. On top of that, Kevin Durant is entering his contract year, and the uncertainty surrounding his future is sure to hang over this upcoming season.
With so much at stake in his first year and a group of qualified assistants to choose from, it is important that Donovan surrounds himself with veteran coaches who will help him hit the ground running.
What Does Williams Bring to the Table?
The first thing Donovan must do before deciding to bring Williams—or anyone, for that matter—aboard is weigh the pros and cons.
Williams' pros are that he's been a head coach for five years after spending another half-decade under Nate McMillan with the Portland Trail Blazers. He helped develop Anthony Davis from a 19-year-old phenom to one of the five best players in the league in just three seasons and built a strong bond with The Brow.
"He's a great coach. The whole team loves him," Davis said a day after the team was eliminated from the playoffs. "He's done a lot for the organization since he's been here."
Williams was also respected enough in the coaching ranks to earn a spot alongside Mike Krzyzewski with Team USA, where he had some exposure to Durant. He also deserves some credit for getting the most out of a battered Pelicans team and guiding New Orleans to the postseason.
Unfortunately, the cons are a bit more profound.
Williams finished his Pelicans tenure with a 173-221 record (43.9 percent), and his two trips to the playoffs were punctuated by first-round exits.
Furthermore, he came to NOLA with a reputation for being a defensive-minded coach. However, with the exception of his first year in New Orleans, the team never showed much promise at that end during his regime. As seen in the chart below, the Pelicans ranged from middle-of-the-pack to bottom-of-the-barrel in opposing field-goal percentage, forced turnovers and defensive efficiency.
| Year | Opp. PPG | Opp. FG % | Opp. TO's | Def. Efficiency |
| '14-15 | 98.6 (11th) | 45.6 (23rd) | 11.8 (28th) | 104.7 (22nd) |
| '13-14 | 102.4 (19th) | 46.5 (24th) | 14.0 (14th) | 107.3 (25th) |
| '12-13 | 97.9 (14th) | 47.1 (26th) | 12.7 (27th) | 107.6 (28th) |
| '11-12 | 93.4 (7th) | 44.4 (13th) | 13.9 (21st) | 102.3 (16th) |
| '10-11 | 94.0 (5th) | 45.7 (13th) | 14.5 (10th) | 102.5 (8th) |
That's galling considering this was Williams' area of expertise.
Last summer, the club brought in center Omer Asik to help Davis inside and bolster New Orleans' interior defense presence. Despite having two stellar paint-patrollers in the starting lineup, the Pelicans allowed more field-goal attempts at the rim (25.5 per game) than any other team in 2014-15, per NBA.com.
Making matters worse, they let opponents shoot 52.4 percent at the rim this season, which was the 13th-highest in the league. By comparison, the New York Knicks, one of the worst defensive teams in the league this year, managed to allow 51.7 percent.
Offensively, Williams didn't provide a ton of fireworks either. The Pelicans ranked 27th in Pace Factor (average number of possessions per 48 minutes) this season, per ESPN's Hollinger stats, marking the fifth-straight year the team has finished among the bottom eight in that category.
DailyThunder.com's Steve Pierce had another note about Williams' offensive shortcomings:
"Many observers were perplexed with the Pelicans’ persistent lack of defensive progression under his (Williams') guidance, and there were legitimate questions about his personnel decisions and offensive creativity, particularly at the end of games. (Does that last part sound familiar, Thunder fans?)
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The person Pierce is alluding to is Brooks, who was routinely criticized for his vanilla offensive philosophy and ultimately let go because the front office felt it would help the team evolve.
"We determined that, in order to stimulate progress and put ourselves in the best position next season and as we looked to the future, a transition of this kind was necessary for the program," general manager Sam Presti said during the press conference to announce Brooks' termination, per NBA.com.
Why should Donovan seek the counsel of a man with the same perceived flaws as the guy he's replacing? If Williams' presence doesn't aid the offense or improve the defense, what does he bring to the table?
