Last August, Houston Rockets head coach Stephen Silas enjoyed watching NFL training camp on the sidelines of the Texans, where he spoke with head coach Lovie Smith and talked shop.
If Silas is still in his same role by this August and wants a return football visit, he’ll be speaking with a different leadership voice after the Texans chose to let Smith go after a 3-13-1 season.
The circumstances aren’t entirely dissimilar to what Silas currently faces with the rebuilding Rockets, who are going through growing pains with their own young players. At Tuesday’s practice, Silas was asked about the Texans’ choices to move on from Smith and David Culley (2021) after just one season, and he seemed sympathetic to the plight of starting a rebuilding process but not seeing it through.
Here’s what Silas told our Brian Barefield:
A rebuild is very difficult. It’s unfortunate what happened with the Texans the last couple years. I’m obviously close with Culley and Lovie.
As a coach, you just want an opportunity to see it through. You want to go through all this, and dig this tunnel, and be able to walk through it yourself. I feel where those guys could be disappointed.
It’s a difficult thing that you have to stay positive through, and you have to stay aligned with management and ownership. There also has to be a huge buy-in from the players, because it’s not easy. It’s not always about wins and losses. It’s development, teaching, coaching, helping, growth, conversations. It’s all of that.
“As a coach you just want an opportunity to see it through,” said Houston Rockets HC Stephen Silas when I asked about the difficulties of going through a rebuild. In his response he also talks about former Texans HC’s David Culley & Lovie Smith. #Rockets #Sarge @TheRocketsWire pic.twitter.com/bgBr9JSZSf
— #SARGE (@BigSargeSportz) January 10, 2023
Silas, who took his position with the Rockets in late 2020, is in the final guaranteed season of his current contract and has yet to be given an extension. The difficulty of making that evaluation, of course, involves weighing the team’s lowly results over three seasons against the obvious context of a rebuilding roster.
As with Smith, it would be a bitter pill to swallow if Silas isn’t allowed to fully see the process through. The process of potentially turning things around resumes Wednesday night in Sacramento, where the young Rockets (10-30) will attempt to end a brutal run with seven consecutive losses and 12 in their previous 13 games.
