Coaches face newchallenges
When the Rockets were the first team to have a game postponed because they did not have enough players to compete, with their season opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder pushed back to the second half of the season, they were sure to not be the last.
The Celtics and Heat had their game Sunday postponed because contact tracing left Miami without enough players. On Saturday, the Sixers had the minimum of eight players available and played just seven.
As much as handling disruption is part of NBA coaching, dealing with health and safety protocols has been an unusual challenge, as the Rockets experienced first.
“When it happened to us, it was kind of like, ‘Now what? What does this mean? What are we going to do?’ ” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said. “The first thing you think about is the health of the group and the health of your players and make sure everybody is OK. Then, you try to figure out the logistical part of it. ‘OK, are we allowed to practice? Are we allowed to get together? When is the game going to be rescheduled?’ All of those things come into play.
“This kind of puts a halt to everything and your focus goes from this game, this game preparation, this opponent to our group and how we’re going to handle and negotiate this next 24 to 48 hours. It’s not an easy thing. It’s like nothing you’ve had to experience before.”
The Rockets had six players in either self-isolation following COVID tests or quarantine because of contact. They did not practice or play for a stretch of four days to start the season.
Silas said his closest experience was when he was a Cavaliers assistant coach and a preseason game in Nova Scotia, Canada, was postponed because of condensation from the ice. But that had almost no ramifications and came with no health concerns.
“That was like a big deal,” Silas said. “This is something that can happen anytime, anywhere. It’s one of those things you
have to deal with.”
Harden remains a low-post option
The Rockets have moved from the switch-everything defense they had used in the past but had switched often enough to have had James Harden in the low post against big men.
Lakers center Marc Gasol was one of the first he defended as an assignment, rather than on switches, when Gasol was with the Grizzlies. But though Rockets coach Stephen Silas said he has not hesitated to have Harden defend big men, he is still focused on getting his base defense in, keeping him from looking to try those sorts of matchups.
“He’s really good down there,” Silas said. “He’s very technically sound when it comes to his foot positioning and his not allowing guys to get to the middle of the floor and he’s really good with his hands. So, I have no problem with him switching onto a bigger guy. Last game, he switched onto ( Nikola) Vucevic and got a steal. His guarding bigger
guys in the post isn’t too much of an issue for us because he’s so good at it.”
Harden has not defended enough post-ups to be included in the NBA tracking statistics and the Lakers tend to keep Gasol and other centers out of the post to keep spacing. Last season, Harden defended post-up more frequently than anyone in the NBA, 1.9 times per game, allowing just .68 points per possession, the fewest of anyone defending at least once per game in the low post.
“That’ll be something that I think about as we go along,” Silas said. “I’m trying to build this thing in a way we’re trying to install our base and make sure we get good at it before we move on to the next thing. But time is moving. Games are coming. That’s something that might be in the future, for sure.”
Silas had early look at LeBron
Long before Lakers star LeBron James was last season’s assists leader for the first time in his career, he was Rockets coach Stephen Silas’ point
guard. Even then, Silas said, he knew he had something special, if not quite sure what.
“When we first got him, we really didn’t know what we had,” said Silas, a Cavaliers assistant in 2003-04. “Everybody was talking about this kid. He was going to be the next whoever, the next Jordan or whoever. That summer, I coached the summer league team and LeBron was my point guard.
“Just the things he was doing, even in summer league, he was really good and he could really pass. He had a confidence about him like it was just normal. He had that swagger about him before that was even really like a term. He just made everybody else better and was so smart. I remember conversations with my dad, “‘Hey, we got something here.’ ”
James’ first summer league game was moved to Orlando’s then-new arena. Silas started James, DajuanWagner, Carlos Boozer, Darius Miles and Rockets assistant coach DeSagana Diop. They won.