Who will the Houston Rockets target to fill their head coach vacancy following Stephen Silas' firing?
The Houston Rockets have reportedly decided not to bring back head coach Stephen Silas. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported the news:
"The Houston Rockets are declining to pick up the fourth-year option on coach Stephen Silas’ contract, ending his three-year run leading the franchise’s rebuild, sources tell ESPN."
Check out Adrian Wojnarowski's tweet below:
The Houston Rockets are declining to pick up the fourth-year option on coach Stephen Silas’ contract, ending his three-year run leading the franchise’s rebuild, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/aJqxY91d31
The news comes after the Houston Rockets finished 22-60, tying for the worst-record in the Western Conference. Houston finished with the worst record in the NBA in each of Silas' first two seasons as head coach, finishing 17-55 and 20-62. He completed his three-year tenure with just a 59-177 record.
Silas does not deserve all of the blame for that, however, as the Rockets began a rebuild by trading James Harden just nine games into his tenure as head coach. Despite this, reports have surfaced that the locker room lacks maturity. Houston's front office will likely look to bring in a veteran coach.
The first-time head coach was able to hold his head high in his departure, stating:
"I feel proud. I wanted to be a head coach my whole life. I wanted to be like my dad [late-great NBA head coach Paul Silas]. I'm proud of these guys. I'm proud of their hard work. I'm proud of their growth and maturity as they got through the season.
"There's been a lot of talk about my job for a long time - for a couple of months. They just kept playing and working and trying hard and weren't worried about that. They were worried about getting better and playing hard for their coach and I'm proud of that."
Check out Stephen Silas' full comments below:
#Rockets finish the 2022-23 season with a WIN
Here was Stephen Silas after the @HoustonRockets 114-109 victory of the Wizards https://t.co/xkmJ5wkOnI
Which head coaches will the Houston Rockets target?
The Houston Rockets' list of potential head coaches was revealed by Shams Charania, Kelly Iko, and Sam Amick of The Athletic, who stated:
"Sources say the Rockets’ initial coaching candidates are expected to be Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson, former Lakers coach Frank Vogel, ex-Hornets coach James Borrego, Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin and ex-Celtics coach Ime Udoka. The Rockets are expected to have a list of about eight candidates, according to sources."
It is unclear if the Raptors will part ways with Nurse, however, the rest of the coaches should be available this offseason. Nurse and Vogel are both championship winning head coaches, winning in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020, respectively. Both Atkinson and Borrego have shown the ability to lead youthful rosters and get the most out of them at times.
Udoka nearly joined Nurse and Vogel as a championship winning head coach last season, however, his Celtics ultimately fell short. While Griffin has never been a head coach, he has long been considered one of the top assistants in the NBA. It is unclear if any of these coaches would be interested in joining a rebuilding Rockets franchise.
However, if they are able to land the first overall pick and presumably draft French phenom Victor Wembanyama, the job will become much more intriguing.