All that's correct. I was responding to YOUR comment about how Capela fares against other centers. You're arguing against yourself I guess on that point. All of what you say is ALSO fixed with a PF that can do those things. Ranking the frontcourt from soft to hard as far as rebounding/controlling the paint/etc. is (1) Jones = Softest (2) DMo = smart, tries hard, but just doesn't always have it in him (3) Capela = still needs bulk but great basketball awareness and crazy athleticism (4) Howard Jones is a pure PF. DMo is a PF that can play center. Capela is a center, that can play PF. Dwight is a center. The hole on this team is a pure PF that can at least rebound or defend really well... ideally both.
Capela doesn't fare well against other big centers on playoff contenders. They dominate him on the glass and their bulk gets him out of position offensively and waters down his offensive efficiency.
Still need to see more stats to back this up. And it would need to be more than his performance drops. Yes, he's clearly not Shaq out there. And he's just 21. Not surprising that he gets a little worse when playing against the best. He probably plays worse against Blake Griffin then he does random PF as well.
lawson and picks for rubio. I dont care if Rubio cant shoot, at least he's nota p***y and can play some defense. Our bigs are part of the defensive problem,but perimeter penetration is really whats killing us. DMO should round into better form. Capela will throw up the poison. Montrezl can replace Jones. Howard really hasnt been bad. Ty has had 25 to show he is an NBA caliber player and just hasnt done crap. T wolves do the trade because his contract is expiring. They can try to attract free agents on the promise of Towns and Wiggins. Either ty needs to start playing well enough to not be a net negative or the rockets need to get a guy who can at least handle the ball and play defense.
1. Watch the games. 2. Look at his splits against playoff teams this season. He's getting beat up when he doesn't play alongside Dwight.
Yes, have done that, which is why I'm saying it doesn't appear so obvious to me? Ok... where? Show me those and who is in the lineup with him. I'm not sure the best place to look? Or are you just looking at game logs. The game logs are impossible to make any sense out of. Take Memphis for example. He played 12 minutes the first game (-2) and only 8 the second game, but was +3 that game. It made/makes no sense. Both were off the bench. He became a starter shortly thereafter. His ESPN stats have him playing better as a starting center than a starting power forward, for whatever that's worth. I'm not seeing any stats to back up your claim, nor does the eye test verify it. He's a young player. His play is a bit more volatile than I'd like. He hasn't been starting for but 10 games. He is being asked to play both center and PF. Sometimes he does worse against better opponents, sometimes not. I'm just not seeing, overall, any evidence that points to him, as a player, being more suited for PF than C, offensively or defensively. I am DEFINITELY seeing evidence that it's better for the team, since they're PFs are average at best, and Capela is at least more suited for PF than Dwight.
Capela has less than half a season of NBA game experience. Judging how he will play at the end of the season using stats is kind of useless. Whats key to not for Clint is game to game performance. He is still inconsistent. He is light. However, he is also supremely athletic and quick. He seems intelligent enough. I think his performance against bigger players will improve based off him learning how to use his quickness to his advantage.
Memphis is in desperate need of shooting. They wont give up their best/one of their best shooters for Stauskas
Like I said...watch.the.games. He's getting bludgeoned down there when we go up against real bigs and he's gotta man the middle. Just watch.the.games.
I feel good about the following players in a playoff rotation: Beverley Harden / Thornton Ariza DMo Howard / Capela The offense needs to revolve around Harden and DMo. When they play together with the starters, that's a dynamic group. We need to clean up what the rotations are when one of the two is on the bench. Bottom line, we need more shooters and better defenders. The first guy I'd like to go for is Al-Farouq Aminu. Elite and versatile defender, good rebounder, and is developing a jumper. He is an upgrade to Brewer, and compliments both Harden and DMo well. The question is how would Portland value him? He's shooting a career low in FG% (39.1), but also a career high in 3 point % (34.5). My guess is they value him more than we assume, as he essentially is their defense. Trading with Portland is a little easier than others, as they have the cap room to absorb more salary if necessary. The other issue on this team is PG. I want Lawson to work.....badly. But so far he hasn't and we have to explore other options if he doesn't. Problem is there aren't a ton of teams that need a PG: Brooklyn Milwaukee Philly New Orleans Utah The most interesting option is probably Milwaukee. The general consensus is that MCW isn't the answer, and they gave up a first to get Greivis Vasquez (who the Rockets were also supposedly interested in). You'd like to think that if any coach could rehab Lawson's career, it would be Kidd. HOU IN: Aminu, Vasquez MIL IN: Lawson POR IN: McDaniels, TJones, Miles Plumlee I like this trade for two reasons. First, it bumps Brewer out of the rotation and gives the Rockets a better fit at PG next to Harden (Vasquez is a combo guard rather than a pure point like Lawson). Second, it lays the groundwork for rebuilding if the Rockets can't get over the hump. Aminu becomes the future at SF, making Ariza a trade asset. IF rebuilding is the route we go, the following wouldn't be such a bad start: Beverley / Llull Harden / Gentile Aminu / Dekker DMo / Harrell Capela plus whatever you can get for Howard and Ariza.
Trade #1 Chicago gets: Dwight Howard Houston gets: Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, and Doug McDermott Trade #2 Sacramento gets: Terrence Jones, Corey Brewer, and Bojan Bogdanovic. Brooklyn gets: Ty Lawson Houston gets: Rudy Gay, Jarrett Jack, and Andrea Bargnani (we waive him) Trade #3 Rockets line-up Beverley/Jack/Terry Harden/Thornton/KJ Gay/Ariza/McDermott/Dekker (who could be a nice trade chip) Gibson/D-Mo/Harrell Noah/Capela We have a line-up of unselfish players who realize Harden is the leader but also can do their job on offense and defense without complaining. Rockets would remain competitive.
No trades yet but there should be at least one before 18/12 because then you can retrade the player you have acquired before the trade deadline. @finsraider : The one who Portland wants to trade is Henderson not Aminu.
I agree, but then of course they wouldn't get anything for Henderson. My assumption is that Portland places more value on Aminu than the typical fan does, and it would take a decent package to get him. McDaniels, TJones, and reuniting the Plumlee's seems like a fair set of prospects for a rebuilding team. I don't expect that Aminu is "on the market", but he's also not untouchable either.
The whole rebounding thing is a little deceiving though....isn't it? If you're rebounding more (specifically defensive rebounds), it means you're causing more misses than makes, and if the other team is rebounding less, it means your making more than missing. I agree that I'd like to have another defensive big to slide into a support role behind Dwight, Capela and DMo, but the major problem on this team is the lack of defensive discipline. Every moment with Harden and TJones on the court together is a defensive disaster waiting to happen, and Brewer isn't much better. The major problem with this team is that when DMo and Ariza come of the court, we lose both defensive awareness and offensive spacing. Every. Single. Time. That doesn't mean they are perfect players. DMo needs to play with a rim protector like Dwight or Capela, and Ariza needs a creator like Harden. I'll say it and some will disagree, but Ariza and DMo are our two smartest defenders. What's not debatable is that they are our ONLY forwards that can shoot. That's been a problem since day 1 of TC.
Trade #1 Terrence Jones, KJ McDaniels, Sam Dekker for Ryan Anderson. Trade #2 Corey Brewer for Aaron Aflalo Trade #3 Dwight Howard for Brook Lopez Trade #4 Patrick Beverley+ 1st Round pick for Isiah Thomas. D-League Pickups Sign Jared Johnson, Joshua Smith and Will Cummings. Revamped Roster PG:Isiah Thomas/Ty Lawson/Will Cummings SG:James Harden/Marcus Thornton/Jason Terry SF: Trevor Ariza/Aaron Afflalo/Jared Johnson PFonatas Motiejunas/Ryan Anderson/Montrez Harrell C:Brook Lopez/Clint Capela/Joshua Smith
I like Capela but he's not ready to start for a championship team. If Morey can get him Cousins, you go for that. The best part about having Harden and Cousins is you have 2 legit superstars and neither are making close to max money for the next few years. You can easily find room to sign Durant next year.
I will say this. Defense and defensive rebounding go together. So, if we want to balance the boards in our favor, gotta get better defense, which leads to more misses and more boards to be had. So, in my opinion, defense and defensive rebounding go together. That's why I'm intrigued about adding a guy like Noah or Nene who both play good defense, force bad shots, and gobble up the boards. Those things in turn lead to us getting more runouts and better looks in transition for both our finishers and 3-point shooters. We are a much better 3-point shooting team in transition than we are when we set up half-court and run a play. The key component this team is missing from last year's team that went to the WC Finals is Josh Smith's defense and rebounding. Smith's defensive dominance is what fueled our second unit to run and get easy transition looks. We haven't replaced his defense or his rebounding and we are sucking when we don't have Dwight anchoring the D. In my opinion, this is our #1 need. Then you go to the playmaking on the other end. Smoove gave us that secondary rogue playmaker. He was random. Nobody knew what he was going to do. Fire it up, drive and finish, drive and alley oop, drive and throw it to the open perimeter shooter, or simply swing it. The defense didn't know what to do with him. That's the second most important thing we lost when Smoove left us. None of Smoove's defense, rebounding, and playmaking has been replaced. And he's one of the best paint defenders in the NBA. Shooting? Sure we need better shooters. And that will help our rebounding differential. But we're built to defend and run. The Dwight/Harden combo is built to defend and run. The last thing we wanna do is set up half-court and run half-court sets with Dwight. It's just not as efficient, even with good shooters, as our transition offense. On a personal note, I really enjoy reading your posts and discussing the team and the game with you, fins. You've got a good basketball mind and a good writing style that is both expressive and penetrating without being abusive. Keep posting. I can't rep you right now. Gotta spread it around.
