Is Silas really to blame or is our roster simply not that good?

Again this is the same excuse that any other bad coach can use. Ive seen teams with worse rosters fight hard. Thats not the issue. The issue is how we are developing and using our young talent. For the billionth time WE ARE NOT EXPECTING TO BE A PLAYOFF TEAM THIS YEAR. But common sense moves are not being made. We can have a young roster AND have a bad coach. We can lose without KPJ AND KPJ be not a good fit at point guard. These things arent mutually exclusive and no one is blaming JUST SILAS for everyhing. Silas is being blamed for the things he is responsible for.

 

Both.
1.) New coach
2.) New PG and move KPJ to 6th man
3.) $$$

Most decisions are easy to make to make this team better. The only hard one is what to do with Sengun. Jabari was suppose to cover for him but I don't see that happening any time soon.

 

It's not that we wouldn't be an awful team under another coach. It's that we would be developing our key players differently.

As many have already said, there is no real "system" in place under Silas. It's basically just putting the ball in either KPJ or Green's hands and hoping they can create while other guys watch.

On top of that, Silas' rotations don't show that he understands the types of players that fit together on this team. His rotations consistently undermine any sense of cohesion among the units.

That is the opposite of what a young team needs. Silas is allowing these guys to develop bad habits or regress.

 

It's good to see that there are some people that aren't ready to put Silas at the stake.

I here so much criticism, but I don't know how much of what we see is born out of inexperience of the players struggling to learn and execute at the NBA level en masse. It's not like you are trying to integrate one rookie on a team into vets, you're integrating two vets into a team of rookies and young players.

 

I think it's definitely a combination of factors...

#1 - Silas isn't the right coach for this team. Believe he would be better with a more veteran team. As someone said earlier, coaching up the kids and helping them learn from their mistakes should be his #1 priority.

#2 - Stone hasn't done Silas any favors by keeping EGo and not having an vet PG available. I thought DJ Augustin was perfect vet PG for this team. Some H-Town roots (played HS Senior Yr in Missou City) and UT alum. Didn't demand a lot of minutes, but was solid when he played, would love to have him or someone like him on this roster.

#3 - Players have been inconsistent, which is expected with our youth, but they can control how they play and when the ball moves we're usually getting a good shot. I will say the effort level seems to be getting better--that 19 block shot effort in the win against Dallas was unusual and encouraging.

#4 - Owner has to accept overall responsibility for the product he's putting on the court. BTW, I did love us honoring Elvin Hayes. I wore 44 or 7 for most of my playing career and 44 was because I loved the Big E and Pistol Pete.

 

The logic of OP is questionable. Sure it sounds like the players should shoot better at their shooting positions. But is the system putting each player in shooting positions where they are good at?

For example, at rim shots are good for Sengun but not good for KPJ. If the system does not get the ball to Sengun in the post and encourages KPJ to take a lot of close range shots, their percentages will be lumped together against the league average.

 

Yes

 

KPJ has the ball in his hands too much and takes contested jumpers at the rim. Thats not only him but thats coaching that is not telling him to stop doing that. In fact SIlas want shim to do it more. DO you see the issue there?

 

At the rim shots should really be good for like... Everyone? It's the NBA.

 

Why can't it be both??

Silas is bad and the roster is bad (ie, young and full of mistakes and still learning)

 

An at the rim shot where you have driven into traffic due to a poor system is quite different to a drive and dish/ rim roll etc

 

I mean KPJ is shooting . 634 on "at the rim" finishes, I'll take that.

 

It always starts at the top of the chain n trickles down to the rest and since Tilman said he was giving the personnel choices to Stone then it is on him for hiring a coach who are letting the children(players) run amok

The child is usually a product of their upbringing n environment where one bad apple can spoil the bunch or rattle the foundation, that apple being the coach who is being a brown noser or the undisciplined child or a combo

They got rid of one with Wood n now maybe its time to get rid of the coach and possibly the GM who is architect, and lastly but a long shot maybe the sponsor (Tilman) should do right by the city and sell it to a more passionate owner who will look at it like a super fun hobby and be all in, like that Clips owner

 

... which very well could be the plan -- and if it is, I still have to say I think we could be doing a lot better by our players in the development department.

