Rockets could bring back ex-champion player to coach team?
The Houston Rockets may be rewinding it all the way back to the Hakeem Olajuwon era.
The Rockets announced over the weekend that they will not be bringing back head coach Stephen Silas next season after three years in charge of the team. A new voice was needed after Silas went a pitiful 59-177 (.250) over his Houston tenure.
Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated is reporting this week that former Coach of the Year Scott Brooks is one of the candidates whom the Rockets have already expressed interest in to potentially replace Silas. Brooks is currently an assistant coach with the Portland Trail Blazers.
The 57-year-old Brooks has prior history with Houston, having played for them from 1992-95. Brooks was also on the Rockets’ 1994 NBA title team.
After retiring as a player, Brooks went on to have a lengthy NBA coaching career. He has 12 total seasons of head coaching experience (between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Washington Wizards) with a career record of 521-414 (.557). Brooks won Coach of the Year honors with the Thunder in 2010 and led them to the NBA Finals in 2012.
While Brooks is not too highly regarded as a strategist, he has an excellent reputation when it comes to player development (something that would come in handy for an extremely young Rockets team). Houston’s head-coaching search remains wide open though, and they could ultimately choose to go with a much riskier candidate instead.
