If Dipo is not 100% healthy (different from hurting, all athletes hurt during season) then Rockets medical is being negligent. There should be no reason to force Dipo to play in this disaster of a season or to jeopardize his value as a trade asset. But Dipo looks 100% to my medically untrained eyes.
Thank you for acknowledging the circumstances of the team's failures. I have to agree with the lack of referee challenges. Silas can show the team he has their back if he challenges plays. I feel like Silas can grab the attention of players if he has real practice time. We haven't had that. Expecting Oladipo to lead a team into doing the right thing and being in the right place isn't his gig. It should be, but he's not that guy we need him to be. Wall is okay out there, but who is a point guard passing to that's going to make plays? We're throwing Lamb and Patton at the Celtics because that's all we can do. Silas can't fix a lack of talent. We're short, we're bad shooters, we're young, we're unhealthy.. that's not a recipe for coaches to be able to do much. Especially without practice time. This isn't the squad coach Silas signed on for. It's not the team you can do your best with because there's no consistency. Oladipo after the game said that Silas is above all a positive thinker and believer. That's what we need during a tank. He said screaming and getting angry is easy and normal and that's the opposite of what Silas is doing. Even Dipo, who never seems to do what's being asked knows, he's the right guy for a terrible situation. I look at the one thing I think is fair to judge: Tate. Tate went through the offseason with Silas, he's played every game and what is he doing? He looks more comfortable out there than anyone. He's playing hard, he's defending, and he has improved overall. To me, Jae'sean Tate is the only measuring device we have at our disposal other than what you said earlier about ref challenges. Being asked to play trade bait that doesn't want to be there and also asked to make the team look good but lose... something has got to give and I think that thing is us... the fans... and our patience. Put me down as a patient Rockets fan. Silas is a good man and deserves to show that he's a good coach. Expecting solid improvement this season from the coaching position is like telling a master painter to paint a masterpiece on I-45 without shutting down any stretch of the Interstate... someone is constantly driving over anything he works on. Does that make him something other than a master painter? (You wrote a really good post and I can reply to each point you made if you request)
My dislike for Silas is not personal at all. I also agree that he is a good man ney a great human being with an incredibly positive outlook. But he's almost too nice. Or perhaps he is too passive. He has not shown the gumption to pull a vet aside and chew him out when necessary. He is hesitant to challenge refs. He is too loyal to vets even when they underperform or ignore his direction. I cannot believe how often he used to animatedly beg Wall or Dipo to pick up the pace and they just flat out ignore him. I lobbied for Silas, he was my favorite of the available HC candidates because of his low key but intelligent approach, ability to relate to players, his positivity and the credit he received for the Mavs offensive success. Maybe that is why I have been so disappointed because I do not see anything redeemable as it relates to basketball. There is just nothing Silas has done pertaining to on court production that offers me any hope. The #1 defense during 6 game win streak was a mirage. I believe it could have been salvageable if Silas recognized how effective that 2nd unit was together and maximized its efficiency rather than parsing out that unit to the point it was no longer effective. So he took one of the few strengths on the team and made it a weakness.
Everything you are pointing out leads me to the same place: he has zero consistency, players that might not be here long term, rookies without NBA caliber skills and no time to coach. This is frustrating and I am on board with your frustration, but patience mixed with time can fix all of this. I think he and the team deserve it. That's what die-hards can offer that no one else can: patience. It might just pay off like the patience Texas fans had to give coach Shaka Smart. Finally Texas won a Big 12 Championship and who knows how far this good team will go? Same here. If Silas is the right guy in the long run... surely we can ignore current perceived failures.
Coach is getting his "welcome to the NBA rookie" treatment this season. If he had a full healthy roster, things would be totally different.
He better get all the years he signed for At least 3 After the trade deadline we should get a better look. Rocket River.
Just spitballin, but maybe that those players aren't very good and were brought in to supplement Harden who no longer exists? I don't know, it's a crazy theory I have! I know some people think there's this magic motion offense that means David Nwaba makes backdoor cuts for open layups 18 times a game that's not being run but, I don't think it actually works like that
Despite the fact the Rockets are intentionally tanking and sitting their most talented players, Stephen Silas needs to find a way to start being competitive in games and winning some of them. He waited 22 years for this opportunity, and he has as much to prove as all the young players he’s currently coaching.
He's shown he isn't going to screw up the tank with unnecessary wins. Keeping Wood out , probably longer than necessary ... He's doing his job. I expect next season to be much of the same , then a huge improvement in year 3. A rebuild isn't what he signed up for , he thought he was coming to a team with two former MVP's ready to challenge the big boys .... I'm willing to give him two years worth of bad to be really good.
Winning games is counterproductive. I'm cool with competitive losses .... Getting blown out does suck but he just doesn't have much to work with.
Jeff Hornacek is the Jonah. How in the hell are we supposed to just ignore a flaming JazzHole is one of our coaches? Dump him overboard.
The teams highest paid players cant stay on the court and the guys who can are mostly late 2nd round or undrafted players. Was there an expectation they would be competitive? Its why Ive hated constantly trading 1st round picks and banking on finding "gems" in the second round. Trading a 2020 1st for a future protected 1st they may never get was stupid and recent example. The team was set up to be bad and it was done over several years in the hopes of "winning now". But they never made it to the Finals.
I’m not cool with breaking the NBA record for consecutive losses in a single season (26), nor losing all remaining games (35). The Rockets can easily remain inside the top 3 for draft position and still win the random game here and there. The Pistons are successfully doing that this season.
We got a few more to go before we have to worry about that NBA record ..... Take the best player off of any team and they struggle , take the best player off of a lottery team and this is what you get. When Wood returns , Clutchfans will be complaining that they screwed up the tank by playing him.
Agreed. It’s certainly not all Silas’ fault the team has lost 16 straight games. Losing Christian Wood started the downward spiral as did the constant missed games from Oladipo, Wall and Gordon. However, the Rockets aren’t even competitive against bad teams right now, and that’s what is hardest to stomach. They got blown out by the Cavs, Kings and Bulls in this 16-game losing streak and lost by 29 to the Pelicans and 25 to the Hornets. The Grizzlies have a good team but their entire bench outscored the Rockets’ starters in the recent 49-point loss.
They just don't have enough talent. Look at the box score for the last game as an example , they are starting a G League team aside from Oladipo player / minutes Justin Patton 24 Kenyon Martin Jr 31 Sterling Brown 29 Anthony Lamb 20 Kevin Porter Jr 30 Mason Jones 12 David Nwaba 19 JaeSean Tate 25 Ben Mac 19 Oladipo 31. Oladipo is probably the the only guy on that list who's a starter on "Most" other NBA teams. Nwaba and Tate are probably rotation players on most teams. Aside from KPJ the rest of those guys are tail end of the roster guys or G Leaguers. The fact that this team was 11-10 at one time says a whole lot about just how good Christian Wood is. KPJ is learning a whole new position on the fly in real NBA games .... that's unheard of. There's a whole lot of potential on this roster but it is far from mature.
Agreed. Without Wood, Wall and Gordon, the Rockets are the least talented team in the NBA. If Wood doesn’t come back in the next 10 games, I can easily see the Rockets tying the NBA record for consecutive losses.
