Stephen Silas wants ‘experience, diversity of thought’ in assistants

“You don’t want everyone nodding their head as you’re going through things,” Silas said. “You want to talk, you want to figure things out.”

New Houston Rockets head coach Stephen Silas wants “experience” and “diversity of thought” as he helps select his assistant coaches.

One of those assistants is former NBA head coach John Lucas, who was director of player development under prior coach Mike D’Antoni and is now stepping into an elevated role on Silas’ staff. Beyond Lucas, though, Silas says there are clear priorities in filling out his coaching bench.

Per Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, the team’s list of potential assistant coaches starts with former Phoenix and New York head coach Jeff Hornacek. Other names include Jazz assistant DeSagana Diop, Magic assistant Rick Higgins, and former 76ers and Nets assistant Will Weaver, with additional candidates also in consideration.

In response to a question from Rockets Wire at Thursday’s introducatory press conference, here’s how Silas described the process:

Rafael [Stone] and I have been talking about this every day since I got hired. We’re being very collaborative. That was one of the things in my interview that I expressed that I wanted to be really collaborative on most everything, but especially the staff part.

Getting Lucas is a home run for me. As far as the other guys, I’m looking for people with experience. As a first-time head coach, even though I did have experience coaching for a month-and-a-half while Steve Clifford [in Charlotte] got sick, forming my own staff is new for me. Having experienced, former head coaches on my staff [is a priority]. Lucas is already a former head coach, possibly having one or two more former head coaches.

Having diversity of thought is very important to me. Because as you’re in your coaches meetings, you don’t want everyone nodding their head as you’re going through things. You want to talk, you want to figure things out, so that we can come out of the room with the best plan for the players. We’ll have a few young guys, a former head coach for sure, and build it out from there. The experience part is very important to me, because I know as an experienced assistant coach how important it is.

While Silas has worked in the NBA in various capacities for more than 20 years, his most recent coaching job came as the top assistant to Rick Carlisle in Dallas over the last two seasons. Last season, Silas’ Mavericks had the most efficient offense in NBA history, statistically.

With the help of quality assistants (starting with Lucas), that’s the type of play that Silas is hoping to bring to Houston. Thursday’s full press conference with Silas and GM Rafael Stone can be viewed below.

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