The Rockets, who kicked off their head coaching search very early in the offseason, are progressing toward a second round of interviews with some of their candidates, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). According to Wojnarowski, Frank Vogel and Ime Udoka are expected be involved in that second round, which will also see newly available Nick Nurse be introduced to the process.
While Wojnarowski suggests a second round of interviews is around the corner, it doesn’t appear the Rockets have completed their first round yet.
According to Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link), Sixers assistant Sam Cassell – whose candidacy was previously reported – will interview with Houston on Sunday. Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle says that the club also still plans to meet with Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson in the coming days.
Both Cassell and Atkinson are employed by teams that are competing in the first round of the playoffs, so I imagine it’s more logistically challenging for the Rockets to schedule interviews with those candidates than the ones who are between jobs.
Here’s more on the Rockets’ coaching search:
- In addition to Vogel and Udoka, the Rockets have also completed their initial interviews with James Borrego, Adrian Griffin, and Kevin Young, Feigen confirms. Adding Cassell, Atkinson, and Nurse to that group would give Houston a total of eight candidates, which was the number initially reported at the time the team parted ways with Stephen Silas.
- Iko and Eric Koreen of The Athletic teamed up to take a closer look at Nurse’s style of coaching, to break down his performance with the Raptors, and to consider how he might fit with the Rockets.
- The Rockets are overdue to get a head coaching hire right, Jerome Solomon writes in a column for The Houston Chronicle, arguing that the franchise hasn’t hit a home run on that front since bringing in Rudy Tomjanovich way back in 1992.