3 reasons Stephen Silas should be proud of Rockets' tenure

2. Silas inherited an unimaginable situation

After waiting 20 years, Silas seemed to finally land the opportunity of a lifetime. Silas was on the cusp of being able to coach two MVPs and two former scoring champions, in Russell Westbrook and James Harden. 

However, Westbrook was dealt shortly after Silas became the head coach, as the Rockets dealt the 2016-17 MVP to the Washington Wizards for John Wall. And although James Harden made it a point to assure the franchise that he was intending to stick around, he didn't show up for training camp, forcing Silas to answer questions from the media about his superstar's whereabouts.

Not only that, this deprived Silas of the opportunity to get a newly configured roster together, which in turn denied the group an opportunity to mesh and build chemistry.

And although Harden did finally show up, it only took eight games for him to realize that he didn't want to be a part of the new-look Rockets, forcing the Rockets to send him away, and forcing Silas to make due without a superstar on the roster, in his first season as an NBA coach.

And we know the importance of starpower in the NBA, so I don't have to emphasize the magnitude of that. Once Harden was moved, the Rockets traded P.J. Tucker and parted ways with Ben McLemore (two players that helped the franchise reach the Western Conference Semifinals in the previous season).

This was essentially a tear-down, and those typically require losing. And usually during a rebuild, the coach doesn't survive, once the team adds talent and becomes a contender. 

Those things tend to be agonizing and painful, for everyone involved, but oftentimes have a way of bringing out the best in oneself, from a personal standpoint, which Silas alluded to, stating that he "found strength in himself that he didn't necessarily know that he had."