Poll: Should Vipers coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah be called up as a Rocket assistant coach.

Speaking of coaches rotating out every 3 - 5 years, we almost guarantee no more than 4 years per coach with the rare exception of the venerable Rudy T.

Look at our history (since coming to Houston).

Tex Winter (1971 - 1973)__________.395 W%_____2 years
Johnny Eagan (1973 - 1976)_______.459 W%_____3 years
Tom Nissalke (1976 - 1979)_______.504 W%_____3 years
Del Harris (1979 - 1983)___________.430 W%_____3 years
Bill Fitch (1983 - 1988)_____________.527 W%_____5 years
Don Chaney (1988 - 1992)_________.550 W%_____3 years
Rudy Tomjanovich(1992 - 2003)___.559 W%____12 years
Jeff Van Gundy (2003 - 2007)_______.555 W%_____4 years
Rick Adelman (2007 - 2011)________.588 W%_____4 years
Kevin McHale (2011 - 2015)________.598 W%_____3.1 years
J.B. Bickerstaff (2015 - 2016)_______.521 W%______.9 years
Mike D'Antoni (2016 - 2020)_______.682 W%_____4 years
Stephen Silas (2020 - Present)_____.240 W%_____2 years. . . .

Silas' days are numbered, especially with that abysmal winning % but that is only due to tanking. Taking the average (excluding Rudy T's and Bickerstaff's tenures since they would skew the numbers too much and removing Silas' since it is incomplete) the average time we keep a coach for the past 51 years is 3.7 years. The odds are pretty good we'll be hiring a new coach here after next year unless Silas takes this team into the playoffs next year.

 

Well, Pop has a pretty strong staff of his own. I'm sure as liberal and "progressive" as he is, he's going to hand the reigns to Becky Hammon without any other consideration because he believes in gender over experience. It's almost guaranteed. Now, I'm not saying Becky Hammon doesn't deserve a shot at being a head coach I think she does as well as the next Assistant coach out there. I'm just making a point that when he retires she'll be next in line. You can guarantee it.

 

Assistant?? Has anyone seen Silas coach? How's about head coach?

 

Both Harden and Embiid love D'Antoni too.

And D'Antoni was the frontrunner to be Sixers HC before Doc became available.

 

I can see this happening too, Morey adding him to Sixers coaching staff.

Especially if Doc stays with Sixers.

 

Only a complete moron would think a hand picked Pop protogee was chosen by any criteria except basketball coaching ability.

 

Truth.

But let's not get ourselves off track and sidetrack the point of this thread.

 

Hammon got hired to coach the WNBA Las Vegas team, she’s no longer affiliated with SA

 

Well damn, that literally happened just two days ago. Color me surprised!

 

To be perfectly fair, the average coaching tenure across the entire NBA has been somewhere between 3-4 seasons. Older analysis here (2016), but it's interesting to see that most coaches tend to have a significant spike in expected wins somewhere in their 5th or 6th season (and earned an extension with the team) much like we might expect players to peak in performance once they're on their second contract.



The author of the study did try to separate out the effect of roster stability, increased player talent, and coaching overperformance to explain the 6 win gap between long tenured coaches and all coaches.

Roster continuity pretty much had zero effect, talent was responsible for about 4 wins of improvement, and coaching was responsible for about 2 wins of improvement. Most years, outside of some historical over- and under-performances (check the article for a blast from the past) fall right around zero, but there is again, a peak starting in year 5.



So this is going to be a big year for Silas, just as this season was for KPJ trying to earn a rookie extension. Coaches pretty much never go lame duck anymore, so if the team doesn't have some upward momentum this year, circumstances might dictate that the Rockets try to clean sweep of the coaching staff, and if they're trying to bring in a big FA over the summer, they might try a package deal with a prized assistant, like a big college program hiring a recruit's relatives.

 

No! He could be the new Head Coach! Y

 

They announced it Dec 31st, but she finished the season with the Spurs. She might have gotten the Spurs job if she stuck around but Pop hasn't announced when he's retiring. But to your original point, a 'progressive' franchise like the Spurs would be likely to also hire the first Palestinian-American HC. They better keep their grubby paws off Abdelfattah.

 

I think this is unfair to the Rockets, considering that Nick Nurse was an assistant coach for five years under Dwayne Casey before getting the call, and Chris Finch had five years with Houston and five-and-a-half years under other coaches before finally getting his first gig. That's a ton of development time and experience; you can't really say that both guys would have been the same if they stayed in Houston, or if they would have even survived the 2016 purge. Looking back, Mike D'Antoni was a home run hire for the Rockets, and I think that no matter which interim coach had taken over for McHale, it would have been the right decision to let them go.

It seems pretty unlikely that Nurse would have even stayed on the Rockets coaching staff in 2013 if he were offered, considering they had Kelvin Sampson as the lead assistant, and ironically, Chris Finch as the young up-and-comer already on the staff. Meanwhile, Nurse got control and responsibility over the offense in Toronto, under a brand new front office led by Masai Ujiri.

Having a pipeline of coaches that are constantly getting poached is a good thing. You can't keep every young coach happy by giving them assistant jobs. You can, however, make sure your young prospects have the best developmental coaching available by constantly demonstrating that the RGV job is a springboard to greater opportunities.

 

It's amazing how things work out

When I suggested the Rockets hire M Abdelfattah in 2019 before Silas,
people laughed at me. His record then was .357

19/20- .357
20/21- .600
21/22- .706

Amazing how coaches look better with better players

 

THIS needs to remain on front page.

Promote ABDELFATTAH.

 

switch silas and fatah for a couple of years and if silas proves he can coach take him back again....

 

I know you don't like it; but Silas was asked to "Tank" which meant
pushing Trade Values of House, Nwaba, Augustin, Wood, Eric Gordon.

We didn't run PnR to the extent the Mavs did in 19/20 (when Silas kicked ###)
and we didn't run cutters and slashers nearly at all.

So when Silas and others say next season the playbook will be expanded.....
That's code for, "We will be trying - next - season - & - actually be running plays.

 

Yes. Bring him over asap. I want hookah at Toyota center.

 

The Vipers were the best team all year, leading the G-League in points, rebounding, and steals. Coach Abdelfattah pushed all the right buttons. From dealing with multiple call ups to significant injuries to players like Kabengele and Queen and having a bulls-eye on their back all year, the team took on the personality of its coach: a calm and even-keeled person who is never rattled.