Potential Better Candidates
Current Assistant Coaches
In his report, Wojnarowski mentioned Greer and Tibbetts in Donovan's list of candidates.
Greer has been around the NBA since 2001, serving as an assistant for five different teams. However, his coaching background goes back to 1983, when he got his start as an assistant at Genesee Community College in New York.
More recently, Greer spent the last five seasons with the Chicago Bulls under one of the game's best defensive minds in Tom Thibodeau. If Donovan is looking for someone with both experience and defensive acumen, Greer would be a worthy choice.
Tibbetts is a familiar name in the Thunder circle, having served as the head coach of the Tulsa 66ers (now known as the Oklahoma City Blue) from 2009 to 2011 in the NBA's Developmental League. He compiled a 64-40 record during that stretch and led the 66ers to the playoffs twice.
Tibbetts parlayed that D-League run into a stint as an assistant with the Cleveland Cavaliers (2011-2013) before taking the same position with the Trail Blazers two years ago. His expertise in developing young talent would come in handy on a Thunder team loaded with 20-somethings such as Perry Jones, Mitch McGary, Steven Adams and Dion Waiters.
One other name in Woj's report is New York Knicks assistant Brian Keefe. He served under Brooks in OKC from 2009 to 2014 before joining former Thunder point guard-turned-Knicks-coach Derek Fisher in the Big Apple.
Keefe doesn't have the track record of Greer or Tibbetts, but he does have something that could benefit Donovan this season: Durant's attention.
In an article from last March, Durant told NBA.com's David Aldridge about a conversation the star forward had with Keefe that helped him get his mind right last season:
"That was probably one of the most realest conversations I've had with a coach, ever. He let me know how bad I was -- my body language, my attitude. I just decided to look at myself and self-evaluate. And he was right. I had to change how I was thinking, how I was acting toward my teammates. Everything.
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With Durant's future being the central storyline of this upcoming season, employing someone who has KD's respect wouldn't be the worst idea in the world.
All three of these men can help the Thunder to an extent that Williams can't.
Other Former NBA Head Coaches
If Donovan is determined to add a former NBA head coach to his staff, there are a couple of names for him to consider.
Like Williams, former Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Malone was surprisingly fired just when it seemed things were starting to look up. After a 5-1 start, the Kings stumbled to an 11-13 record, mostly due to star center DeMarcus Cousins missing the final nine games of Malone's tenure with meningitis. The team went 2-7 during that stretch, which—along with tension between Malone and the front office—played a huge role in his upheaval.
Also like Williams, Malone comes with a defensive background. He developed strong defensive units during his previous stints as an assistant coach in New York, Cleveland, New Orleans and Golden State. During his 24 games with the Kings this year, the team allowed just 96.6 points per game.
More importantly, Malone developed a working relationship with the mercurial Cousins, who called his ex-coach's firing "unexpected" and "emotional," per Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. If Malone can get along with someone as ill-tempered as Cousins, that should bode well for a potential relationship with the fiery Russell Westbrook, right?
Speaking of former NBA head coaches who could connect with Westbrook, Maurice Cheeks is believed to be on Donovan's radar as well, per Wojnarowski.
Cheeks' four-year run as an assistant in OKC was bracketed by head coaching stints with Trail Blazers, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons. He famously came to Westbrook's aid when the point guard lost his cool against the Memphis Grizzlies in February 2013.
Cheeks sports a sub-.500 coaching record (305-315, 49.2 percent) and just one more playoff appearance than Williams, but his resume on the sidelines dates back to 1994, and he had a storied playing career with the Sixers. His previous run with OKC as well as his connection with Westbrook gives him an advantage too.
Monty Williams did enough during his time with the New Orleans Pelicans to earn a second chance somewhere else.
However, the Oklahoma City Thunder should not be one of those destinations.
The reason has less to do with Williams' coaching acumen and more to do with the Thunder's peculiar needs entering Durant's contract year. With Donovan still new to the NBA experience, it is important for him to surround himself with the best possible options to help accelerate his assimilation into the pros.
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