Q: With some guys, you know, “this is his philosophies, this is how his teams played all these years.” What you did in Boston had to be directed by the roster at the time. What are your constants, your philosophy or the ways you most like to see basketball played? A: I would say regardless of any team or personnel, the one thing you want to see is offensively, team basketball, unselfishness, guys playing the right way. And that goes across the board, no matter who you’re with. And then I would say from the defensive standpoint, a good defensive team, defensive individuals and team defense in general. I think, for me, you expect certain things out of guys and to me, it’s a big effort thing on the defensive end. And when you have capable guys, all these athletic young guys, it’s just a mentality shift for the most part. So, always want a good defensive team and then unselfishness on the offensive end. Q: Talking about defense then, in Boston you typically played two bigs. One at least was incredibly mobile, and you switched a lot. Are those things that you feel like in 2023-24, that’s how the best defenses are played in the NBA? A: Yeah, I would say in general, teams struggle against teams that can switch and keep all the actions in front of them. You put the onus on guys one-on-one. My philosophy in general is to make teams beat you one-on-one. With USA basketball a few years ago, Doug Collins said, “Make teams make plays, not run plays.” So, that’s kind of my concept as far as that. Take them out of all their actions and make someone have to beat you one-on-one. Teams have one or two maybe — not every team has even one — quality guy that can beat good defenders one-on-one. Q: Do you have the guys right now who can do that? A: Yeah. The first thing I would say is we have competitive guys and that’s a big part of it. Guys with a chip on their shoulder, guys who want to be pushed to be great. Defense is a mentality and effort. And so, with our guys having that competitive nature, there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to be good defenders. Q: Can Alperen Sengun be that kind of defensive player at center? A: Yeah, I think anytime you’re a cerebral player, you can figure things out. And so, people have to understand and it’s my job as well to understand people’s limitations and so you don’t put them in positions where they can’t succeed. You’re not going to have certain guys sitting back and in a drop position when they’re not great rim protectors and at a disadvantage. So, you tweak things to adjust to your personnel and being a smart player, he should be able pick up all these concepts easily. Q: Jalen Green has his strengths and his struggles defensively. What do you see in what he can be? A: If you have all these physical attributes, to me, there’s no reason you can’t be a good defender. You have length, athleticism. I mean, a big part is getting stronger. We have a younger team. Some guys need to obviously get stronger in that department and that helps right off top. But I always go back to that mentality shift. If your focus has always been offense and you’ve had success with that, you’re going to kind of gear toward that more so than the other end. But understanding big picture of what always helps you win, you look at every successful team, and defense is a constant.” Q: Last year, the Rockets were great on the offensive boards. They led the league in offensive rebound percentage and second-chance points. It was thought that was why they gave up so many transition points, the most in the league. First, do you agree with going to the boards the way they did, and does that necessitate sacrifices in transition defense? A: I was always a guy that was geared more towards stopping the transition, making teams beat you in the half court. But something that our team did naturally well, at that level, top of the league, you don’t want to take away that strength. I think it’s just another added layer to being hard to guard offensively, teams worrying about you on the offensive glass. I played against a number of teams that did that and it really puts a lot of stress. Then, I look at your first layer of transition defense is you being able to attack the offensive glass. Teams are less receptive to run out or leak out … if they know you’re a great offensive rebounding team. So, you can negate some of that transition. I would say the biggest part of the transition (defense) was our turnovers, being 30th in turnovers. Those are obviously going to lead to a ton of fast break points and easy baskets.” Q: There were so many times defensively, the recognition seemed to make them a step behind. Is that something you grow out of or can be taught out of? Does it just take time? A: Those are those are things you can definitely learn and grow out of, but you don’t want certain mistakes to happen over and over. You need to learn from those and not make the same ones. It was a problem. Individual defenders, I think we have really good guys on the ball. But the team defense was lacking at times, the rotations behind were lacking. That was evident in the film I watched, a lot of lack of rotations and team defense behind it. But those things can be cleaned up.
