Silas struggling to find healthy players
The Rockets arrived in Milwaukee with 13 players on their injury list, played with eight and ended up with as many players to have ever played for one team in a season.
With the Rockets signing guard Khyri Thomas toa 10-day contract, using a hardship exemption to have enough to play a game, the Rockets have played 28 players this season, matching the record of the 2015-16 Grizzlies and 2018-19 Magic. Thomas joined Danuel House Jr., D.J. Augustin, Kelly Olynyk, Armoni Brooks, DaQuan Jeffries and Anthony Lamb as the only available Rockets players. House, Augustin and Olynyk played with injuries and could be considered questionable to play in the second half of the back-to-back Saturday against the Utah Jazz.
The first goal for the Rockets, however, was to avoid overuse of players that could lead to injuries. On Wednesday, when the Rockets had seven players available, Martin and Jeffries played more than 40 minutes.
“I don’t want our guys just getting worn out,” Rockets coach Stephen
Silas said. “I know we only have eight guys. If there’s a way I can do it to where guys aren’t playing so, so many minutes, maybe a few guys will play close to 40. I don’t want the guys who are coming back from injury to play that many minutes.
“The quandary we’re in right now is the injuries first but secondly wearing down of the guys who are playing because they’re playing so many minutes.”
The game was the Rockets’ third in the past seven with up to the eight players required for NBA games, though they had just seven they considered healthy enough to play against the Nuggets and 76ers. With the Rockets completing their final back-to-back of the season, Silas said he “will just have to see how the guys respond” to determine who can play against the Jazz.
“I’m very hopeful that they can come back,” Silas said of the Rockets players who are out but not considered out for the five games left in the season. “You should see our training room right now and our weight room. Guys are working and using bands and weights and ice and stim, everything they can to recover and get to a place they can play.”
Tate clears virus protocol, still out
Rockets forward Jae’Sean Tate was told his test for COVID-19 had turned up positive and immediately was worried. He was concerned he would have to miss a game.
The other more customary concerns that accompany such test results never occurred to him.
Tate said he never thought he had contracted COVID-19. He has already had it and said Friday that he has been vaccinated. He said he steadfastly follows the protocols to stay safe, including the NBA’s testing schedule.
The tests he took since have come back negative, and he was eligible to play on Friday in Milwaukee, but his bruised left knee would not permit it with the time lost for rehab while in isolation likely playing a part.
“There was too much pain, lack of movement,” Rockets coach Stephen
Silas said. “I really do think the days he had to be away from the group with the COVID protocol set him back maybe a day or so. We were all hopeful. He was the No. 1 guy who was most hopeful he could play.”
Tate still wanted to play, Silas said, after the positive test forced him to miss Wednesday’s game, ruining his goal to play in all 72 games of his rookie season.
“I guess I gave a false positive,” Tate said. “The NBA protocol, there are certain things you have to do to be cleared. I had three negative tests backto-back so I’m good to go.”
Tate had stayed in Monday’s game against the Knicks after he was hurt.
“The best thing you can do is play as many as you can,” Tate said. “It would have been cool to be able to play in all 72.”
Thomas’ 10-day contract finalized
The Rockets on Friday added guard Khyri Thomas, signing him to a 10-day contract using a roster exemption allowed by the NBA because the Rockets have so few players healthy and available. That gave them the league minimum of eight players and made Thomas the 28th player to play for the Rockets this season, in his case before he even had a chance to have a conversation with the head coach.
“He actually just got here a handful of hours ago,” Rockets coach Stephen Silas said before Friday’s game. “I haven’t even had a chance to sit down and talk to him.
Rick Higgins, our assistant coach, spent some time with him … like an hour ago going over the handful of plays we’ll run when he’s in the game. He’s just been working out, keeping himself ready. Then we had to make sure he was going through the testing protocol and able to play in tonight’s game.”
Thomas, a 6-3 guard out of Creighton, was the 38th player taken in the 2018 NBA draft and played 34 games for the Detroit Pistons, averaging just 7.5 minutes per game. He was a teammate with Rockets center Christian Wood last season but played in just eight games and 25 minutes over seven games with Wood.
He played seven games with the Austin Spurs in the G League bubble this season, averaging 13.9 points on 44.4 percent 3-point shooting. In three G League seasons, he averaged 17.7 points, making 44.5 percent of his 3s and 46.8 percent of his shots overall.
He was able to clear the NBA protocols to be eligible to play just in time.
“You can’t just get a guy off the street or from the G League,” Silas said. “You have to go through that testing protocol. That’s life in the NBA right now but it does make it hard when you’re in the situation we’re in.”