I personally think, while perhaps misguided, the explanation is probably along the lines of:
- Monte inherited Luke as coach. He got to know Luke and they actually DID have a good working relationship.
- At the end of last year, Luke's second as coach, it would have certainly been understandable if he had been fired. However, the front office felt there was a benefit of having longer tern continuity in a coach after recycling through so many.
- Luke's salary did probably play a part in the overall thinking, but I suspect the continuity angle was more important..... or at least it gave them a legit reason to keep him on for season three.
- I suspect they knew from the beginning of the offseason that he would be on a tighter leash than last year, continuity be damned.
- They DID actually have a positive camp and a good start to the season. Vibes were good and Luke was seemingly working with the three guard line-up and other approaches pushed by the front office.
- Things fell apart over the past 10 games. Not only losing games, but starting to get bad body language from players and deafening chants to fire Luke from the home crowd. Bad ticket sales didn't help.
- They have an experienced head coach on their bench to take over for likely relatively cheap the rest of the year.