I thought he looked bigger than I expected as well. He has legit size and athleticism. He just needs to learn the game and he will get bigger and stronger now that he is over here with our trainers. I was actually encouraged by his length and the fluidity in the way he moved and ran the court. I'm hoping that he can get some confidence up in the D. League and become a serviceable rotation player. Won't take much to beat out a few of the guys ahead of him in the rotation right now like Dorsey. He just needs to focus on rebounding, blocking shots, and catching and finishing.
barring a trade, i have no inclination to believe that he will have any sort of contribution to the Rockets' current or future success. We don't develop projects. Jordan Hill was a project and we got rid of him for a protected first round pick. Hill should develop nicely over the next couple of years.
I watched the whole game from beginning to end. Granted, D. Mo had a solid initial defensive game and wasn't a foul machine, but he often negated his solid defense by not securing countless rebounds that he got his hands on. It was embarrassing. He could have had 10 rebounds last night easily. We've often heard that the defensive possession is not over until the rebound is secured and he did a poor to pathetic job at that while he was in the game. Being 7 feet tall isn't so useful when you don't jump for rebounds, get out hustled to the ball by smaller quicker guys, and get both hands on the ball and fail to squeeze it without it being poked away from you. Forget about rebounding out of his area, he is not even rebounding balls in his area right now that he has first crack at and come right to him. At the very least, this the main thing that he absolutely has to clean up. No excuses. Maybe if he can get on the glass, it will help him restore his shaken confidence and he might actually start contributing again offensively as well. Still 0 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist in 25 minutes may not tell the whole story, but it tells a lot.
This is another indication that alot of you guys are really paying attention to the wrong things with some of these guys to judge their impact. D-Mo was very good last night on the defensive end. His team defense and the way he helped in the paint was a very good complement to Dwight's ability to move around and be more active. Often D-Mo was switched onto a perimeter player, and still held his own. Despite virtually zero offense out of D-Mo I think it was one of his better games he's played with the Rockets. He gave the Rockets what they NEEDED vs. what the player and the fans WANTED. D-Mo played a Jeff Adrien type of game defensively, but he did it with 7 foot size. Give me last night's D-Mo vs. a Jeff Adrien any day of the week. Break out of the tunnel vision guys.
Read my previous post about him failing to grab the rebounds after his initial defense. Yes, his defense was solid at first, but it's a reach to say he had a solid overall game. It was better than the last few. I'll give him that. He needs to do better.
Capela needs to go dominate the Dleague for awhile before he's in another game. He looked about as raw as it gets. I'll add Dmo did play solid defense but he just didn't look confident whenever he got the ball on the offensive in which was thankfully very few times
The thing about DMo is this: By far his best offensive attribute is his ability to score in post-ups, but on this team he is highly unlikely to be the featured guy in the post. The team is gonna give its one-on-one chances to Harden and Dwight Howard because of how good they are on offense (especially Harden). The rest of the guys need to fit in around them. They are not gonna post-up DMo, have Harden spot up for a kick-out 3 and ask Dwight to position himself for the rebound.
That is another kind of tunnel vision. That every other 7 footer is a tough rebounding and defending big guy. He is soft IMHO....
When hes with the starters, sure, but I don't see why he doesn't get any post ups with the bench squad. I don't get d-mo. He was b****ing about playing time a while ago but whenever he gets a chance, he does very little with it. I always envisoned him as our eventual stretch 4. I guess I should give that up
He didn't look good.. but you can't really make any judgments with how little he played. Plus, that was his first game ever in the NBA... he didn't even play in pre-season. Plus, he is coming off an injury. Plus, he isn't supposed to be NBA-ready this year. So him actually doing something good would have been surprising.
I just don't see him as a shooter any time soon-- same with Jones. Neither even shoot the FT all that well so I would not want to count on them making tougher shots consistently.
So your opinions are based off of what exactly? A DraftExpress video, and 3 minutes of a rookies first minutes on an NBA floor? Sounds completely rational to me. You want immediate payoff I get it. But at least be honest about it instead of vilifying something else to deflect your true fan frustration. Its the same as when Houston fans absolutely despised Yao when he first came in the league because he wasn't Hakeem & didn't have a body that was NBA ready, and they despised Ariza the first year because he wasn't T-Mac, etc. etc. etc. We've seen it 100 times with Houston Sports fans and their unrealistic expectations. Seen it with the Astros, and certainly the Oilers/Texans. One of the most unfair/opinionated fanbases in the world for whatever reason. In a much smaller sense, Capela is not LaMarcus Aldridge or whatever you wanted him to be, and he NEVER WAS SUPPOSED TO BE. He's a rookie prospect in his first year. He's a rookie who has potential with his length and athleticism. He's not NBA ready but who cares. It paid off for OKC with Ibaka, it didn't pay off for Charlotte and Biyumbo. It is what it is, but you have no idea what Capela is going to after 3 freaking minutes in garbage time of his first NBA game with only TWO practices under his belt. Making strong opinions this early in his career is beyond absurd & unfair.
Right, just needs to learn how to play basketball. Ugh, I get that he's not going to be good for a few years, but I really wish they'd managed to stash him overseas. Look at the career path of similar bigs like Larry Sanders and Serge Ibaka. He'll be an RFA by the time we actually have an idea of whether he's any good or not.
so i just watched the game over and the dude has legit length he has defensive potential and he can devleop a dunk that would be fine all that plus he runs fairly well . Some people say he will be a bust but what is he like 19.Pap is what 24 played in top leagues in europe and his first game you can tell he was nervous . Expect capella's first season if and when he gets on the floor to be like paps first game . The only thing is i feel you will see flashes of great defence they may be far and few but this kid has tools to be a good player not great but good.
I am not sure if you were following me. I was talking about Dmo who looks worse than his sophomore season and his stint in the Dleague. Except for couple of defensive rotations maybe. I am being polite. At this point I am not really interested in Capela.
D-Mo surely is starting to look like he is closer to being who he is going to be the rest of his career than what everyone had hoped he could be. I still think he's been able to improve enough defensively to where he's still going to be in the league for quite awhile and he might have a late growth in his offensive game late in his career. I don't really expect much other than what he gave last night which is to defend without fouling, make the right pass, take up space, and run the floor. Its ok that you are not interested in Capela. You and obviously many others here are only focused on the here and now. Understandable. The Rockets obviously still want to take shots at high level young talent in the background. Its just a difference in philosophys I guess. Me personally, I don't mind one or two projects at a time, but I realize how valuable roster spots are nowadays. I'm honestly much more upset with the lack of production from Dorsey and Garcia's roster spot than Johnson and Capela's. I hope they can do much better than Dorsey in the near future, but I guess your options aren't endless with veteran minimum deals.
