After a month-and-a-half long coaching search, the Houston Rockets finally found their guy in Stephen Silas. While Silas wasn’t the most high-profile candidate, he’s an amazing fit for the team and clearly has some big plans ahead for the Rockets’ future.
A Basketball Background
Stephen Silas is one of those guys whose life revolves around basketball. His love for the sport comes from his father Paul Silas, a two-time NBA all-star who played a lengthy 16-year career. His father also spent over two decades as a coach for several teams, so Stephen definitely started learning the intricacies of the NBA from a young age.
As for Stephen’s career, he started out as a scout for New Orleans in 1999 before being promoted to assistant coach the following season. At the time, the move even made him the youngest NBA assistant at the age of 27. Now boasting 19 years of coaching experience, Silas has become well-respected in league circles. He’s also worked with guys like Stephen Curry, Kemba Walker and Luka Doncic, so he’s been around the best the NBA has to offer too.
The Next Offensive Mastermind?
Most notably, Silas served as an assistant for the Mavericks over the last two years. While in Dallas, he played a massive role in establishing their record-breaking offense. The 2019-2020 Mavs averaged an astounding 115.9 points per 100 possessions, breaking the previous record held by the KD-led Warriors. Statistically speaking, they became the best and most efficient offense in NBA history last year.
Silas ran a five-out offensive scheme with Dallas, and they ranked second in three-point attempts per game. They were also ranked second in turnovers as well, only giving the ball up 12.7 times a game. To add to that, they ranked fourth in assist-to-turnover ratio, and came in at sixth overall in net rating. All of these numbers are indicative of one thing: Stephen Silas is one hell of an offensive coach.
For an idea of how Silas’ offense worked last year, here’s a video from Coach Gibson Pyper of Half Court Hoops (@HalfCourtHoops on Twitter). He delivers an in-depth breakdown of the Mavericks’ historic offense, and it’s definitely worth checking out.
A Match Made in Heaven
Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit here, but there literally couldn’t be a better candidate to take over the Rockets’ coaching job. Silas proved that he’s an innovator who’s more than capable of holding his own as a coach. He helped unlock Luka’s potential with the Mavericks, which should translate perfectly since he’s basically a younger version of Harden. Silas also gets the most out of role players too, as seen with how Tim Hardaway Jr. became a great presence for Dallas last year. Additionally, his experience with guards like Kemba and Steph means that he could help bring a new edge to Russ’ game as well.
Put simply, Coach Silas should be a perfect fit with Houston.
One thing to note as we enter the offseason is that Silas should wield a great deal of influence on Houston’s roster moves. With a new GM in place, he likely will get to choose the targets the team pursues. Since he ran a five-out scheme in Dallas, pursuing a stretch big would likely be the best choice to help him settle in. That way the Rockets could keep their offensive spacing for Russ while providing rim protection on defense, and they could still play small ball in bursts if they wanted to.
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Press Conference First Impressions
On November 5th, the Rockets held a press conference to introduce their new coach as well as new GM Rafael Stone. Almost instantly, he won over the hearts of fans with how he presented himself and his plans for the team.
On the offense: “Not very many changes, honestly. It’s worked, and that’s part of their greatness.” However, he stressed that he wanted to help make things easier for Harden/Russ, wanting to add more versatility to the offense as well as relying less on isolation-heavy play.
On working with the star backcourt: “I gave them my vision as far as how I wanted to play and wanted them to be able to use their greatness… they made clear they want to help the team and do whatever it takes to win.” Additionally, he said they’re “impossible to guard,” and that he looks forward to unlocking more of their potential on the defensive end of the ball too.
“I’m beyond excited to coach both those guys, they’re so, so talented.” — Stephen Silas
On his vision for the team moving forward: “One of the things Rafael and I have been talking a lot about is in today’s NBA, you cannot just play one way. Small ball can be a part of it, but you can also have a big guy who can roll to the rim or duck inside.” He and Stone later added they will be “incredibly aggressive” pursuing talent this offseason, and made clear that they won’t limit that search to guys 6’7 or under. Silas will have options and versatility moving forward to go big or go small, depending on game situations.
Enter the Silas Era
All things considered, the Rockets hit a home run with the Silas hire. He’s a fantastic coach who can handle the modern NBA, and is more than trustworthy to handle things while the championship window is still open. With the right moves this offseason as well as some schematic tweaks, Houston could find themselves as a real contender next year. As an added bonus, Silas excels in player development, something Houston could capitalize on in the (terrifying) case that Harden eventually leaves and they’re forced to rebuild. Rockets fans, its about time to buckle up and enjoy the Silas Show.
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