Monty Williams is in a can’t win situation
Monty Williams has not impressed very many people during his coaching tenure. Besides his very poor record as a coach, his rotations leave many scratching their heads, and the plays he designs leave much to be desired. It’s hard to find anything that he does particularly well. Even the non X’s and O’s parts of coaching, motivation, bringing out the best in your players, development, and chemistry aren’t as good as other head coaches out there. It’s really difficult to make a positive case for Williams.
However, despite all of Williams faults, it’s still hard to completely blame him for the Pelicans consistent rotation problems.
He is not in a position to succeed. From the very beginning of this season, Williams has been doomed to fail, thanks to management providing him an incompetent roster. While I’m sure there are coaches that could be doing a better job with this current roster, that does not mean any and all blame should be falling on Williams.
A quick look at the minutes distribution across the roster shows that the players receiving the most minutes, in order, are Anthony Davis, Tyreke Evans, Jrue Holiday, Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson, and Omer Asik. This makes sense, these are far and away the best players the Pelicans have on the team. The NBA stat site confirms that this group is quite good. According to that site, the lineup of Asik, Davis, Evans, Gordon and Holiday has a net rating of 11.1, and played the most minutes of any lineup. So we see that Williams is at least getting his best players out on the floor when he can, though the Gordon injury has messed things up a bit.
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Most coaches would just go with the next best thing, replacing Gordon with Ryan Anderson, and seeing what’s best. But this is one of the areas where Williams has failed. That lineup has only played in three games together, for a total of 18 minutes all season. While the numbers are clearly skewed, this particular lineup has a net rating of 19.8, thanks to an offensive rating of 88.7, and a defensive rating of 68.9. Those defensive numbers are completely unsustainable but that is enough of a positive to tell me that this lineup should be getting a little more run.
With that said, it’s well known the Pelicans have a good starting lineup. That’s not where management has failed Williams. Management has has failed Williams by giving him one of the worst benches in the NBA. A look at the minutes distribution after Asik shows, in order, Austin Rivers, John Salmons, Luke Babbit, Alexis Ajinca, Jimmer Fredette, Darius Miller, Jeff Withey, and Russ Smith. There’s one, maybe two, rotation players on that list. If they are rotation players, on most other teams, they’re at the very end of the rotation.
One of those possible rotation players, is Austin Rivers. After a very poor rookie year, and a below average sophomore year, Rivers has looked much better this year. For starters, he seems to have an idea of where he should be on offense, and instead of wildly throwing shots at the rim, most of his attacks seem to be organized. A lot of this comes from the NBA experience he’s gathered. While he’s shooting less than 40% right now, his efficiency numbers are actually up, likely due to an increase in his free throw rate. His defense is still not very good, but he’s been a suitable rotation player this year.
Maybe you can argue that Rivers success this year has to do with playing more point guard, but that hardly sounds like it’s been very good for the team itself. In lineups with Rivers but without Holiday that have played at least 10 minutes, the net ratings are -37.8, -30.9, -21.8, and -33.8. This is the back up point guard the Pelicans acquired after letting Brian Roberts go?
Well no, he also has the options of Jimmer, and late 2nd round draft pick Russ Smith…like I was saying, this is the backup point guard you give Monty Williams?
After Rivers, the next guy in the rotation has usually been Salmons. For whatever reason, Salmons has become Williams go to veteran, and with the Gordon injury that has become even more prevalent. Not only can Salmons not space the floor, he barely averages over one three pointer a game, he never gets to the free throw line, and his defense is below average at best. He brings a veteran presence in the locker room, which is good for a young team like this, but that hasn’t translated well on to the court.
In lineups that have played at least 10 minutes this year, there is only one lineup that Salmons has been a part of with a positive net rating. Anderson, Davis, Evans, Holiday, and Salmons have combined for a net rating of 1.6. That same lineup with Rivers instead of Salmons shoots up to a net rating of 32. Yikes.
So why is Salmons getting all this playing time, when he’s clearly not helping the team? Well, Williams doesn’t particularly like his other options. Darius Miller was cut, so he’s clearly not an option anymore, which leaves Wiliams with deciding on if he should play Anderson at the wing, or go with one of his bench guys. He’s shown that he’s not going to play Ryno as a wing which is most likely a bad decision, but arguing that is irrelevant at this point.
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If Williams isn’t going to do that, then he has the option of Salmons or Babbit. It’s difficult to compare the two, as Williams prefers to play Babbit with more of the starters than Salmons. In all honesty, Babbit is probably the better option here, but at this point, we’re arguing the smallest of details. Which fringe rotation player is going to help the team more, Babbit or Salmons? When neither is leading to wins, Williams is going to go with the player he feels more comfortable with.
Is this a good thing? No, but it really doesn’t matter. The bottom line is the Pelicans have put Monty Williams in a position where he is deciding on if he should play John Salmons or Luke Babbit, when Tyreke Evans has to come out of the game. That the Pelicans put themselves in that position, is a failure on their part.
Monty Williams is not a good coach. He plays peaked out veterans too much, his rotations are suspect, and he doesn’t exactly bring out the best in players. In situations where it’s a coin flip, like Salmons or Babbit, he picks the wrong option almost every time. But when the Pelicans struggle because their bench can’t keep up with better teams, remember this. It isn’t all Monty Williams fault. Management gave him this roster. He’s doing exactly what the organization unintentionally set him up to do, fail. It doesn’t matter what Monty Williams does, he can’t win.
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