The Pistons should hire Monty Williams so they can fire him again

The recent past has mostly been a disaster for the Detroit Pistons, but things are starting to turn around under the leadership of JB Bickerstaff. 

The Pistons are far from a finished product, but there is a decidedly different feel around the team this season, partly because Bickerstaff has them buying into his coaching style and partly because he has a better cast to work with. 

I don’t want to spend too much time trashing Monty Williams but the difference has been stark, as the Pistons are just tighter and better organized in every facet of the game. Their overall defense has improved and the offense is starting to roll with more movement and more sharing of the basketball, things that were supposed to be the hallmark of Monty’s offense but never showed up in his time in Detroit.

Not everything about last season’s collapse can be put on Monty Williams, as Troy Weaver has to share an equal if not larger portion of the blame for putting a terrible roster together and giving Williams little to work with. 

But there is one area that is on Monty and that is how he handled Jaden Ivey. 

Monty Williams and Jaden Ivey 

For whatever reason, Ivey had a hard time getting out of Monty’s doghouse last season. 

He didn’t start in the first nine games he played and had another stretch of six games in December when he was playing off the bench. Ivey was only getting around 20 minutes per game in these contests and Williams never figured out how to use him effectively in the offense. 

Williams used Ivey’s poor defense as an excuse to yank him in and out of the starting five, but he was the only young player ever held to those standards, as hardly anyone on the Pistons defended well last season. 

Ivey has started all eight games under Bickerstaff, has a clear role and is playing four more minutes per game overall. 

He’s been trusted to run the offense with Cade Cunningham on the bench, and has brought the ball up plenty when Cade is on the court, an adjustment that has helped both players. 

The two are running a lot of handoff/screen action that allows Ivey to give up the ball and then get on the move, which is where he is most effective. Bickerstaff has made it a point to get Ivey the ball going downhill, and once he’s at full speed, few in the NBA can stop him from getting to the paint, which he has at will this season. 

Ivey has had more trust and more freedom and is playing with more confidence because of it, something that was sapped out of him last season when he played like he was scared to make a mistake. 

His defense has improved and he’s posting the best rating of his career by far, another product of increased trust that has come with increased effort by Ivey. 

Not all of the credit or blame can go to any coach, as Ivey has to be given the bulk of it for improving his jump shot in the offseason, putting on some strength and giving more effort on the defensive end/ 

But JB Bickerstaff is finding ways to maximize Ivey’s strengths, while Monty Williams did the opposite. 

I have nothing against Monty personally but I almost wish the Pistons would hire him just so they could fire him again, as he wasted most of a season for Jaden Ivey last year.