The Los Angeles Clippers, Houston Rockets, Philadelphia 76ers, Indiana Pacers, New Orleans Pelicans, and Oklahoma City Thunder are all looking for new leadership with their head coaching vacancies, and each job comes with perks as well as flaws.
On the daily Locked On Mavericks Podcast, Isaac Harris and I talked about the six head coaching jobs available right now, and we both agreed that the Rockets job is the worst option.
Nick Angstadt: The worst job available, of the six coaching vacancies, is the Houston Rockets.
Isaac Harris: Assuming the contract is the same for all the teams.
Angstadt: Right, it's all the same in each place. The Houston Rockets have to be on the bottom for me. I think that that job is just so tough, you have so many constraints. I don't know if the front office wants to trade any of those guys. You know with Russell Westbrook that they probably want to trade him, but I don't know if they're going to be able to.
It's just so hard to fit a very specific kind of basketball that Houston has to play, and you almost have to discover it. You almost have to figure out that style of play because we haven't seen one that really works for these guys. You've seen it work in the regular season, but when push comes to shove in the playoffs, it just doesn't work.
Harris: Yeah, the Rockets are the worst job on this list. First off, the owner, I do not want to work for that guy. I don't want to deal with Tillman, I don't want to do any of that. Ownership does matter. Is Morey going to stay? This is a Rockets roster built for D'Antoni's style, and D'Antoni's out. So then, I wouldn't say it's a horrible roster now, but if you take James Harden off their roster, is it a horrible roster? I wouldn't say it's an amazing roster.
You have to deal with the Westbrook conundrum. You have to figure out a way to maximize Westbrook because you're probably not gonna be able to trade him. You have the looming free agency of James Harden because no one's really talking about that. He has a player option for the 2022 season that's coming up before we realize it.
I just think you have high expectations. Whoever comes in there, you have to win. I just don't like taking over somebody else's schematic roster that was built for D'Antoni with the high expectations that you have to maximize Westbrook and deal with that owner. That's the worst job for me if I had my choice, that's the worst one.
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