No Harden, no problem in Rockets’ 109-105 win over Spurs.
With Harden situation finally resolved, coach ready for what’s next
Stephen Silas’ title has not changed, but the job has. He remains the Rockets’ coach, but he began Thursday with a very different job than the one he inherited when he got the position less than three months and just 10 games ago.
James Harden’s departure had become inevitable but was nonetheless stunning. And it capped the most dramatic turn of events of many in Silas’ brief tenure.
“Yeah, I guess it was a surprise, to say the least,” Silas said of how the Rockets have been transformed since he agreed to coach a team led by Harden and Russell Westbrook. “But that’s the NBA. Change is a part of the NBA, and I realized that from a young age and throughout my career. So the fact that everything kind of went down the way that it did was
a surprise, but it’s up to me to kind of regroup and reset and move forward.
“It was a crazy 48 hours, for sure, but we’re out of it.”
The Rockets moved past the uncertainty that was part of an incredibly tumultuous start to Silas’ head coaching career. The challenges have changed but remain extreme for a rebuilt roster that must develop in a season with little practice time.
Against the Spurs on Thursday in San Antonio, Silas had eight players out, including the three who will come in as part of the Harden trade, and no healthy point guards.
The headache of the Harden situation, however, is for better or worse removed.
“It was very different on the (introductory) press conference day as opposed to today,” Silas said. “Being ready for this position and prepared to tackle problems or solve them or figure out ways around them, that’s what a head coach does. Obviously, things weren’t perfect.”
They were considerably less than perfect, but Silas had no complaints about Harden’s effort or “professionalism” while they were together. In announcing that the trade had become official, Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta was effusive in his praise of his former star.
“On behalf of the entire Rockets organization and the city of Houston, I’d like to thank James Harden for an amazing eightplus seasons in a Rockets uniform,” Fertitta said. “James has provided us with so many great memories as we’ve watched him grow from Sixth Man of the Year to a perennial All-Star and MVP.
“My family and I also want to thank James for his many off-thecourt contributions, including generous charitable donations and multiple annual community events. We wish James the best of luck and will always be grateful for the memories.”
As he frequently has before, Silas said he appreciated that Harden and Westbrook endorsed him when he was a candidate to become Rockets coach, calling it the final step to his getting the job.
“The two guys I spoke to last were Russ and James, and now they’re not here anymore,” Silas said. “Those are the guys who vouched for me to get the job. I assume if they didn’t like the conversations that they had with me, I wouldn’t be here right now. For neither guy to be here — most recently, James — it is kind of just sobering, I guess, the reality of the NBA.
“As far as the relationship that I had with James — I didn’t really have much of a relationship with Russ — but the relationship that I have with James was good. And we’ve had some good conversations over the last couple of days. I talked to him yesterday before all this stuff happened, and then we texted back and forth after it all happened. It was all positive, all good.”
Guard Eric Gordon, who had been Harden’s teammate longer than anyone else still in Houston, said he did not feel “disrespected” when Harden said Tuesday that the Rockets do not have enough talent. Gordon viewed that as a means to the end of Harden’s Rockets tenure.
“From the summer, how the season started, you could tell he didn’t want to be here,” Gordon said.
“For me, knowing him personally, I don’t think he really meant it as far as to really disrespect us. I think he just wanted a different situation. He’s kind of shown that, and he also said it. I don’t think he meant to really disrespect the players. He wanted his way out. And he got it.”
Gordon said the Rockets’ “expectations” have changed but that the trade “gives us a chance to get a real direction.”
Silas can, theoretically, do more coaching without crisis management, though he said that is part of the job.
“There is always some extra stuff that goes along with it,” he said. “Getting beyond it is a good thing, but there is more stuff on the horizon. The focus will be more on basketball for me.
“Moving forward is (about) improvement. The main thing we want to be doing is getting better every game, every week, every month.
“The James part was very interesting. I had the opportunity to coach a Hall of Famer. That was one of the things I was excited about. Obviously, it was a rocky start, a rocky midway and a rocky end. But he was nothing but professional to me. It just didn’t work out.”