Stephen Silas has been dealt one of the worst hands imaginable for a rookie coach, but it’s clear that his colleagues have his back.
The Houston Rockets dropped their 20th consecutive game on Sunday against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The team has been decimated by injuries and the James Harden trade, and with Houston’s better remaining players linked to trades, it could be poised to get worse.
After Sunday’s defeat, Silas went viral online for how defeated he looked when fielding questions about the losing streak during his postgame press conference.
Rockets coach Stephen Silas was asked if the weight of his team's 20-game losing streak was building.
His face says it all. pic.twitter.com/9HvfOrWfY6
— Sporting News (@sportingnews) March 21, 2021
Plenty of coaches took note of Silas’ struggles. The Rockets coach said Monday he’d heard from numerous big-name coaches about how to cope with the losing.
Stephen Silas said in the last 24 hours he heard from Doc Rivers, Steve Kerr, Luke Walton, Doug Collins, Don Nelson about their losing streaks and their offers and support.
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) March 22, 2021
It’s hard to blame Silas for anything that’s going on. The first thing he had to deal with upon taking the job was a disgruntled superstar. That hung over the first part of the season, and when a trade finally happened, it left the Rockets bereft of high-end talent. Injuries to Christian Wood and John Wall made things worse, and the Rockets have been scraping together teams for the last several weeks.
The Rockets will host the Toronto Raptors on Monday night trying to break their losing streak. Toronto has lost eight in a row, so something has to give.
