One Stat Sums Up Just How Much Money The Pistons Owe Monty Williams By Firing Him A Year After He Signed A Massive Deal

Getty Image

The Detroit Pistons are in search of a new head coach after kicking Monty Williams to the curb one season into a record-breaking six-year deal, and one stat puts the amount of money they still owe him into some pretty wild perspective.

The Detroit Pistons have only made the playoffs twice in the past fifteen years (with both of those appearances ending in the first round), and they were in the midst of a four-year drought when they hired Monty Williams to replace Dwane Casey after his predecessor posted a 17-65 record in the previous campaign.

Williams posted a very respectable 194-115 record during the four years he spent with the Suns before he was fired at the end of the 2023 season.

He’d planned to take some time off to care for his wife as she battled cancer, but the Pistons were able to convince him to get back into the fray with the help of a six-year, $78.5 million contract that made him the highest-paid NBA coach of all-time when it was signed.

Williams knew he was signing up for a rebuild when the deal was inked, and the franchise had to know there were going to be some growing pains. However, it likely didn’t anticipate the 28-game losing streak that played a major role in the Pistons finishing with the 14-68 record that cemented them as the worst team in the NBA.

At the end of May, Detroit hired Trajan Langdon as its new President of Basketball Operations a day before firing GM Troy Weaver, and on Wednesday, we were treated to a fairly surprising development when Adrian Wojnarowski revealed the Pistons were parting ways with Williams (an edict he says was passed down directly from owner Tom Gores).

Williams is still owed a grand total of $65 million over the course of the next five years, and as Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic notes, that means he’ll be able to rake in more dough sitting on his couch than Dan Hurley would’ve made if he’d decided to join the Lakers instead of sticking with UConn.

Must be nice.