We’ve been talking about this on our podcast and site for a couple weeks now: The Hornets’ two most vital free-agents-to-be for next season were Monty Williams and Dell Demps. Well, that number is now one smaller, as the Hornets have confirmed that they have inked Williams to a new four-year deal.
The Hornets have not released the terms of the deal, but since it has no salary cap ramifications, the money doesn’t matter much. I’m sure he’s making a comfortable living.
Monty is a charismatic guy, with a demeanor that almost comes off as gentle when dealing with the media. It makes him extremely likeable. Players have nothing but good things to say about him, and over the last two seasons, no one can possibly argue that he didn’t have everyone playing hard. You can even point to Jason Smith as a development project gone right. That’s enough to say he deserves an extension to see what he can do with a roster that isn’t turning over 90% every season.
He’ll get the chance to push this young roster to show its teeth, work with some development projects (Aminu, Rivers) and generally show if his coaching chops are legitimate. First on the docket, I’m fascinated to see if he adapts to the new personnel and gets them moving at a faster pace, or if his history in San Antonio and Portland keeps his team slow and ponderous. Adapting to your personnel is the hallmark of a great coach. First test of many.
Congratulations Monty!
23 responses to “Hornets extend Monty Williams”
Happy.
Congrats to Monty!! Monty’s taken care of-just need GM Demps to get a new deal!!
Bring us a championship, guys!!!
I know this won’t be a popular post, but why exactly are we extending Monty? I know we had injuries and didn’t have the talent needed to win, but we also tied for the third worst record in the NBA last season.
I guess I just would have preferred to wait and extend Monty after he gets us to the playoffs or shows us that he can coach a winner.
All of this said, I am a MONTY FAN. I think he is a great up and coming coach in this league who will get it done here. My only issue with offering the extension now is that its pretty unprecedented for a coach to get an extension coming off the kind of season we had last year and would have preferred to offer it after we won some more games this season.
The Hornets were in the playoff just a few years ago with superstar talent with Monty as the coach. And now we have even more talent on this time with rookies and a couple good free agents moves. So he has earned this extension cause now this is his team. Dont be surprised when the Hornets are in the playoff thos year and not as an 8th seed, probably 3 or 4 seed. Next step is to get Dell signed.
The hornets have low expectations for their coaches. If another team were looking for a coach he would not even be considered if available.
You are flat-out, unarguably wrong if you mean that Monty would not be strong candidate for ANY of 29 other teams.
LOL….
and your Coach is who? Alvin Gentry?! wow…
Are you really going to refer to a track record for our coaches when we have an entirely new owner calling the shots? Our name hasn’t changed, but we have new brass in place, and Benson has only employed one coach. So in what way is what Shinn did relevant? It’s a different company. Quit trolling because we took Gordon back, and enjoy Michael Beasley and Wesley Johnson.. I’m sure they’ll blow the NBA away
I would argue that without Monty, they may have been tied for the worst team. He’s proven he can motivate, which might be the most important skill an NBA coach can have.
If not Monty, then who? Face it, this is now Monty’s team, he (& Demps) built this team and had a hand in every player that’s on it. So you would suggest just giving him one year to see if he can do anything with the team? Surely nobody is naive enough to think this first year will be make or break for deciding if Monty is the best choice long term. It will take several years to really know that one way or another. And it’s not like they HAVE to keep Monty the full term of his contract if there is a total melt down, plenty of coaches have been let go before the end of their contract. What the ownership is doing here is taking any uncertainty out of the equation going into this new era for the team, letting them know without question this is the direction and we are going to let it play out to it’s fullest. There is no better option currently, so let’s put all our efforts behind this current plan with the people we have and see if we can make it a success. It will take about 2-4 years, or so, to really know if we have something here that will achieve it’s potential, and we are fully committed to find out if we are right. If we are wrong, at least we gave it every opportunity and can’t look back and play “what if we had of?”, that is no way to move forward. This is how you move forward, with a strong vote of confidence.
This signing is just as important as any other signing this summer. A system needs time to work. See SA, OKC. Continuity is big. Monty is the man for the job. As stated above, we just need to lock up Dell and we have a solid foundation for the future. Stability is not just valuable for wins directly, but it also attracts free agents. This is huge. Grats, Monty!
I’m pretty happy. Benson has given NFL coaches enough time to hang themselves, which Monty has not really done (or Sean).
The deal goes for 2y beyond when the initial deal ended, options included. We also don’t really know if the last year of this one is an option, for instance.
It will come up when Davis is scheduled to his RFA, and Benson will sit a coach and hire another, so it fits with our timeline.
I like the move.
I’m a little surprised we didn’t get this a little more into season or camp, but it looks like these guys are REALLY trying to tidy up affairs in short order and give this message of “Stable” to the world.
It’ll take a while to sink into the heads of some, but it just may work.
Good job.
Can we all finally agree that this is even better than the offseason to where we sold our first rounder to Memphis and signed Posey? I mean it was close before this, but this should give the edge to this year.
Respect between a coach and his players is so important to winning, and there aren’t many coaches in the league who can relate with his players better than Monty. He deserves his extension not so much for what he did two seasons ago with Chris Paul out there as floor general, getting to the playoffs, but because he showed what he could achieve without Eric Gordon, even if the W-L record doesn’t reflect that…and he isn’t afraid to admit he’s still learning how to be a better coach.
This is a great move. I think that if he wouldn’t have gotten the extension, he may have pushed to sacrifice the future just to make the Playoffs this year at the trade deadline.
Monty is next-door neighbors with my friend, and I wonder if he’ll be moving after he got this contract.
I think Monty is great. That job he did two years ago was nothing short of a miracle. They ended up w/ the 7th seed, but if Okafor doesn’t get hurt that year we are probably a 4 or 5. Last year was a complete wash. You can’t even hold that against him. Lockout, superstar forced a trade right before the season, ridiculous amount of injuries, no time to prepare, no draft pick, and yet they wre still competetive all the way to the end. Any coach put in that situation would struggle – any coach. He’s a leader, well respected, a great motivator, and in all honesty he’s an outstanding figure head/face of the organization to lead this rebuilding project. If anyone thinks any different, I don’t think they know much about sports in general.
I love love love the commitment Coach Williams! Are we sure a faster pace is better? I didn’t see a ton of EG on the Clippers. I know he’s young and not super NBA tall, but is he really fast? And I guess I like GV at the point more than most too, and he is slow.
I like Williams and I feel like he could be a good developer of talent. However I’m hesitant to say I’ve seen evidence of it in his short time with the Hornets. Although Smith’s shooting last season was above-average and the best of his career, his rebounding is still below average for either PF or C. Overall he’s still a average at best and his scoring, I think will be less needed (with Anderson, Davis and a healthy Gordon) than rebounding and defense. Anyway, I’m a fan of Williams, happy about the extension and, like Jason Calmes, I feel good about how the organization is going about projecting (and creating) stability.
Monty is halfway through what I consider as the “traits of a great coach” – he can inspire his team to play hard each night (a hard thing to quantify). The other thing is, like Ryan said, whether he can adapt to his personnel. I’m not asking for a complete fast-paced system. All I’m asking is that, when fastbreak opportunities are there, take them. That’s all
GOOD NEWS!!!
GREAT NEWS! 🙂
[…] head coach Monty Williams received his four-year contract extension back in August, the focus shifted to when Dell Demps would receive an extension of his own. Today, […]
[…] months after Head Coach Monty Williams received a contract extension, Dell Demps received his. This move will keep the duo together up to […]