Monty Williams gave Suns literal screws as reminder to tighten up

Earlier in the season, Suns head coach Monty Willians wanted to inspire his team, so he decided to give his players a gift with a reminder to “tighten up the screws.”

Midway through the season, Williams gifted the entire Suns roster with actual screws.

“Well, I think every team goes through segments of the season where things get a bit loose,” Williams said Tuesday. “And from time to time, I’ll do something goofy, just to get their attention.”

Suns forward Jae Crowder told reporters on Tuesday that earlier in the season Williams decided to hand out screws to the Suns squad with a simple message in mind.

“I feel like right now we’re at the end of the season where we just trying to tighten everything,” Crowder said. “Make sure everything is where we want to be mentally and physically with our game and how we were approaching it as a team and just tighten the screws these last few games leading up to the postseason. One day … he gave everyone like screws, like wrenches, a screwdriver, he passed them all around.

“We was like, ‘What is this?’ We’re all holding screwdrivers.”

Crowder went on to to say the message resonated with him and inspired him to tighten up his game and to look ahead to “something much bigger.”

“That just stuck with me,” Crowder said. “That was like at the midpoint of our season and right now that conversation is coming back up, just tighten the screws and get ready for postseason play.”

The Suns are currently sitting as the second seed in the Western Conference and have three games remaining until the playoffs get underway.

“It’s just that time of the year,” Williams said. “I’m one of many coaches that are saying the same thing. It’s just time to tighten up and keep it tight and maintain that level of play as we get ready for tonight and going forward.”