 

Largely on coach silas.
There are two latest vids from 'Rockets Chop Shop' i would love to recommend like-minded buddies to watch, pretty logical, objective n covering every facets of this team as well as Silas's incompetence.
Post indy game vlog

Vlog on Jalen's potential

Post New Orleans game vlog


p.s.
ppl who have watched most rockets games through last season to this, could easily tell that -
Silas is a extremely stubborn, less creative n not quite smart person, and this happens to reflect on the performance of our team:
young, extraordinarily talented, but always being stuck in a chaos situation,
that makes both our kids and fans helpless and hopeless.
Now, It's not about wins or losses, to a rebuilding team, it's all about how we lose…so dunt drag our young prospects into this shiiiit, nobody expect them to play like Bucks, Raptors or even Sac&OKC, we wanna see how HC to make adjustment game after game
Till now, Silas awkwardly failed, period

 

Your take is entirely reasonable! I think there is a way to balance a) allowing young players to try things their way and then helping them learn from their mistakes (for, among other reasons, player buy-in, let's say), and b) being more aggressive about imposing a system on them, geared towards winning FASTER (How to Win in the NBA Bootcamp)... either way, or whatever mix you try to balance it out with, it requires a tremendous amount of attention and active engagement with players, responding quickly in those teachable moments and reinforcing lessons etc... you can let things glide for short periods, but then you have to be aggressive at LEARNING and PROGRESSING from those experiences... that is my theory anyway, based on being a teacher (not a coach).

One can let Silas slide for learning on the job alongside the kids, for a while, but it's reasonable to question how well his approach is working at this point... I think, even if the f.o. wants the Rockets to tank, that there should be a way to see more progress while still doing that.

 

Not if there are several defenders under the basket. If KPJ is better at catch and shoot than going to the basket, then the system should not ask KPJ to do a lot of dribble penetration. We don't know if KPJ going to the basket is by design or he just sucks at decision make. Maybe both.

An opposite example (hypothetical): Sengun is a below average 3pt shooter. If the system has him park outside the 3pt line waiting for catch and shoot, then of course our 3pt shooting would be below average, and it's not a talent problem but a system problem. A good system ideally would get the ball to each player where they are best at making a shot. Most players have strengths and weaknesses in how to score. You want to maximize the strengths and minimize the weaknesses. That's what the offensive structure is for.

 

Considering:

- The organization is actively, aggressively optimizing the roster for losing
- We've started the season with one of the most difficult schedules in the NBA
- Our schedule has been road-heavy which means less practice time
- We have the youngest rotation in the NBA, which means automatic unavoidable turnovers and defensive mistakes
- We have the least chemistry of all teams, we overhauled the rotation a lot
- There are players on the roster who are only being given minutes because we're tanking, we're intentionally not using the lineup most likely to win

There's no coach that would be winning with this roster right now, except maybe an extra win here or there.

People like to fantasize that you can have all these factors at play yet the product on the floor should be more organized, but that's not a real possibility. A more organized team would win more games, it doesn't make sense that we could get more organized. Our roster is the least likely to be organized in the entire NBA. This team should lose right now, and those losses will look disorganized it's that simple. There's no reality where the players know how to run the offense and defense well and we lose a lot of games. There's no reality where a bunch of 20 yr olds do that. You've got yourself stuck in the box and have lost sight of the big picture.

I think what's really happening is everyone is blaming Silas for their favorite player sucking, but the truth is your favorite player sucks rn because his opponent is much more experienced even if less talented.

Having said all that, this team is going to surprise everyone. We're going to win some more for a month and then from December onwards Rafael Stone is going to get very uncomfortable. We are currently the closest we'll ever be to drafting Wemby.