NBA Rumors: Monty Williams shot down Pistons' godfather offer
Among the many teams involved in coaching searches this offseason is the Lottery losers, the Detroit Pistons. Detroit, of course, finished with the NBA's worst record this past season and ended up with the No. 5 overall pick. Tanking, clearly, did not pay off. And neither did trying to pay their next head coach a significant amount of money.
According to NBA insider Marc Stein on the #ThisLeague podcast with Chris Haynes, the Pistons reached out to former Suns head coach Monty Williams and made him a "big money offer" to come to Detroit. However, despite the offer being lucrative, Stein called the offer "unsuccessful" — which feels like the nice way of saying that Williams told the Pistons to kick rocks.
There have been recent reports suggesting that the Pistons are down to three coaching finalists in their search, none of which are Williams. Instead, the search has reportedly been narrowed down to Kevin Ollie, Jarron Collins and Charles Lee. However, you have to wonder if that would be the case if Williams was interested — or if they'd have bothered whittling it to finalists if that were the case.
It's certainly not a great look for Detroit in this instance if the "big money offer" report is true, though. Yes, this team has not won a lot of games. However, the Pistons have an exciting young duo in Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey, a bevy of cap space and still a top-five pick incoming, even if everyone is disappointed and dismayed it's not Victor Wembanyama. It's not an entirely hopeless situation.
Or, it's not, unless you ask Monty Williams, apparently.
NBA Rumors: Bucks narrow coaching search to 3 finalists… and Giannis has a favorite
Even with Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks getting bounced in the first round of the NBA Playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, it was still quite the shock that head coach Mike Budenholzer was ousted thereafter.
But alas, that's the reality in the Cream City and, as such, the front office has been in search of a new coach for the past few weeks. After extensively interviewing candidates, though, the Bucks reportedly have it down to three. NBA insider Marc Stein noted in his latest newsletter (subscription required) that Nick Nurse, Kenny Atkinson and Adrian Griffin are the three finalists to take up the clipboard on the Milwaukee sideline.
Those all appear to be quality options and names that are hot commodities in the NBA's coaching carousel this offseason. But more importantly than that, Stein also reported that Giannis will have a big part in the franchise's selection of the next head coach. More important than that, it was specifically noted that Antetokounmpo is "intrigued" by Adrian Griffin.
Frankly, the fact that Griffin, a former player and current Raptors assistant, is the favorite choice of Giannis ultimately makes it sound like he's the favorite to be the next Bucks head coach. The fact of the matter is that, even if the front office is somewhat split on Griffin being the choice, the ultimate goal of the organization is to make sure Antetokounmpo is happy and happy for a long time.
With him being involved in this search and having a preferred option, that matters immensely.
NBA Rumors: Did LeBron James bring up retirement to distract from Lakers sweep?
Though it could be said that the Los Angeles Lakers going from the Play-In Tournament to reaching the Western Conference Finals, dispatching the Grizzlies and Warriors to get there too, was an overachievement in itself, it could've been a media circus around the team after they were swept by the Denver Nuggets.
Instead, the conversation immediately became about LeBron James and the possibility that the 38-year-old superstar would be considering retirement this offseason. And at least one NBA executive is suggesting that was all part of his plan.
Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report asked one Western Conference exec about his thoughts on LeBron potentially retiring. This was the response Pincus received:
"He'll suit up next year. He just changed the conversation. Now we're not talking about a sweep; we're talking about LeBron and retirement. He loves to control the narrative."
Is there validity to that or is that just one executive's read on the situation? It's impossible to say — but it does make perfect sense.
Because of James' high-profile nature over the past two decades, expectations have long been skewed for him and his teams, be it the Lakers or otherwise. So it would be incredibly savvy of him to distract the media from his team ultimately achieving more than should've been expected of them by bringing up a possible retirement.
And if that was the goal, it most definitely worked. We've heard little about the sweep, and everything about what LeBron James' next move might be.
