Capela signs 5yr, $80mil deal ($90M w/ incentives) with the Rockets

LOL.
Anthony Randolph is a legit NBA talent that can help a playoff team be a better team. He'll get his good opportunity to play in the NBA again barring injury. It'll be up to him what he does with it. But he has the skills to help a playoff team.

 

yet he has not been not been in the NBA since 2017.

there are a lot of guys Who have NBA talent that does not mean they should be NBA players of can contribute to winning in the NBA.

you are the basketball e sorry you should now that.

 

Pat Riley disagrees with you. It's almost point-by-point that he disagrees with your quote above.

"I hadn't seen him for a year and half, and I said, 'This is not the same Hassan,' '' Riley said. "His sojourn around the world, in all the different leagues, not only humbled him but he learned to play."

Whiteside matured physically from 220 pounds in college to 260 pounds. But equally noticeable to Riley was how Whiteside was harder. Hungrier.

"He'd got to the point where this was important to him,'' Riley said.
​

Riley also says he had low-basketball IQ, prior, to the point he didn't even know how to play Man-on-Man defense. And Riley had scouted him before.

 

Watch out. Shakespeare gonna yell at you about your spelling.

I'll stick with what I said about Randolph. We need to acquire a 4/5 that has length and can shoot and switch defend to have any chance to beat the Warriors. And that player will have to play more minutes than Capela against the Warriors.for us to have a chance to beat the Warriors in a playoff series.

 

He was 260 before he left the States. And the hunger was already there. That's why he went overseas. Because he was driven. Nothing changed for him over there. Just because Riley wasnt around him at RGV or in the league doesn't mean he flipped a switch overseas. It just means Riley wasn't tracking him early enough. He was already pissed off before he left.

 

Talk English here. K?

 

Nyet. Rockets only spoken here.

 

Actually, he hasn’t played in the NBA since the 2013-2014 season.

 

Oh snap!

Dam that's even worse. LOL.

 

Hopefully tonight, against Brook Lopez, Capela learned a few things. Brook really shut him down and bothered him.

 

The giants like Lopez and Gobert seem to bother him and Harden lob game quite a bit.

 

Gotta say, Holic, Thong Maker was pretty impressive during his 3 minutes on the court tonight. That rebound he got really turned the tide for the Bucks.

Now I see what you're so horny to dump Clint and replace him with this guy.

 

Clint with one of his frustrating weak games tonight. He has been really stepping up with Paul and Gordon out but he was one of the main reasons the Rox loss tonight. Lopez had several blocks on Capela but he also missed several bunnies too.

 

Not Capela's fault really. Lopez is ridiculously long. Capela still shot 10-12 from the line and ended with 18pts and 13rbs.

We just really need CP3 and Gordon to get healthy. Our offense is really limited with so few ball handlers available.

Nene could have helped also. Where was he tonight? Hurt?

We can't expect Harden and Capela to carry the team every single game.

 

Not sure if I should be posting this here, or somewhere else (I.D.I.O.T?), but what is our answer to the death lineup this year? If the warriors go in with Curry/Klay/Iggy/KD/Draymond, what is our best lineup against this? I don't think Capela is an ideal play against this lineup, and most of the NBA benches their centers when the warriors bring this out. Last year our version of this lineup was Paul/Harden/EG/Ariza/Tucker, so who replaces Ariza? Or are there people here that think Capela should stay in against that lineup?

I'm not advocating trading Capela (especially not for Thon Maker or Anthony Randolph), I still think he's a very important piece to this team, but I don't think he is a good matchup against that lineup. To play center against that lineup you need to be a good switch defender (Capela checks this box IMO), but offensively you either have to be able to shoot the 3, or you have to be a very skilled post scorer that can feast on someone as small as Draymond. Someone like Hakeem...but that's wishful thinking. Ennis/Clark/House, or do we need to make a trade?

If possible I'd like to have this conversation without constant condescension and without suggesting we trade Capela.

 

Tl

So you're trying to be rational and thread the needle. Look for a teeny tiny upgrade to the backup center spot. But keep Capela. Not a good matchup to the Warriors lineup you admit. Third highest player on the roster. But we gotta K-k-k-k-keeeeep him.

And that's where you go wrong. Because without trading Capela it's going to be very difficult to acquire a player good enough to make the difference needed.

...........

Nobody commenting on our defense tonight I see. You want to talk about Capela having difficulty against length. He had a bad offensive game. Yada yada yada. Nothing about our defense though. N.O.T.H.I.N.G?

Guys, let's be real here now. What happened to us defensively?

You need to understand what happened to us defensively. Because the Bucks are just little mini-Warriors. They are not as good as the Warriors. But they are good . Make no mistake about it.

What were they running out there against our defense with Capela out there? And how were we defending it?

