48 Laws of Power: Silas Edition

What if everyone is wrong about Silas?
What if the tricks he used to help turn Lebron, Curry, and Doncic into All-NBA level players are currently working their magic on the young Rockets?
What if he knows and is pushing just the right buttons with each of his young players to get the most improvement from them?
What type of a cunning mastermind would be able to get the best results while looking inept and ineffective to the uninformed?

A coach who wields the 48 Laws of Power. After carefully evaluating the Rockets performance, I was able to see some traces of the 48 laws of power being applied. Is it a coincidence? Is Silas a bumbling idiot or a master of manipulation? It may be too early to know the truth.

Law 1: Never outshine the master- Allow Stone to run practices and set lineups, making him appear
brilliant
Law 2: Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use enemies- hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them. Judge who is best able to further your interests in all situations. Keep friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent. (KPJ? Alpe? JG? KMJ? ).
Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions - Use decoyed objects and desires and red herrings to throw people off the scent. Hide your intentions not by closing up, but by talking endlessly about your desires and goals— just not your real ones. (Alpe?, KPJ as pg, Trying to win games, playing the way they are supposed to)
Law 4: Always say less than necessary.
Law 5: So much depends on reputation, guard it with your- life learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. (2 wins vs suns & Monty Williams- current coach of the year/ nbca coach of the year (2021,2022); 2 wins vs Spurs & Popovich- 3xs coach of year and winningest NBA coach; 2 wins vs Billy Donovan- NBCA co-coach of the year 2020, John Wooden legends of coaching 2010, 3 time SEC coach of the year; 1 win vs Milwaukee and Budenholzer- NBA Coach of the Year Award (2019) and the NBCA Coach of the Year Award twice (2019 & 2020[co-coach], Best record in the league and Champion 2021, 1 win vs Joe Mazulla- 2nd best record in the league.
Law 6: Court attention at all costs - Better to be slandered and attacked than ignored. (Worst record in the league) Do something that cannot be easily explained or interpreted. (Starting lineups, playcalling, & minutes distribution). By simply holding back, keeping silent, occasionally uttering ambiguous phrases, deliberately appearing inconsistent, and acting odd in the subtlest of ways, you will emanate an aura of mystery.
Law 7: Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit (Lucas, Mahmoud, etc)

To be continued....

41 more laws to go, but I see some signs here. I went in order to prevent cherry picking, but there are even better examples further down the list. Law 5 convinced me I'm not completely delusional. Everyone has to have a dream, and I hope this is true. I will judge by Silas's ability to keep his job after 3 horrible seasons. If Silas is the still coach next season (especially if we get Wemby), I will believe he must be a master of manipulation worthy of molding our young talent.

edit:
ABOUT THE 48 LAWS OF POWER
Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_48_Laws_of_Power

 

Sorry I didn't mention that these are based on the best-selling book 48 Laws of Power by Robert Green. I did not make these up or alter them.

Here is the complete list:
Law 1: Never Outshine the Master
Law 2: Never Put Too Much Trust in Friends. Use Your Enemies
Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions
Law 4: Always Say Less than Necessary
Law 5: Protect Your Reputation at All Costs
Law 6: Court Attention at All Costs
Law 7: Get Others Do the Work For You, But Take the Credit
Law 8: Make People Come to You
Law 9: Win Through Actions, Never Through Argument
Law 10: Don’t Get Infected by Misery and Misfortune
Law 11: Learn to Keep People Dependent on You
Law 12: Use Selective Honesty & Generosity to Disarm Your Victim
Law 13: Get Help by Appealing to Self-Interest, Never to Their Mercy
Law 14: Pose As a Friend Work As a Spy
Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally
Law 16: Raise your Value Through Absence and Scarcity
Law 17: Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability
Law 18: Don’t Isolate Yourself Behind a Fortress
Law 19: Know Who You’re Dealing with
Law 20: Do Not Commit to Anyone
Law 21: Play A Sucker to Catch a Sucker: Seem Dumber Than Your Mark
Law 22: Use the Surrender Tactic
Law 23: Concentrate Your Forces
Law 24: Play the Perfect Courtier
Law 25: Re-Create Yourself
Law 26: Keep Your Hands Clean
Law 27: Play on People’s Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following
Law 28: Enter Action With Boldness
Law 29: Plan All The Way to The End
Law 30: Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless
Law 31: Control the Options
Law 32: Play to People’s Fantasies
Law 33: Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew
Law 34: Be Royal in Your Own Fashion – Act Like a King to Be Treated Like One
Law 35: Master the Art of Timing
Law 36: Disdain Things You Cannot Have: Ignoring Them is the Best Revenge
Law 37: Create Compelling Spectacles
Law 38: Think As You Like, But Behave Like Others
Law 39: Stir Up Waters to Catch Fish
Law 40: Despise the Free Lunch
Law 41: Avoid Stepping Into a Great Man’s Shoes
Law 42: Strike the Shepherd to Scatter the Sheep
Law 43: Work on The Hearts and Minds of Others
Law 44: Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect
Law 45: Preach the Need for Change, But Never Reform Too Much at Once
Law 46: Never Appear Too Perfect
Law 47: Do Not go Past The Mark You Aimed For, In Victory, Know When to Stop
Law 48: Assume Formlessness

 

Law 6: Court attention at all costs - Better to be slandered and attacked than ignored.

There are more examples of how this could be interpreted as other laws, but since I have only gotten to 7 so far I won't go too deep into them, some are:
Law 21, Law 22, Law 35, Law 36, Law 46, Law 47

 

There are always critics, even of the New Testament of the Bible lol
I gave a list of the 48 laws in a previous post so you could look at them and decide for yourself pretty quickly. If you want a better summary of the book check out The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene Summary & Notes - Nat Eliason

As far as contradiction, the book is not a system developed to gain power, or laws that apply to every situation. It is a list of tools used by those in power that may or may not apply to a specific situation. The author states how some of the laws may need to be reversed in some situations (like with law 1 sometimes you would want to attack a weak master and take their position). Law 48 actually says specifically "Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed."