Very simply this. Hold down the defensive paint throughout these playoffs. That is all. If he can do that one thing I'll be happy to say I'm wrong. I'll even admit I'm wrong if we lose in these playoffs and I see Clint manage the defensive paint in just an above average fashion. He doesn't have to be great. Just above average defensively in the paint. I want to see that Clint is not going to break down, get into foul trouble, have to sit the bench with foul trouble or exhaustion causing him to trail plays and get beat around the rim to the point that we have to take him out. I simply want to see him be the defender that a championship team needs in the paint. I didn't see that all season. I'm sorry. I saw improvements in his game. But not the key improvement that he needs to be more than just another athletic big man. He's improved his stamina.......very incrementally. I'm giving him credit here. It's obvious he's worked on it. But still......I saw him get run down and MDA had to conserve his minutes. He's improved his rebounding. I'll give him credit for that. Although rebounding is the most difficult one to evaluate in my opinion. Because of our system and playing small he does get more rebounding opportunity. But I'll give him credit for improving. He's improved somewhat in the PnR. I say somewhat because really all the PnR action and exploitation is dictated by Harden and Paul and then communicating to Capela what to do. And there's not much left to improve here. HE IS THE IDEAL PUCK AND ROLL CENTER. Why? Very simply, because he listens to the ball handlers and does what they tell him to do. When they tell him to hesitate, he hesitates. When they tell him to slip the pick, he slips the pick. And new they've worked together long enough in that role that he has developed good instinct to know what they wasn't with eye movement or simple hand gestures, etc. He's developed great chemistry on the PnR with them. Give him full credit for that. And in a further nuance of his game, they have evolved the PnR to include dumping Capela the ball at the FT line area and letting him do little one or two-dribble drives with it to the rim. That's an expansion of hid offensive hand related to the PnR play. And it has helped make our offense more efficient. I get that. I really do. What I still haven't seen is him consistently manage the defensive paint. And once again, very simply put, good to great paint defense is a staple of championship teams. I realize this is not going to satisfy you or anyone. You'll want stats, etc. And I do have stats, opponent stats to support what I see. But even if I run out the stats it won't be enough. And it really doesn't matter to me anyways. I'm only telling you what I see out there. And right now...I really want to be wrong about Capela. K?
I didn't bring up that post, which was over a year old. I simply explained it. When you wake up with a hangover maybe you'll figure that out. Probably not though.
This post is utterly ridiculous. The guy that started this thread must be smoking something other than cigarette. I can tell you that this guy is stone cold drunk or his brain is fried. His posting right should be revoked immediately.
The “broken clock is right twice a day” saying was written for special folks like Hollic/Bobby. They will die on that hill until something happens that allows them say “see... I was right all along”. With Capela it might be his retirement at 38 years old but Hollic will stay on that hill until he can say he was right.
It's important that we look at dates of posts. Especially when we're in a different season. Some things are written specifically for a time and place. And players careers aren't static. They go up and down. Wished more posters here understood that. I do zero in on players. Both good and bad. I zeroed in on Terrence early. I knew he was fragile and didn't have the mentality to be a good NBA player. I can't reveal how I knew that. But I had some access to him that let me know he didn't have it between the ears. That's not the be all end all if the situation though. The next thing I looked for was ANY DISTINCTIVE GREAT NBA SKILL. Terence had none. And he did have significant flaws like broken jump shoot mechanics that I knew would take literally years to fix. And that was the death knoll for me. I took it easy on him early. In fact I wanted us to trade him after a few games he played alongside Harden and Dwight and he lit it up. On the other side I zeroed in on Anthony Davis. Big deal you say. Sure. Here's the big deal. I stated that for Anthony Davis to be great he had to play the 5. Why? Because he was too good defensively to not play the 5. Anthony Davis today and for his career is a much much better player at the 5 where he can cut off the rim and control the defensive paint. Anthony Davis.........is the best 5 in the game. Because Anthony is the BEST DEFENSIVE 5 in the game and he has great offensive skills to go with being the best defensive 5 in the league. I said he had to play the 5 before he played a single game because I could see it in his defense. I could see it. Wasn't any numbers. I could see it. Go back and look what I said about Rudy