Show the video and explain it.

 

I think he provides enough value against other teams, and is also valuable against the warriors other lineups. Keep in mind they don't run that lineup for 48 minutes, and we also have to make it to the WCF, and then win the finals, assuming we beat the warriors. I'm also not ruling out his ability to be useful against that death lineup, if some other poster would like to make that argument. I'm no basketball expert, so I'd like to hear what others think about this.

 

Sure he provides value against other teams. Yes he helps us beat other teams. But we're paying him $90 million. And he can't help us beat the top two to four teams.

If we had a player at center that could shoot the 3 like Milwaukee does (in spades) and could also switch defend like Golden State does (with Draymond and Durant) and we did not have Capela.....is it rational to believe we wouldn't beat those same teams that we "need Capela to help us beat them"??????

I don't think that's rational.

Who do we play that we have to have Capela in the PnR to beat that we would not beat if we had an active switching defender at the 5 that could knock down threes?

Ok. Denver....And Milwaukee.....They would counter small ball with what....?????

They'd drop lopez/jokic in the post. Everybody knows that. So what. Jokic is in the post anyway with Capela in the game and he abuses Capela. Big deal. Capela abuses back with PnR finishes. So what.

But here's the catch. Hardens turnovers pile up. And here's the difference. When you spread the court with a shooter at the 5 that is also an active switching defender you:

1. trade 2's for 3's.
2. give Harden more space to break down single defenders which decreases his turnover count significantly.
3. create more defensive turnovers.
4. ramp up the pace which wears on the opponent's bigs late in the game.
5. force their bigs into offensive mismatches and expose them.


The reason why Milwaukee has made such a leap this year is because they have fully embraced a shooting 5. They can't switch those guys. So they do the next best thing. They've got the biggest longest guy they can find that can shoot 3's. And they drop him hard. That's the perfect foil for a smaller big man that can't shoot.

They forced us to switch guys. Because they had centers on the floor for 48 minutes that were spotted at the 3-point line. Capela had to defend that. Or he switched and then got ate up by a guard. And if he didn't switch then you're making Harden fight over the pick to defend the drive. And we all know that's a joke.

Let me put it this way.

PICK AND ROLL OFFENSE BY ITSELF WILL NOT WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP TODAY.

You have to get 3-point shooting out of the center spot. Your center has to be able to spread the court and shoot it competently. And you have to be able to switch with your center AT LEAST part of the time.

This is why until we make a change at center we are ALSO-RANS.

If the playoffs started today and everybody was healthy the champion would be one of Golden State, Toronto, Milwaukee, Boston. And most likely it would be Golden State (Draymond) versus Toronto (Paskal - otherwise known as Draymond II-an even better Draymond) because those two teams have the most versatile centers that can switch everything, defend anybody at an elite level, knock down some 3's, pass, finish, and even dribble drive and dish.

If you haven't watched Paskal play you need to. The Raptors are flat scary with him and Kawhi. THEY.ARE.ROLLING! We CANNOT beat them in a 7-game series today if both teams are fully healthy. Nor can we beat the Warriors if fully healthy. And we probably can't beat the Bucks and Celtics in a 7-game series either.

Because we're too limited. We don't have enough guys to play small ball effectively. And we have not continued to evolve to 5-out play!!!! We evolved with the three and small ball. But we are now stunted by one dimensional center play. We look great against 90% of the league. And we're good enough to beat everybody but two to four teams in a playoff series. But once again that is also-ran status. We're going to waste the Harden era and repeat the Nash Suns and the Webber Kings teams of the 90's if we don't change.

My fear is that we once again do a patch job with the roster at the deadline. We go get a guy or two....like Marvin Williams, etc. who help, who can possibly give us some minutes at the 5.....But it's not enough because we mistakenly think that native son Capela is this huge key to us winning a championship so we gotta keep him and we gotta play him.

This is specifically why i get hyped when I see guys like Qi, Hartenstein, and Bruno developing. I KNOW we need our own Draymond/Paskal to win a ship. We need that multi-dimensional 4/5 big that can switch, shoot, and still defend the rim and rebound.

We need that guy more than anything else. And he needs to play 5 for 30 minutes a game or more when we face teams like Milwaukee, Golden State, Toronto, and Boston in the playoffs.

 

not sure Pat Riley knows anything. he certainly doesn't have a newsletter.

 

Ha.

He also signed Whiteside and James Johnson and Tyler Johnson to absurd deals, none of which I would have done. I was frankly shocked he matched Tyler Johnson offer and I wondered if I had somehow miscalculated player values.

The perfect play with Whiteside would have been to sign him to a minimum deal before he went overseas, let him play and look great on a minimum deal, then trade him before his restricted free agency. That was what I wanted to do.