Big stars, big trades, big numbers stuffing the box score, big talk, some big failures.

Really, The only thing that hasn't been big recently is their lineup, which was so small it made, well, big news.

So it's not a surprise to see the Rockets mark this off season with one of the league's biggest shakeups in a two week stretch.

They've replaced both the head of their front office, Daryl Morey, and their head coach, Mike D'Antoni.

Two of the sports.

More notable experience names stepping into their places.

New GM Rafael Stone.

And now, according to our Adrian word Yanovsky, Stephen Silas.

Personally, I think this is a great hire.

Silas is simply as qualified as it is possible to be.

As a first time head coach, he comes straight from a job as the Mavericks lead assistant.

He's the man that Luca Donkeys credits with helping his jump into hyperspace this past season, as Dallas put together the best offensive rating in MBA history.

Silas, in fact, has two decades of experience working with some of the sport's top names.

He's also an Ivy League graduate who, thanks to his dad, Paul Silas, has spent his entire life around the game and just has an extreme ease with players and management alike.

It doesn't surprise me at all to hear that James Harden and Russell Westbrook both back Silas for this higher and honestly, those are the relationships I will be watching most closely.

Harden is locked into the Rockets for just two more seasons.

His happiness over this next year with Silas and to a different degree with Stone will probably go a long way into determining his future with a franchise that itself is already in as much of a win now position as it is possible to be having already pre mortgaged a lot of its assets.

All of which is to say, Yeah, the stakes are very high with this latest Houston shakeup.

We won't know for a while if this is a great new beginning for the Rockets or the beginning of the end of an era.

But either way, we know it's big as usual.

So perk.

Do you think Silas is a good fit in Houston.

Is this the beginning of something there?

Mhm.

Yes, I love it.

I think it's a great hi, Steven.

Silence, to me is a possible air exposure in the making.

This guy's a stood a young stud like you said he served over 20 years as assistant.

Uh, he's a magician with the clipboard when it comes down toe, drawing up offensive sets and put guys in position to be successful, especially Russell Westbrook and James Harden.

And if you look at the feedback that he was getting that he was getting across the Internet, guys like Baron Davis and so forth was saying, Great.

Hi, this is a great dude.

He gravitates the players on and off the court.

I loved the high, and not only for short term, but for long term.

I could see him being the Rockets coach for the next 6 to 8 years possible, even if James Harden and Russell Westbrook along and gone away.

So I think this is a great hi, I'm so happy for him.

He's a young stud in the making and his well deserved.

Yeah, no, Rachel, Uh, every year when, uh, head coaching jobs are open, we hear about?

Oh, I can't believe so and so hasn't gotten a chance yet.

They've been an assistant for four years.

This is an outrage, and I always think of Stephen Silas.

This guy has been an assistant coach in the NBA for damn near half his life.

Yeah, and his name never gets mentioned like Perks said, extremely well respected for his attention to detail for his preparation for his mastery of the X's and O's, particularly on the offensive end.

But the other thing.

And I think this is important in today's MBA players like him.

The days off I don't care.

My players like me.

They're gonna respect me.

That's over.

This is a player's league, and you have tohave some sort of mutual respect and understanding and, like ability to be successful because they gotta listen to you And Stephen.

Silas is a guy, universally, and this is a guy who's coaching Golden State's coach, Steph Curry.

He's coach in Orlando with Steve Clifford.

He's coach, obviously, in Dallas with Rick Carlisle in Charlotte.

He's been around, he's known he's a known commodity, and I'm happy that he finally got his chance here and by the way and you guys perk.

I know you know this.

Usually when we talk about the first time head coach, you getting a lottery team, you're getting somebody, a team that's kind of exactly expected to win 20 games or something like that.

This is a rare opportunity when we walk in the door and have two Hall of Famers on his roster.

Absolutely, and the distinction you make about being a players coach, it's actually a little more nuanced, right?

Because, no, you cannot be the It's my way or the highway anymore in this league.

But it is a balance.

You have to be a coach that has the respect and comfort of the players while still having authority with them, because players don't respect a guy they can walk all over.

So I think it's actually a harder needle to thread than we sometimes give it credit for, and by all accounts by people who have played for him, he doesn't.

He threads that needle so that is really impressive, too.

And I do like the fact that Westbrook and Harden seem to be behind this move because, I mean, we've talked about guys making a noise certainly in the bubble about Hey, there aren't enough Black head coaches know there aren't enough black executives.

Why aren't we doing more business with black owned businesses?

Well, this was a case where two stars had the opportunity to put their money where their mouth waas and they backed the young black assistant coach for the job.

Absolutely.

It was impressive to me and and and by the way, it kudos to the rockets for listening.

Right?

Uh, I believe you know the question was, Oh, should they have taken input?

Hell, yeah, they should take input When you have star players, that's the way this league works.

And if you don't take their input, you better be prepared for some sort of kind of friction that happen walking through the door.

So instead of that, you got him coming in Now.

The other candidate was John Lucas, who had already been there and obviously lives in Houston.

He's been there a long time and was well respected, well liked by the players.

So I would expect to see John Lucas continued on on the staff.

But you know, when you talk about some of the other options that are out there.

I think it's important to listen to your players and again.

It's not about cow towering or doing whatever they like, but it's about coming to an understanding that this decision is a group decision.

It's not a unilateral decision from the owner, and I know that they want to keep John Lucas on.

The staff were just hoping that they can convince him to per Thanks for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming sports and premium content subscribe to ESPN plus.