For all the wrong reasons, Monty Williams comes in first.

Is Monty Williams’s position in Detroit getting hotter already? According to a list compiled by CBS Sports, the head coach of the Detroit Pistons is the most in-demand coach in the NBA.

Is it fair to blame them? Ultimately, following the 2024 NBA All-Star break, the Pistons have only managed nine victories in a short span of games.

Although Williams was by no means expected to turn Detroit’s youthful and inexperienced team into a postseason contender in his first season, the Pistons have encountered far more hardship than anyone could have predicted. As is often the case, the coach bears a large portion of the blame when his team performs poorly.

After 384 games, the Pistons concluded their tenure with Dwane Casey in charge. After the Pistons parted ways with Stan Van Gundy in 2018, Casey assumed leadership. After the 2022–2023 season ended badly, Casey and the Pistons agreed it was time for a title change, putting the seasoned head coach in a front-office position.

After Detroit had a coaching search, many people thought they would hire Kevin Ollie, a rookie, as their new coach. Rather, Williams found himself on the open market after a four-year stint with the Phoenix Suns, so the Pistons took a big risk on him.

With Williams earning so much money with the Pistons, the team appears to be a bad investment given their record-breaking 28-game losing streak and current position in last place in the Eastern Conference after 58 games of play. However, reasonable expectations shouldn’t have led the Pistons to assume that Williams would put this club on a championship trajectory from the start.

Williams hasn’t impressed us much so far, but the Pistons have invested too much money to deny this team the opportunity to develop. Even though Williams could be at the top of this list, there are a few other players who could replace him if teams with larger expectations falter in the run-up to the playoffs.