HOUSTON — Stephen Silas is expected to return to the Rockets in 2022-23 for a third season as head coach, general manager Rafael Stone said after Monday’s season-ending exit interviews at Toyota Center.
“Definitely the expectation is for Stephen to be back,” Stone said. “Stephen Silas is one of my favorite people in the world. He is an extraordinarily good man, extraordinarily smart man. And I’m looking forward to attacking this challenge with him, yet again.”
The Rockets had the NBA’s worst record after each of Silas’ first two seasons, but there were some obvious extenuating circumstances. The 2020-21 campaign was marred by the James Harden’s forced departure and a historic wave of injuries, while 2021-22 marked the start of a rebuild and the ensuing youth movement — with a roster featuring five rookies in the team’s rotation by the closing stages of the season.
Headlined by No. 2 overall draft pick Jalen Green, who was named Western Conference Rookie of the Month by the NBA for March and April, Stone pointed to clear signs of progress among his young core.
“This has been a difficult year, but I think Stephen did well,” Stone said. “In the macro, I do think all of our players improved. That was our primary goal. In that sense, I think he and his staff did a very good job.”
In a later interview, Silas said he was hopeful of having all members of his assistant coaching staff return. However, he said he would not attempt to hold them back from a promotion, if they received one somewhere else.
Rafael Stone says he expects Stephen Silas to return as #Rockets head coach for Year 3, and as for the staff of assistants, Stone says that’s Stephen’s decision.
— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) April 11, 2022
As for the approach in 2022-23, Silas indicated that the team’s younger players would generally be held to a higher standard after the learning experiences they went through over this past season.
“If we went through this season, and they learned a lot, then they can be held accountable to what they learned,” Silas told reporters on Monday afternoon. “We had a bunch of guys who never played in the NBA before, or guys who hadn’t been in the roles that they were in.”
“We really started at zero this year with a lot of guys. So getting to the point where we played an 82-game season with these guys and their roles will be similar next year… we’ll be starting at a much higher place than we were this season as far as understanding. It won’t be so bland on both ends of the floor, because there’ll be a much higher level of understanding when it comes to the young guys.”
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Stephen Silas says the #Rockets are going to expand their playbook heading into the 2022-23 season. A lot of things they did this year, schematically, were very “base” due to how extremely young the personnel was. pic.twitter.com/MF8BiQVK8N
— Ben DuBose (@BenDuBose) April 11, 2022
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