Nets' Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson feel empathy for Pistons coach Monty Williams
Pistons coach Monty Williams reacts during a timeout in the first half of an NBA game against the Nets on Saturday at Barclays Center. Credit: AP/Noah K. Murray
DETROIT — The Nets aren’t thinking about history that could be made Tuesday facing the Pistons. But it’s hard for Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson to ignore a familiar face going through turmoil.
Saturday’s win over the Pistons was their first meeting against their former coach Monty Williams since the two were traded from the Suns last season. Both helped send Williams and the Pistons out of Barclays Center with a 26th consecutive loss, tying for the longest in-season losing streak in NBA history.
Business is business but it’s hard avoiding the personal if the Pistons break that record. Williams coached Bridges and Johnson for four seasons and the Nets duo felt empathy that Williams’ first season in Detroit has gone rougher than anyone expected.
“You definitely wouldn’t want that on anybody. Especially not Mont,” Bridges said. “Such a great dude and works so hard and really good coach. So it's tough.”
They can also relate to the Pistons’ struggling. In Bridges’ first season with the Suns, they were 19-63 — including a 17-game losing streak — before hiring Williams in the 2019 offseason. In 2019-20, Johnson’s first season, the Suns were 26-39 when the NBA suspended its season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Like the Pistons now, the Suns had a young core with Bridges, Johnson, Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton. They lost eight games in a row in December 2019 and had the worst record of any team invited to the NBA bubble in July 2020.
“Sometimes you got to lose before you can win. Sometimes you got to fall before you crawl, walk before you can run,” Johnson said. “We started the season pretty solid too, then we went on [that] losing streak about this time of year too. . . . [We] just weren't really able to close out games.”
Yet the Suns went from struggling to an immediate turnaround. They went 8-0 in the bubble and after adding Chris Paul, the Suns reached the NBA Finals in 2021.
The losing hurt in the moment but Johnson remembered the culture that Williams created. It helped the Suns stay the course and created good habits they built on for that playoff run and leading the NBA in wins in 2021-22.
“There’s kind of an arc to winning games that you learn when you’re a young team and just figuring out ways,” Johnson said. “That’s kind of how we developed in Phoenix and with a young team that’s just how it goes. You just need to figure out ways to win games.”
The Nets, of course, had to lean on that to end their season-worst five-game losing streak Saturday. The Pistons are still learning as they couldn’t match the Nets’ ability to close the game and struggled giving up points off turnovers and second-chance opportunities.
Johnson and Bridges credited Williams for their development and still communicate with him frequently. Williams returned the compliment as he said that Bridges’ growth from starter to star player is a flagship for him with player development.
Yet before the wins and Johnson and Bridges being showered with love in their return to Phoenix this month, there was plenty of losing. Not as much as the Pistons now but those Suns lost enough where people wondered if a turnaround was coming.
It’s why Bridges feels for Williams having to face so much more losing. The Suns went through rough patches to find greener pastures and Bridges hopes Williams will get a chance to do the same with a new team.
“Sometimes you got to struggle to get to what you want,” Bridges said of Williams. “That's my guy, obviously I don’t want him losing like this, but you know, God [has] got something for him towardthe end and it's just something he has to go through.”
Evan Barnes covers the Giants for Newsday. He previously covered the Brooklyn Nets, Memphis football and the Memphis Grizzlies and also covered prep sports in Los Angeles.