Q: There was a defensive want to from last year’s rookies, Tari Eason and Jabari Smith Jr., and obviously some tools and even some successes. Do you have a sense of what they can be and what that could do for the group?” A: I think they’re only scratching the surface, what they did last year. You see some natural tendencies there, which is a great thing, especially for younger guys. They have that that dog mentality, and they want to guard and take on the challenge. And so, anytime you have that you can only go up from there. There’s some natural skillsets and things you can’t teach, obviously tremendous length and versatility to be able to guard multiple positions. So, those guys have a head start on that and that’s only going to be become better for the group. And that’s my thing, to challenge and push them in that area to become even better but they’ve already set the example of what they can be. Q: Offensively, Boston didn’t run a ton of high pick-and-roll. Was that a philosophical thing? Is that just because the personnel or would that be something we can expect to see with Houston, to move away from that? A: It’s a little bit of both. Sometimes, you want to force movement. And certain go-to possessions, you go to your strengths, and that was certain guys having the ball in their hands in a pick-and-roll. You want to well-rounded team-concept offensively. You tried to initiate movement on your own. We did a lot of side-to-side action where the ball swung and got to the second side. But when it’s money time and winning time, we had the ball in the guy’s hands to go to those actions. And so, it’s a balance of both, getting the team involved, but using guys strengths, as well. So, we do have guys that need to be more efficient in the pick and roll. But they’re really good at it and so we’ll use both. Q: You ran plenty of iso with the Jays (Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.) That’s pretty far removed from the San Antonio years. Are you a Pop disciple when it comes to the ball movement, the pass-and-move style, or is that then and this is now? A: There’s a balance. We understand how hard that is for other teams to guard. But at the same time, you have to use your personnel to your advantage. The way we played “the beautiful game” in San Antonio, honestly it was due to a lack of a go-to guy. Tony (Parker) was great in the pick-and-roll, Timmy (Duncan) in the post, Manu (Ginobili,) we had a young Kawhi (Leonard.) But there wasn’t a dominant one-on-one scorer. We got LaMarcus (Aldridge) later and talked about, we play this way for a reason, because we can’t just hand the ball to somebody. When you have Jayson and Jaylen, you want to take advantage of that, especially when teams are switching. You want to take advantage of matchups. We have guys capable of getting a basket. We’ll use that to our advantage. Q: The Rockets used iso the 13th most often and were 11th in points per possession in iso, and that was with a team that ranked 27th offensively. They must have been good at it. But the San Antonio style might fit the Rockets strengths. What fits your roster? A: We have capable guys that can score on their own, but my job is to help them grow in certain areas. You want them to become better playmakers. You want them to get to the spot and get to the basket. We have two guys (Green and Kevin Porter Jr.) that are really good at that. We understand the attention they’re going to draw. They need to make the right play. Q: Offensively, Sengun has unusual abilities. How do you best use that talent, especially when you also have dynamic scoring guards? A: It adds to the versatility you can have offensively. Anytime you have a big that can initiate offense, whether its from the high post or off the block, you want to take advantage of his skillset. The (Nikola) Jokic comments are there for a reason because he does some of the passing and has the vision and can score from different areas on the court. He’s deadly in the pocket. You can hit him on the half roll, and he can make all the plays there. That just makes it easier for everyone else. A guy like Kevin Porter who shot in the high 40s on spot up 3s only took two a game. You want to use that, move him around and have other guys initiate offense to get him those shots. Alperen has a unique skillset that we want to take advantage of. Q: How do you set up your staff? Do you have a guy that coaches the defense and a guy who run the offense? A: I don’t use an offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator thing. The way I learned and what helped me become more well rounded is to do a little bit of everything. That’s the way I learned for seven years under Pop. We have guys who scout (opposing) teams. We have a game plan for how we’re going to defend these guys and what offensive concepts work against them. I think it helps (coaches) grow, which I’m big on. For me, I like to hear different voices. I want the players to hear different voices, not just the same guy talking about defense. I think it works for the team. Pop is well-rounded and he wanted us to be focused on everything, player development, relationships, offense, defense, game plans, everything. Q: Wine dinners? A: That’s his thing. I’m not a wine guy.
