ROCKETS: SILAS IMPRESSING PLAYERS AND MANAGEMENT.
Players, management notice Silas’ calm demeanor in the face of trying circumstances
Back when they were considering who would guide them, the Rockets could not have predicted the storms to come.
Adversity in some form eventually reaches all NBA teams. The Rockets had to know that much when they were considering Stephen Silas. But back then, the departures of Daryl Morey and Mike D’Antoni were not viewed as setbacks asmuch as a chance for a reset. Then the trouble hit. And hit. And hit again.
Things heated up rapidly. The Rockets needed “the coolest kid in the house.”
They just did not know it when they hired him.
As much as steadiness in the face of a storm is an important quality for anNBAcoach, Silaswas hit with extreme, and in some cases unprecedented, upheaval and tumult before his first game.
TheRockets did not knowto ask how he would handle trade requests from Russell Westbrook and James Harden, how he navigate his team through Harden’s missing the first week of training camp, or especially how he might deal withHardenandahuge swath of his most important players being ordered into quarantine in the first week of the season. By comparison, Harden’s sprained ankle, which has him questionable to play Monday, is a mundane problem.
“He’s a cool dude,” Rockets general manager Rafael Stone said, intentionally using the term his players had for their first-year coach. “They used the right adjective for his personality.”
As Silas prepares for his first meeting against his former employer, Monday’s game against the Mavericks at Toyota Center, the more familiar tests of guiding a team in the loaded Western Conference are still to come. With the Rockets 2-2 and still trying to make upfor all the lost time, things could quickly turn in either direction.
There is a sense, however, that Silas has gotten through the first wave of crises that threatened to derail the Rockets before the season started by handling issues without inflaming them. His decision to give Harden time, rather than pushing for a meeting, and Silas’ ability to address the situations without pandering or creating a wedge seems to have been noticed.
“He’s always cool,” P. J. Tucker said. “He’s one of the coolest coaches I’ve ever seen inmy life. It seems nonchalant, but it’s not. That’s just kind of his personality. You get to know that being around him.
“Hehada goodspirit about himself, a swagger you look for in a head coach. He was still cool and calm, as he always is. He got his point across: what hewanted us to do, what he wanted us to get done.”
The Rockets had to have seen those traits through two exhaustive interview processes, even if they could not have imagined they would have been so vital so quickly.
Public relations and crisis management professionals being interviewed are given hypothetical scenarios and asked how they would manage them. In conversations thatover theweeksof the coaching search stretched into 15 hours, Stone likely never asked Silas about impermissible haircuts in a player’s apartment. But he got a feeling for the coach he would choose.
“Everythingwe had on Stephen was that he was really an extremely smart man and an extremely good person,” Stone said. “We felt comfortable about those two things, and when you start with that basis, you should be able to overcome adversity. And overcoming adversity is part of the game of basketball. It is part of being a coach.”
The other part, coaching basketball, might be easier to evaluate, especially with a coach who has spent 20 years on NBA benches. When the Rockets’ seemingly interminable offseason finally ended, that became players’ first impression.
“He did a great job,” Harden said. “Very confident. Knew what he was drawing up and knew where to put his guys at.”
That too seemed to speak of “cool.” Silas was amused by that description, though he knewit referenced demeanor more than style. But since hishoneymoonperiod was rained out, displays of confidence can be valuable. “Itmeans a lot when any player says that they likewhat you do, especially as a new head coach,” Silas, 47, said. “A lot of the things I’m doing are things I believe in and have seen. But until you do that, to get feedback fromhimandthe other guys has been gratifying. I’m happy about that.”
This was before Silas won his first game. When he did, JohnWall presented him with the game ball. Before Wall left the floor, he describedthe traits theRocketsneeded, even if they did not know as much at the time of Silas’ hiring.
“He’s the coolest kid in the house,” Wall said. “He doesn’t say toomuch. He’s laid back. I call him ‘Slim.’ He’s doing a great job.”