Rockets Trick or Treat: Head Coach Stephen Silas

It’s time for the special Late Halloween Night Trick or Treat Special. The Rockets finally hired a coach. They may have made the best hire of the this off-season’s large NBA coaching carousel.

Since almost no one is trick-or-treating around here, let’s look and see what delicious goodies, or nasty tricks, Stephen Silas might offer Rockets fans.

Trick or Treat - Stephen Silas?

Stephen Silas, along with Rick Carlisle and Luka Doncic had the number one offense in the NBA for the Dallas Mavericks last season. It’s odd to be a Rockets fan, and routinely feel like things aren’t quite what they should be if the Rockets aren’t number one for offense. But last year, it was Dallas.

That’s why I’m convinced Silas is going to be great. The best offense, but how did they do it?

Consider the Dallas roster. Sure, the Mavericks have Luka, but the Rockets have the final form of Luka, James Harden.

Here is the other Mavericks star.

Kristaps Porzingis - well the Rockets don’t have anyone like him. The closest they come is Jeff Green, but The Unicorn averaged 20.5pts, and 9.5 rbs per game, in 32 minutes a night. That’s good, but The Zinger’s per36 number is 23 pts. Jeff Green’s? 19.5pts. Both shot roughly 35% from three. So while Porzingis is really good, especially how he warps defenses with his height and shooting, he’s not scoring, or even rebounding, as much as you might think, given how much attention is devoted to Doncic.

After that? The Mavericks roster is, well, it’s fine. Here are the main players:

Tim Hardaway Jr.

Maxi Kleber

Seth Curry

Dorian Finney-Smith

Delon Wright

Boban Marjanovic

J.J. Barea

Courtney Lee

They’re a good team, they play hard, they’re pros. They score a lot, and do it efficiently.

There are some other important Mavericks, of course, but this line up, aside from Doncic and Porzingis, while full of perfectly fine NBA players, isn’t exactly a list of names that strike fear into opponents’ hearts. Sorry, Mavs fans, but most of these guys were either journeymen (Seth Curry) or considered problem deals (Tim Hardaway Jr.). That all changed in Dallas last year.

That collection of players was one of the best, if not the best, offenses in NBA HISTORY. Luka goes a long way towards that, of course, he’s remarkable, amazing, and still getting better.

You know who else is amazing? James Harden.

A brief comparison:

James Harden

34.3pts/7.5ast/6.6rb/1.8stl/.9blk .626TS%

Luka Doncic

28.8pts/8.8ast/9.4rb/1stl/.2blk .585TS%

So consider, what might James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Eric Gordon, Robert Covington, PJ Tucker, Jeff Green, Danuel House (yes, I think so) and others (like, a center) do with the architect of Dallas’ historic offense at the helm?

It could be really good. Honestly? It could be the best ever.

As this shortened off-season unfolds, we can look at just how Silas does it, but initial impressions are that he will use all of the court to score, while still keeping to efficient principles. He will also engage in some very clever actions to get space for his main scorer, rather than always sending him into the teeth of the defense alone (though that did happen a lot, too.).

I believe the Rockets, and Silas, are going to shatter NBA records for offense. I think it’s going to be a treat, indeed.