no vote for Luke Walton, the scandal is huge
We continue the batch of rewards on this Thursday evening. There were the rookies, there were the best players, here are now the coaches of the month for the period end of October / November. Sorry Steve Kerr, sorry Steve Nash, the NBA decided to go on Monty Williams and Billy Donovan.
When you have the best record in the NBA (18 wins – 3 losses) and your team is on a monstrous 17-game winning streak, there’s a good chance the rewards will drop. Full-back Devin Booker recently won Best Player of the Week title, today is Monty Williams who wins that of coach of the month in the West. The NBA announced the news on its Twitter account and we can say that it is deserved given the current form of the Cactus, who have been destroying everything in their path for four weeks and this despite the Robert Sarver affair which hovers above the franchise. Tuesday’s victory in the shock against the Warriors undoubtedly tipped the scales in the side of Monty, logically in competition with the coach of Golden State Steve Kerr for this award at the start of the season. It’s simple, Phoenix, it’s way too serious on both sides of the field, way too strong collectively, way too oiled up. Obviously it helps a lot to have a maestro like Chris Paul at the head of this collective, but Monty Williams is clearly one of the reasons why the Suns have managed to win so quickly among the leaders of the West after long seasons of misery. No coincidence that the Cactus revival coincides with its arrival for the 2019-20 season.
Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams and Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan have been named the NBA Western and Eastern Conference Coaches of the Month, respectively, for games played in October and November. pic.twitter.com/Fd6MRq64g1
– NBA Communications (@NBAPR) December 2, 2021
Within the Eastern Conference, it is therefore Billy Donovan who receives the praise of the NBA. It just goes to show that having the best track record is not always synonymous with reward. So ask Nets coach Steve Nash, who may be paying for coaching the newly-voted player of the month in the East, aka Kevin Durant. In any case Donovan takes advantage of the attractive start to the season for his Bulls, who translated their large recruitment into very solid results in the first quarter of the regular. 22 games played, 14 wins for 8 losses, second best record in the East behind Brooklyn (tied with Milwaukee and Washington), frankly difficult to ask for better, especially when you take into account several absences (Patrick Williams, Nikola Vucevic, Coby White). If offensively it can still lack fluidity at times (especially on half-court, when it does not play in transition) and the Bulls rely a lot on the individual exploits of DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine, Chicago has managed to put down solid bases in defense (sixth defensive efficiency in the NBA), which was not necessarily expected. And Billy Donovan is no stranger to it. More generally, friend Billy did a good job to build the current collective after the many movements of the offseason, a collective where all the players – stars or not – shoot in the same direction.
Monty Williams and Billy Donovan walk away with a nice reward before attacking the last month of the calendar year. No sign of Luke Walton though. Ah yes, it is true that he is no longer eligible since he was kindly fired by the Kings recently …
Text source: NBA.com
