Austin Rivers on KPJ and Jalen: Someone needs to teach them to play the right way

Rockets need veterans, but who’s going to stick around through a rebuild?

With 10 minutes, 16 seconds remaining in the second quarter and a roaring Philadelphia 76ers crowd at Wells Fargo pushing the decibel limit, an all-too-familiar feeling returned to the young, struggling Houston Rockets.

A competitive, hard-fought opening period was done in by two minutes of sloppy play on both ends of the floor. An 11-1 Philadelphia run in that time frame was enough to suck the fun out of a team that had played loose and free over the past two games.

As hanging heads departed the floor following a coach Stephen Silas timeout, new Rockets player Frank Kaminsky was the first player who left the bench to encourage his young, dejected teammates. After speaking to the five who walked off, Kaminsky called Jalen Green over to the side to walk him through some of the things he was seeing take place on the floor. Shortly after, both rejoined the rest of the group.

The 29-year-old big man hasn’t even been with the team for a week following the passing of the trade deadline (sent to Houston along with Justin Holiday for Garrison Mathews and Bruno Fernando) but it’s evident his sudden injection is desperately needed in a locker room deprived of experience.

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“Ideally you want a few guys who have more than three years of experience on the floor and he had 10,” Silas said. “But that’s the business of the game and where we are as an organization as far as rebuilding. Ideally, you don’t want to roll out 10 guys who are first, second and third-year guys but these are guys who play hard, try and learn and are improving. That’s where we’re at.”

Silas is probably the most hurt because he’s been around the game long enough to know the importance of veterans, especially for younger players. They’re critical for a rebuild. But there’s now an increasing list of names of older players who were either traded away or sought better opportunities for themselves over the last few years: John Wall, Daniel Theis, D.J. Augustin, David Nwaba, Green, Holiday and the recently departed Eric Gordon.

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In the summer, Houston will have a lot of cap space and will be able to go out and try to bring players in. But these next few months are a crucial period to fix some bad habits and the Rockets could use some experience to bridge the gap — and there isn’t exactly a volunteer line wrapping around the door. These young guys need that more than anything right now, especially with Gordon no longer with the team.

“That’s how I learned how to be a pro,” former Rockets player P.J. Tucker told The Athletic. “How to be a player. The little stuff you can do. It’s how you see everything, it’s how you learn. Just like any other job or business you go to, the people that have been there show you the ropes and how to move around. I think it’s essential for guys to be able to be successful and keep growing in the league — having OGs that can show you the way to go.”

It’s why having Kaminsky around, even for the time being, should be beneficial. He spoke to players throughout the game, whether Houston was down by five or 15. Second-year big man Usman Garuba spoke to The Athletic after the game and raved about Kaminsky’s presence and shooting ability, highlighting his performance in a recent 3-on-3 game. Players can learn from him.

But just as Green and Holiday did, one must think about Kaminsky and what he wants at this point in the season, too. Team and league sources say his situation is best described right now as fluid. Some teams have expressed interest in signing the eighth-year center should he receive a buyout from Houston, but the Rockets value him — both the coaching staff and the front office.

“You just try to do the most in the situation that you’re in,” Kaminsky told The Athletic. “This is the team that wanted me. They want me to be here, so I’m going to do whatever I can to help as much as I possibly can. Whether that’s playing or me being a vocal leader in the locker room, practice, shootarounds, whatever.

“It’s weird — it feels like this veteran thing snuck up on me out of nowhere. I remember vets used to be 10, 11, 12-year guys. But with the way the youth is going, eight years makes you a veteran. Something I’m looking forward to. I’ve always been vocal, always been someone who takes people under their wing. Going to try to do that here as well.”

As long as Kaminsky is with the Rockets, however, he’s going to help. There’s familiarity from his time in Charlotte with Silas, as well as with assistants Rick Higgins and Mike Batiste. This is the first time Kaminsky has been traded at this point in the season so there’s also the mental adjustment to that but he’s fully aware of what the team is asking of him right now. He referred to Silas as a “good communicator and a great coach” and Monday night’s optics showed a veteran that’s in a good mental space and isn’t throwing a fit because he’s on a 13-win team.

“It’s been great,” Silas said. “It’s good to coach someone that you know and can have conversations with, beyond the getting-to-know-you part. He can really shoot the basketball. I told him he’s most likely to get an opportunity at some point — maybe not right now, but at some point — and he told me he’d be ready for it.

“That’s all you can ask. An eight-year veteran who’s been through a lot. He’s been on good teams, not-so-good teams, waived, in the playing group and out of it. A lot of that he can help out guys within the locker room and that’s important.”

Added Kaminsky: “It’s a lot of young guys. There’s winning and there’s losing and there’s people who haven’t figured it out yet. I see a lot of that with this group — guys who wanna win and learn how to win. They’re extremely talented but they’re young. Winning takes time to figure out how to do it. You look at all these organizations around the league — look at Philly tonight, they went through how many years of losing with young guys before they started to gel and put it together.

“If I can do a couple of things to help explain or show people why they’re doing what they’re doing and that helps win a couple of games, then that’s a positive.”

 

I'm glad Kaminsky did that. But shouldn't the coaches have done that kind of things?

I don't want to beat the dead horse again. We've been criticizing the coaching a lot. And I totally understand that it's really, really difficult to get the players execute when almost the entire rotation consists of 20-year-olds with less than 3 years of experience. But this is exactly why these kids need to be pulled aside from time to time to get pointers from the coaches.

 

Maybe they should hire him to be assistant coach.

 

That’s exactly what I was thinking. If Kaminsky saw things in the game that made him pull players aside, where is the coaching staff?

 

Our coaching staff is about as useful as a fart in a spacesuit.

 

You’ve never noticed players (particularly veteran bench players) coaching or pointing things out to younger guys in the rotation? I don’t think a lot coaches give one on one lessons and feedback mid game. About the only time they seem to interact is time outs, or at the coaches box on free throws. Other than that, I’ve Niger seen coaches (even assistants) super engaged with players. For one, I think they don’t want to come off too hard on them. Fact is many young players don’t respond well to public criticism. Balancing egos is part of the job.

 

Gordon had already checked out. Kaminsky would be a good assistant coach

 

You gotta think...

Most of these young guys that have been playing regularly have been here since last season. Even the rookies have been here for over half a season.

Frank doesnt know that the message is stale.
Some of these guys like tate and kmj have been on the worst team in the nba for over 200 games. Green and the 2nd year guys have been a part of the worst franchise in the nba for over 100 games.

They make the same mistakes over and over. Most of these games just look like a repeat of the previous one.

Ego said there had been no improvement and he had clearly checked out.

If Kaminsky is here long enough he will check out at some point as well once he sees that all that pulling aside and tips havent led to any realy improvement either.

The Rockets can blame the lack of vets all they want, but this is the first year where theyve had this many young players.

Silas' first year they were the worst in the league and that was a team of all vets basically with only tate getting rotation minutes and kj sprinkled in a little.

Last season there was a mix of vets to "give advice". You had Theis, Schroeder, Gordon, House, Augustin, Nwaba, Wood...all players who had been around the league a while. Wood was an idiot, but point is this team has been the worst team in the league with a bunch of bad habits but this is the first year where theyve actually been this young without many vets around.

Silas likes to point out the fact that the team is playing a bunch of young guys, but what about the last two years where he also coached the worst team in the nba?

Sorry for the rant and yes i beat that deado horse again, but my point is that i dont think kaminksy has been around long enough to realize the coach is so bad that his veteran tips wont mean anything.