Charlotte Hornets: Everyone Wants Stephen Silas
The Charlotte Hornets not only have to worry about losing free agent players but perhaps free agent coaches as well.
Although the Charlotte Hornets have been trying to figure out how to keep their roster whole this off season, there has also been activity on their coaching bench. We talked about how teams had contacted assistant Patrick Ewing and that did not seem to go anywhere. Ewing is not the only assistant to have been contacted by other teams.
Charlotte Hornets’ assistant Stephen Silas has become something of a hot property lately. He is on the coaching prospect list for the Houston Rockets for their head position. He is also on the wish list of teams who are trying to fill a hole in their assistant coaching ranks.
The Rockets brought in the 42 year old son of former Hornets and Bobcats coach Paul Silas to talk about their head coaching position. He crushed two interviews with the team and the only thing that may prevent him from getting the job is the person of Mike D’Antoni.
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Former Suns and Lakers coach D’Antoni is the other finalist for the Rockets head job and as more experience at the head coach level in the NBA.
Silas’ first stint in Charlotte was with the Bobcats under his father. At that time it seemed like the Bobcats kept hiring coaches who had up-and-coming sons as assistants. The first Bobcats regime had Bernie Bickerstaff and his son Jon-Blair Bickerstaff. Then there were the Silases. In both cases the son was considered a long term replacement if the father had been successful.
The other strange thing is that Houston’s interim coach was Jon-Blair Bickerstaff. If Stephen Silas got the job, he would be replacing the other former Bobcats coach-in-waiting.
Silas spent some years with Golden State after his father was let go from the Bobcats. Then he joined Steve Clifford’s regime in Charlotte.
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Silas’ connection to Golden State is also potentially important to his future. The Warriors have asked permission to speak to him about their assistant coach opening according to reports from Adrian Wojnarowski of the Vertical.
Golden State will lose top assistant Luke Walton when their season ends. He agreed to become head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. With that spot open, the Warriors want to fill it with continuity and quality. Silas would allow them to do both. He knows the Warriors and being a top assistant on the best team in basketball can’t be a bad thing for a future head coach, right?
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So we will see if Silas becomes the next Rockets head coach or Steve Kerr’s right hand man in Golden State. Maybe he will decide to stick around with the idea that winning with the Hornets might be a more impressive feat for an assistant. Even if it isn’t helping Patrick Ewing.