” Playing under a coach like him, who cares about his players first and foremost: it was a blessing to have that relationship », loose Kevin Porter Jr. ” He gives us the confidence to go play every night. He helped me a lot to overcome difficulties and grow “, adds Jabari Smith, while Jalen Green holds a similar speech.
Young Rockets tributes mount as Stephen Silas was pushed out. The Texas club has decided not to activate his fourth and final year of contract, as an option. The more encouraging results of the Texans since March 1 – 9 wins for 12 losses including four successes in their last five games – were not enough to allow him to save his skin.
Arrived at the Rockets in the 2020 offseason, to coach a team then led by James Harden and Russell Westbrook, the coach thus left Houston and its reconstruction project with a weak record at 59 wins for 177 losses, the worst percentage of success in history. a coach who has managed at least 200 games.
As he had already expressed a few days ago, the technician still feels “ proud. I wanted to be a coach all my life, like my father. I’m proud of these guys, proud of their hard work, proud of their growth and maturity throughout the season. There has obviously been a lot of talk about my position over the past few months. They kept playing, working and trying. They were concerned about it, about getting better, about playing hard for their coach. I’m proud of that. »
in the right direction
And the one who could become an assistant again, a role occupied for twenty years (Dallas, Charlotte, Golden State, New Orleans, Cleveland), recalls that in addition to the low final quota of 22 victories, he went through other storms in year course. ” Losing my dad, going through a lot of things that I’ve been through, going to work everyday with a smile on my face, knowing I’m going to see Jalen, see Scoot (Kevin Porter Jr.), Alps (Sengun) and Jabari, everyone. I could do the whole list of guys, that’s what makes it great. »
Silas retains a lot of positives from this first experience in this position. “ We play hard, it’s difficult to play against us. We are just young “Judges the technician who has seen progress in the majority of players in the workforce. ” You can tell there is something special here. »
The future will tell if his observation will translate into victories. He is optimistic: We are moving in the right direction. […] We have the right elements in place. We have financial margin for this summer. In the future, the team will improve and become successful. The team improved a lot between the beginning and the end of the season. Maybe not when it comes to wins. But we are a much better team than at the start of the season. And I’m proud of it. »
