Dear Friends,
I haven’t talked about the Suns for a few days, and it has been wonderful. They did fire Monty Williams, though, over the weekend, and I have feelings about it. I suppose this is as good a time as any to address them.
I like Monty. I initially wrote “liked” but I think I will always have a soft spot for the guy. He seems like a genuinely fine man. Honorable and caring and a role model for how a man is supposed to be, I think, and from everything I’ve read and heard about Williams, he’s just all those things.
That doesn’t make you the right coach, though, for this team. I kind of feel like the Suns need an asshole who can get the best out of all the players by being tough and no-nonsense. I feel like Monty kind of let the nonsense slide a lot. I also feel like Monty is not a good tactician.
If you go back five playoff series, including the finals loss to Milwaukee, Monty was outcoached in each one. It may be six, actually, as the Clippers were without Kawhi in 2021 and still made it a pretty good series. This can’t happen and with a new owner, the team could not afford to sit back and give it another go. Mat Ishbia is a basketball guy and if I see that the Suns are being badly outcoached, I’m sure he sees it on several deeper levels.
The off-season is going to be an interesting one, that’s for sure. Ishbia gets to put his stamp on the team and the personality of this squad will be very different next year, no matter what else happens. If they keep Ayton, I hope the next coach can light a damn fire under his ass. Somehow, though, I don’t think we’ll be seeing DominAyton in a Suns uniform next year.
Change is coming, Suns fans. Buckle up.
I decided that I would take a break from sports for a while, too. I am not quite sure what this looks like for now, but one thing that I’m going to cut way down on for the foreseeable future is sports talk radio. I would rather read about sports for a bit than listen to the local guys blather on about the Suns and Cardinals. They barely touch the Dbacks in the 20 or so minutes I usually listen to them in the day, so it will be nice to take a break and look in on the sports news via Twitter or Az Sports website.
It's a little gift I am giving myself (and y’all, too, as I probably won’t write many more of these types of blogs for awhile). Sometimes we have to be kind to ourselves in ways that we don’t expect or wouldn’t have imagined even a few weeks ago.
The frustrated sportswriter that lives inside my brain can go on vacation for a bit. I’m going to focus on finishing this week and next week strong with my students, missing my wife, and getting used to driving a lot more as the kids have places to be. Getting rid of just a little bit of the noise that clutters up my brain is a good thing.
Here’s to ten days of school left.
See you tomorrow.
10 days to go.
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