The Rockets finished up the final game of the season on Sunday, beating the Wizards in Washington. It left them with a 22-60 record, their third straight finish at or near the bottom of the league. It’s a team that is long on expectations and talent, but short on wins and Coach Stephen Silas is the first shoe to drop in the Rockets plans to remake the team.
In this case, the coach won’t be fired. Reportedly, the team plans to simply not pick up the fourth-year option on his deal and they will move on.
Silas’ tenure was complicated. He was hired to coach a cadre of veterans with designs on continued deep playoff runs and potentially a championship, but that was derailed before it even got started when the team shipped off its best players, including James Harden, in Silas’ first season as a coach. From there, it was three painful years of losses that was preceded by eight years of the postseason.
The team will head into the offseason with a top 10 draft pick (maybe as high as No. 1), quite a bit of money available to spend in free agency, which weirdly could include Harden. For now, we look at the tenure of Silas and what this means for the Rockets.
Silas was a good guy put in an impossible situation.
This would have been a tough gig for any coach, but for a first-time coach who expected to be leading a group of veterans? Ouch. Silas handled it all incredibly well and seemed to take it in stride despite the incredibly bad hand of cards he was dealt. Not only did he lose all his good players his first year, he was handed a bunch of talented teenagers in his next two seasons. Even quality veterans like John Wall were benched in favor of developing young talent, something Silas could not have been thrilled about. It’s a make/miss, win/lose league and this team was going to miss and lose a lot. Still, he was gracious. It would be a shame if this marred his career as a head coach. He deserves better.
In the end, Silas was the wrong coach for a bunch of teenagers.
Having said that, this was simply not the right spot for Silas. With a team of kids learning the ropes, discipline and accountability must be higher on the food chain than reassurance and he just didn’t appear to have the demeanor for that level of criticism. When Eric Gordon, before his trade, said there had been “no development” of the younger players, it was the beginning of the end. This team needs someone who can command leadership and provide structure for a still very young group of players.
Who might be next?
Reports are that the team has roughly eight candidates on their radar including Nick Nurse (Raptors), Kenny Atkinson (Warriors), Adrian Griffin (Raptors), James Borrego, and former Celtic coach Ime Udoka, who was suspended for violating team protocols, reportedly making unwanted advances on a female employee. Some have also mentioned former Rockets guard and current Sixers assistant, Sam Cassell. No doubt, the team will start lining up candidates quickly with some likely not available until after the playoffs.
How will this impact the offseason?
This is going to be a crazy summer for the Rockets. We’ve said that before — recently, in fact — but it’s true again. Not only do the Rockets, once again, have multiple picks in the first round, but they should have enough cap space to sign one, perhaps two, top tier free agents. They are already tied for the worst record in the NBA with San Antonio, so their chances of landing one of the top three picks (widely considered far an away better than four through whatever and including the grand prize of Victor Wembanyana) are even with the Spurs and Pistons. With free agency opening just a week after the draft, all hell will break loose in late June, so they better have a coach in place by then.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
