Clint Capela's Consistent Improvement

They def have great chemistry. He’s become an extension of James with those long distance lob passes.

 

we need more of your threads buddy always fun to read

 

Couldn't find a thread to put this in, and didn't really want to start a new thread. But found some interesting stats about how much Capela impacts Harden's game.
*rankings are among NBA starters starting over 30 games and are in relation to the full season

While Capela was out between January 14th and February 13th, Harden's passing stats were:
42.9 Passes made a game (51st)
69.4 Passes received a game (10th)
5 assists per game (34th)
11.6 potential assists per game (17th)
12.2 points created by assists per game (35th)
11.6% Assist to Pass ratio (35th)

On the season:
51.6 passes made a game (29th)
76.4 passes received a game (1st)
7.6 assists per game (11th)
14.6 potential assists a game (6th)
18.6 points created by assists (10th)
14.8 assist to pass ratio (8th)

Games with Capela (before his return):
55.6 passes made a game (18th)
79.7 passes received a game (1st)
8.8 assists per game (6th)
16 potential assist per game (3rd)
21.4 points created by assists per game (3rd)
15.8% assist to pass ratio (3rd)

 

Concur with the gist of this thread. BUT, to be fair, Capela's defensive rebounding percentage is down this year. And he isn't as effective on switches. Guys are blowing by him and he isn't getting as many blocks after the blow by like he was doing in the playoffs.

So the base numbers have improved, but you can see issues on the eye test. We have seen him ratchet up his game in the playoffs like last year, so he can get back there. And he seems to be very self motivated and has a good work ethic which is extremely encouraging for development.

 

The advanced stats would agree with you, Capela has regressed from last season overall. While his OREB% is up by 2, his DREB% is down 4, with his BLK% declining by 1. His WS/48 went from .248 (weak MVP candidate) to .208 (All-NBA).

I'd attribute some, if not most, of his regression to the fact he now plays thirty-four minutes per game, up from twenty-seven last year, which is second in the NBA amongst Cs, not counting AD, behind Steven Adams (who plays 6 more seconds per game) while having a better season than him by the same advanced stats.

Lots of bigs can look like advanced stat gods while only playing 25-ish MPG from stanima issues (JV, Sabonis, Harrell, Favors). This is compounded by Clint building even more anaerobic muscle mass (fast twitch strength muscle built from weight training) while increasing the load on his his aerobic muscular capacity (slow-twitch stamina muscle built from long-duration cardio). One offseason isn't enough for the latter to catch up with the former, if at all. The result is him playing more minutes, but at a decreased effectiveness. My hope is that his stamina can increase further this offseason, but for now I hope that Faried's addition can reduce Clint's minutes to around 32-30 per game so he can get his full effectiveness back.

 

Good info!

 

He got bulkier which very minimally slowed him down but enough for him to get blown by.

 

Great and informative thread! As a sports fan, it's always great to see a homegrown player improve right in front of our eyes!

We have front-row seats to watch the creation of a new star center, but I guess he's still no Thon Maker. Which might not be a bad thing...

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_NBA_draft

I think Capela would be a top-5 pick if you redid the 2014 draft. Wow, there were so many busts chosen ahead of Clint.

 

Jesus Christ

 

An addendum, I doubt the Rockets are stupid enough to have jacked up Clint's minutes per game if it hurts the team overall. Clint is only 86% as efficient as last year at putting up WS/48, but is playing 139% of the minutes he played last year. When you factor that in, Clint is giving us 120% of the production he gave us last year (.86 x 1.39 = 1.1954). With the options at backup C for most of the year being: 6'6" Tucker, 36 year old Nene, and Chriss/Hartenstien (LOL); I'm not surprised to see Morey judge Clint worthy of more minutes despite decreased effectiveness, as Clint playing his other 27 minutes ay 85% is better than letting any of those guys play 1/6th of the game at C over Capela. Hopefully Faried can change this dynamic a bit.

 

Top 3. I don't think anyone but Embiid and Jokic would go ahead of him. Maybe there are still some Wiggins believers out there? Interesting that he went so late in the 1st round and Jokic was a second round pick. Also interesting that all three of the best players in that draft were centers.

 

Funny thing, its almost like a rock-paper-sissors thing when the three play. Embiid is too big for Capela, who's too fast for Jokic, who's too skilled for Embiid.

 

Not a completely fair assessment. Our entire defense has changed compared to last season, so we tried to switch more instead of smarter and that really hurt Capela's numbers in comparison to last season. Capela has the ability to defend the perimeter, but that is not sustainable for any bigs. Moute and Ariza were also better at blocking out than Melo and Ennis to give Capela the opportunity to beat his man for boards. As for blocking, it's hard to sustain blocking numbers when you were being expected to switch out to the perimeter.

 

His per 100 possession numbers have been consistent for the last 3 seasons. The only thing that has improved is his stamina and his free throws.

Season	Age	Tm	Lg	Pos	G	GS	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	2P	2PA	2P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS	ORtg	DRtg
2014-15	20	HOU	NBA	C	12	0	90	7.7	16.0	.483	7.7	16.0	.483	2.2	12.7	.174	5.5	14.4	19.9	1.1	0.6	5.0	2.8	7.7	17.7	84	97
2015-16	21	HOU	NBA	C	77	35	1471	7.7	13.3	.582	7.7	13.2	.583	2.7	7.1	.379	6.5	10.0	16.5	1.6	2.0	3.1	2.0	6.4	18.1	114	104
2016-17	22	HOU	NBA	C	65	59	1551	11.2	17.4	.643	11.2	17.4	.643	2.9	5.5	.531	5.5	10.8	16.3	1.9	1.1	2.4	2.7	5.5	25.3	122	106
2017-18	23	HOU	NBA	C	74	74	2034	10.7	16.4	.652	10.7	16.3	.653	3.5	6.2	.560	5.8	13.6	19.4	1.6	1.4	3.3	2.5	4.5	24.8	126	101
2018-19	24	HOU	NBA	C	45	45	1531	10.6	16.8	.632	10.6	16.8	.632	3.5	5.6	.626	6.8	11.2	18.0	2.0	0.8	2.6	2.2	3.9	24.7	130	110

 

That in itself is an improvement. The vast majority of players don't scale well with more minutes.

 

True, but it's not like Capela has to create his own shot or get double teamed. His job is to find space around the rim, catch the ball, and dunk it. Those things tend to scale with minutes. Faried's numbers are exactly the same per 100 minutes also. This even includes the time he was glued to the bench.

 

If he can hit free throws at a 73-75% clip.....*spongebob whistling meme*

 

IMO, this is an oversimplification of Capela's game on offense.

1. Catching on-the-fly bullet bounce passes and lobs from Harden is pretty hard. First, the roll man has to determine when the defending big sags off enough for the lob to become an option and prepare for it. Second, Harden has a tendency to throw quick passes (especially bounce passes) at weird angles and timing that most bigs have trouble handling.
2. Capela has also developed a pretty decent face up game that utilizes his superior speed and above average big man dribbling skills. We have seen many examples of him Eurostepping past his man or crossing one way and spinning back the other way for a layup or hook.

Faried only provides the offense part of Capela's game and very little of Capela's defense. In short, Faried lacks the ability to anchor a team D whereas Capela has that ability.