Holy hell, I just watched the highlights from Whiteside's triple double in 24 minutes with 12 friggin' blocks...against Chicago too who was one of the least blocked teams last year. Hard decision, but I'll go with Capela, as he has showed such potential in his limited playing time. He's got 4 years to get to where Whiteside is, and I think that's entirely plausible.
Whiteside isn't that good on defense though. The Heat had a 108.5 DRTG with Whiteside on the court according to nbawowy and as I showed in my earlier post, he doesn't do a great job protecting the rim either. Blocks =/= great defense
The common knowledge is that centers take longer to develop. Not only centers all big men. The prime years begin at 25 for most but for big men it's later on average. It depends also on mileage ofc and everyone is different. As you said someone like Dwight who relies so much on athleticism will fall abruptly. See in example the fall of Noah. From DPOY and MVP candidate rolleyes: ) to the bench and major liabillity in his team. But Whiteside doesn't have almost no mileage on his body. Oh definitely. Definitely he won't go from idiot to genious. And his tunnel vision won't see major improvement either- his defensive awareness probably will tho. But he will improve if he's focused it's definitely not late. And yes years in the league matter a lot because he never was under trainers like he has now in the NBA (except in his rookie years when he was too lazy). I will take Capella 100% because I don't trust someone to become from hothead idiot to be able to control his emotions at that age. Scola is a completely stylistically different player and not a good comparison to whiteside. But you can't make any sure statements about Capella's improvements either. The sample we have is minuscule. Wait at least for his sompomore season and to log enough minutes before taking anything for granted. QFT and repped.
Also Per36 is sometimes "(c)": Player vs 2nd Team numbers. More misleading about how good the player can be. Playing 12 minutes against 76ers/Kings scrubs can be a nice boost to anyone's stats vs playing 20 minutes against Spurs/Clippers STARTERS. Yeah do have to consider context.
Yep I'll def take Capela. We can argue all night whether Capela's body control or Whitesides athleticism is more impressive but no one is arguing who plays smarter.
Yeah. Thanx for adding that. Anyway Capella as is right now isn't possible to be statistically compared to anyone because of the sample that is laughably small. And whitesides' sample isn't big either but at least it is respectably big, just not enough to be able to make any reliable projections.
I agree with your statements except for this one. Maybe Whiteside has no mileage IN THE NBA but realistically speaking he hasn't really stopped playing basketball so he has still been receiving contact and getting banged up in Iraq or wherever he has been playing. Anyway anybody who thinks Whiteside is better than Capela is just short sighted IMHO, wait 2-3 years and you'll see why if you can't get it now. You might not even have to wait that long, Whiteside's new deal should come up next year and then we'll see if he implodes or not.
Whiteside has issues on and off the court and even last year you can clearly see how he can have tantrums. He brings issues to the locker room and to me he seems more like a "me" player where he cares only about his stats and touches than the success of the team. Clint capela has more of a work ethic and already much more talented despite being so much younger. Clint doesn't bring the off court issues like whiteside. Clint will be a better player than whiteside.
Whitesides could be a nice back up to Capela next season if he wants to reinvigorate his career. He would be crazy good as a roller but unsure about his perimeter D. Heat obviously want nothing to do with him. But still would prefer Noel on a one year show me contract if I had my druthers.
Capela just understands what makes his game valuable in the modern NBA while guys like Whiteside and Dwight Howard just never figure it out. It’s a 3 point shooting league now. A big without shooting ability needs to suck in the defense in the paint on the p&r to space the floor and get open shots. Bigs that want to post up or iso in the corners just stagnate the offense and kill their teams who need to keep the pace going. The success of the modern nba bigs has more to do with what’s between the ears and their egos. Doesn’t mean their value is any less than it was in the 80’s and 90’s though.
Whiteside and Nurkic getting completely "played off the floor" in their respective series really is something. Shows you the value of Capela being able to move his feet and guard on the perimeter. If you are big and can't do that, you better be dominant offensively inside or else you are a liability.
