While he was delighted to be able to work calmly with his workforce before starting the regular season, Stephen Silas was removed from his group in the middle of training camp since he had contracted Covid-19.
Not content with being placed in solitary confinement, the Rockets coach (49) obviously had a bad time.
“The Covid is not a joke”, he reminds. “I have to age because they say that for young people, it’s not a problem. For me, it was more than embarrassing. It was not a good experience to have, but I feel better now. Even if I’m not myself yet because my energy still hasn’t returned. »
Away from his players for a week, Stephen Silas delegated his work to his assistant John Lucas, with whom he kept in touch. The two men exchanged up to six times a day. In addition, he had at his disposal the videos of the training sessions and then of the matches against Toronto and Miami.
” It was awful. Awful. I told the players: the hardest part of this story was not seeing them, not being with them during training, exercises, meetings… I missed them. As for Lucas, with his relationship, his communication with the players on a daily basis, even when I am present, I was totally comfortable with the idea of giving him the reins. »
After watching the last two Rockets meetings from a distance, what is Stephen Silas’ analysis?
“I liked our energy and effort on defense against Toronto. We started well against Miami. Faced with a bit of adversity, we responded, we came back. There is a lot to learn from these two matches. I like our direction, that’s for sure. We just need to be better organized. We are progressing. »