Gobert before the draft. I zeroed in on him as a potential great defensive center. Anybody could see the length. But I saw the quicks. That is such reflexes and quick mentality. He had it. It was a matter of how hard he was williing to work. I knew if he worked he'd be great. I never got off Terence's case because there were so many posters here posting all sorts of pure crapola about how great he was going to be. Somebody has to tell the truth. All those guys disappeared. Very few have owned up to all their bull they posted about him. When I first started studying Capela I detected a similar flaw to Terrence. Not the same. Terence is weak mentally. Clint isn't nearly as weak mentally. Clint is slow mentally. And that's not something that cannot be changed. It can be overcome to a certain degree by repetition and doing things until instincts take over. But in the heat of the moment these guys get brain freezes at the most critical times. When you combine that weakness with a stamina issue (that is still on going albeit improved), mediocre length fur an NBA center, and below average strength for an NBA center, you have my prognosis. Granted Clint has addressed all his weaknesses as best he can. He's a good character guy. And he works hard. But, he's still got a stamina issue, a strength issue, and from what I can still see, the most critical issue.....He's slow to process and slow to react. Those are the killers of being above average to great. He's not Terence. He's not mentally fragile like Terence. He'll have a long career if he stays healthy. And I hope I'm wrong about him not being quick enough. I really really hope I'm wrong.
Yes. He has been really, really bad. Defensively especially. He's been better this season. I give him full credit. But he hasn't been that good that I'm ready to ride him on a long term high dollar deal. I want to see Capela stud up defensively in these playoffs. C'mon Clint, please do it.
This basketballholic will not quit. He is dug in deep in his foolish rant about Capela is not good enough. Perhaps, this guy is still living in the past. Can someone help teleport this guy in the Rockets present and future? BasketballHolic needs help. Capela is growing in front of you; wake up from your nightmare and see.
Obviously you're still sore about Terence. I didn't mention your name dobro. You injected yourself here. dobro was one of the worst opinion opponents I had on Terence. He constantly torched me every time Terence had a good statistical game. LOL
Guys that's all I have time for now. Got a busy day. Go Rockets! Go Capela! Bring home the championship! Peace. Out for now.
I'm glad you acknowledge the improvement. You'd probably save yourself some grief on here by pointing out and recognizing the areas where he has improved more often. So, my takeaway is you will not be satisfied with Capela unless he does an above average job in protecting the paint. You listed the criteria. You want him to do a good job of avoiding: foul trouble, not getting back on defense, defensive lapses protecting the paint. Here's the problem. Great defenders will get into foul trouble from time to time. It happened to Hakeem, one of the best to ever do it. So let's not kill him simply because of that. Great defensive bigs will also get beat in transition from time to time -- especially when they are the principal defensive rebounder on their team. I can guarantee you that Golden State or Philly -- should we meet them -- will get their share of fast break points against us with Clint Capela on the floor. Sometimes you can blame particular players on a given play. But, generally speaking, that's a collective responsibility thing. Avoid defensive lapses protecting the paint? Totally fair. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that Clint's defensive responsibilities on our team are a little different from a traditional defensive center. We switch everything. Capela switching onto perimeter plays is a key part of our defensive scheme. He's not dropping back on PnRs like a Gobert or Embiid. So his value on defense really can't be measured purely based on protecting the paint. He has an important role as a big who has quick enough feet and good enough technique to hold his own defending guards/wings at the 3-point line. So, the appropriate thing is to try to evaluate his performance based on the totality of his defensive responsibilities, not simply what he does at the rim. As far as his rim protection -- I agree with you that this is an area he can continue to improve. But let's talk a bit more about the key stats worth looking at. You said there are some you can reference. What are they? Maybe we can come up with a set of stats or concrete things to look for in the upcoming series, and provide updates in this thread on how he's doing game to game. We'll have an important decision to make in the offseason -- how much do we invest in him? So, I think scrutinizing the job he's doing in the playoffs is worthwhile. I just think we should be careful not to have unrealistic expectations, and we should assess his value on the total package he brings and not just focus on the areas he can continue to improve in.
