Shortly after the Houston Rockets (22-60) won Sunday’s 2022-23 season finale at Washington, one of the NBA’s worst-kept secrets became public knowledge: Stephen Silas is out as head coach.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski were among numerous national reporters to break the news.
Silas, who finished his Houston tenure with a 59-177 record (.250) and one of the league’s bottom-three records in each of his three seasons, will not have his team option picked up for the 2023-24 season. While the Rockets may have moved on from Silas, regardless of future financial obligations, the fact they were able to do so while not paying two coaches next season made it convenient timing.
“The Rockets believe a coaching change is necessary for the next stage in their multi-step process toward sustainable success, and are prioritizing a more established coach as the next hire,” Charania and colleague Kelly Iko wrote in The Athletic.
While Houston’s lowly records under Silas are largely a result of the franchise’s transition to extreme youth and a rebuilding emphasis following James Harden’s forced departure in January 2021, the reality is that as a first-time hire for the lead job, Silas has yet to prove himself a winning head coach in the NBA.
That made sense for the Rockets and general manager Rafael Stone when Silas was hired in October 2020, since at that time, Houston had a veteran roster led by two former MVPs in Harden and Russell Westbrook. They also had no salary cap room to use externally, so the primary focus was on maximizing internal resources.
But in 2023, with minimal proven talent and approximately $60 million in salary cap space this offseason, having an established coach could bolster Houston’s appeal on the market.
That’s likely why, per Wojnarowski, leading candidates for the job include Toronto’s Nick Nurse (should he decide to leave the Raptors) and Golden State assistant Kenny Atkinson, along with former Boston coach Ime Udoka and Frank Vogel of the Lakers. Each of those men has advanced to the NBA Finals within the past four years and has multiple years of NBA head coaching experience.
Scott Brooks, currently a lead assistant in Portland after a long run in Oklahoma City that included a trip to the 2012 NBA Finals (alongside potential Rockets free agency target James Harden), is also a candidate in Houston, per Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. Ex-Hornets coach James Borrego and Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin are among further possibilities, per Charania and Iko.
Here’s a look at what we know of Houston’s impending coaching search so far, along with early reaction to the news.