Again, Silas did also. People need to stop pretending that Silas doesn't understand these basic things. The reason why Ime is going to be a better coach has nothing to do with bball IQ between Silas and Ime. The difference is when Green or KPJ or Sengun start b****ing at the refs while the other team is already scoring a bucket on the other end, he's going to yank their asses. What Silas says at pressers is to justify the playstyle. He ain't going to say he can't control the kids. That even a worse look than implementing a "wrong system" for a head coach.
Silas only knows how to coach a guard centric offense. Taking the ball out of kpj’s hands and putting it in Sengun’s must have gave him an aneurysm. Player’s strengths be damned.
I disagree! Jackson (the locked on sports guy from yt) would ask Silas in the media sessions one thing about playing Sengun, or Jalen or how KPJ was used in the offense and the very next game, Silas would put it in the exact thing he was asked at the podium. Silas was an unserious coach. He had one play, one scheme, and that's all he used. he was not imaginative. that wasn't because he is introverted, it's because he was dumb (relative to his coaching peers) the children did what they were told to do. silas told Bari and Jalen to stand in the corner so they did. Silas told Sengun to come off the bench, so he did. Silas told KPJ to do whatever, so that's what KPJ did. silas was telling these kids to crash the boards AND get back at the same time wondering why the rockets were getting beat in transition all the time. LOL
Silas only knows a pick and roll offense. He said for Sengun he needed to dust off his dad’s 1980s playbook. I know that was tongue in cheek but it really does show how uncomfortable he was about it.
Silas always said what you wanted to hear on his weekly show on 790. Don't underestimate stubbornness.
I love love love what I'm reading from Ime. It's just common sense. My goodness, Silas was such a dumbass.
if Silas knew basic stuff why did he say he didn't want Jalen dribbling the ball? Why did SIlas take out Bari, Jalen, KPJ, Sengun to put in the all brick squad led by Nix? KPJ was the best shooter on the court how come Silas never got him shots in the offense? How come Silas was so opposed to running Bari and Tari together? Why did silas bench Sengun for Bruno? Why did SIlas run a 2 big offense when Jalen needed space to operate? Why the hell did Silas play Gary like he was ray allen when Gup was the more impactful player? Why did it take so long to play KJ? Why didn't Silas spam the Jalen, Sengun pick n roll? why did Silas only use bari as a spot up shooter when he shoots better on the run? man, i can go on and on and on.
remember when the reports came out that his assistant coaches were pleading with him for MONTHS to put in a play that included Jalen and KPJ that ended up killing one team? yeah silas is a nice guy but apparently super stubborn.
i think Silas not necessarily is dumb but stubborn. it was obvious he wanted heliocentric offense with a athletic rim running big
I said this when it was looking bleak that we would get him, Udoka would have a bigger impact on the team for the next 10 years than anyone we could add outside of Wemby. He was the one coach on the market that was capable of implementing an entire culture shift like a Popovic or Spolestra. Even if Stone wasn’t thrilled with giving up some power I’m glad Tilman had enough basketball acumen to push this through.
Sengun will thrive under him. He is working out almost everyday in Turkey. I expect him to come back and handle at least 34 mpg. This year will be his first “strongish” season because he didn’t have a free summer in like 3-4 years. He lost lots of fat but didn’t gain that much muscle. He got faster but lost some power. This summer he has lots of time to get stronger and expand his range, and this guy sounds like he knows how to use Alpy. 19/11/5/1.2/1 is achievable with more minutes and improved shooting. I am excited for Green too. It looks like Alpy and Green will have more playmaking responsibilities and KPJ will play off the ball and shoot more. This year will be fun.
Wrong, Silas was and is a moron, he should not be a NBA coach. Yanking someones ass will not make a huge difference if you don't use their strengths as an advantage.
this is big. “Move KPJ around and let others initiate the offense” “use Sengun’s skill set” hallelujah, praise the lord!
