He's very athletic and moves very well both up and down the floor and laterally and seems to have good timing on blocking shots. He's raw everywhere. Raw meaning not good but is young and has tons of potential to improve. He lacks a post game, a jump shot, proper defensive fundamentals, offensive decision making, etc. But he's young and can improve... there's no reason why he can't. He needs coaching and experience. He's got the potential and raw tools. He's a project.
It is my suspicion that the Spurs tee this up beforehand while working out the prospects. They find guys who are willing to sign below 100% in order to get into the first round.
I'm reading a lot of negativity from posters in this thread about the Rockets' history of apparently not being able to bring over foreign draft prospects. Well, I'm calling BS on all of you. First off, enough with the Malick Badienne stuff. He was a late second round pick on whom the Rockets took a flyer. Those guys rarely ever make it over to the NBA . . . because they're just not good enough. Pointing to late second rounders not coming over as some sort of flaw in the system is just ridiculous. The Rockets have essentially only had the draft rights to four (4) really good European prospects in the past 10 years: (1) Donatas Motiejunas (20th pick, 2011): The only other FIRST ROUND Euro stash pick in the Morey era, Motiejunas agreed to play overseas for a year before coming to the Rockets. He improved greatly during that one year and then came over a better player for it. (2) Sergio Llull (34th pick, 2009): The Rockets spent a good chunk of cash (around $2 million!) to buy his draft rights. Their valuation of Llull as a player was not unfounded, as he has grown into one of the best guards in the world playing outside the NBA. He would almost assuredly be a rotation-level NBA guard right now. However, he's also treated like a god in Spain and, while he apparently does have a desire to play in the NBA, he is in no rush and does not want to come over just to sit on the bench. (FYI: Llull is still only 26 years old, which is a year younger than Luis Scola was when he came over to the Rockets in 2007. There's still plenty of time for him to come over.) (3) Kostas Papanikolaou (48th pick, 2012): Papanikolaou, a 6-8 Greek SF, is a first round caliber talent. He definitely wants to play in the NBA. But the Rockets only got his draft rights less than a year ago and have not been in a position to use cap room to sign him since then. They needed every penny last summer to sign Dwight Howard; and now they may need every penny to sign someone like Lebron or Melo. I fully expect the Rockets to eventually either (A) bring Kostas over or (B) trade his rights as part of another move (maybe as a sweetener to offload Jeremy Lin's contract; maybe to get another future pick). (4) Vassilis Spanoulis (51st pick, 2004): Drafted before Morey even came to the Rockets, Spanoulis became one of the best guards in Europe. He actually DID come over to the Rockets for the 2006-07 season (Morey's first with the team). While his season was a disappointment (due to clashes with Jeff Van Gundy over playing time), the talent was there. When Spanoulis requested to be let out of his contract, the Rockets used that voidable contract as trade bait to acquire the draft rights to Luis Scola. Spanoulis has since gone on to become one of the most dominant players in Europe. I am convinced that, had he just shut up and waited his turn, he would have become a solid rotation guard in the NBA. (I'm not including Luis Scola, since he was drafted by the Spurs FOR the Spurs and was not traded to Houston until it was clear that he was coming over. I'm also not including Furkan Aldemir, who the Rockets drafted for themselves but had to deal to Philly to dump Royce White. I think Aldemir will come over in the next year or two and be a serviceable backup in the NBA.) So, out of four "draft-and-stash" European players who would qualify as clear-cut NBA-caliber players, two have come over to play for the Rockets and one hasn't even had the chance to come over yet. So, people are basing their negative opinions about Capela ever coming over on either (a) the team's experience with Sergio Llull--who can STILL come over, mind you--or (b) late second rounders like Badianne and Brad Newley. Give me a break.
Bima I think the feeling is that with Morey at the helm the Rockets will constantly be shuffling the roster and will rarely have any money available to bring over a guy like that. We'll see though.
That was a very tough draft for me because it was extremely talented through the lotto and i felt like Houston was on the outside looking in. If i remember correctly it was the Dirk, Pierce, Nash, etc draft, right? i remember thinking we nailed the Dickerson pick, but like you, was disappointed in the other two picks. In retrospect, it would have been worth being aggressive to move up. Don't know how much Dawson tried to do that, but when you consider that Dickerson was part of the package than netted us the Franchise, all's well that ends well. The notion that we should give up on drafting foreign players because our track record hasn't been exceptional is obviously foolish. Foreign draftees are just as much of a crap-shoot as american draftees. For a team like us that is vigilantly guarding it's cap space, a pick like Capela makes a lot of sense.
The Rockets have used money available to bring over European draft picks: Luis Scola received $9M+ over 3 years and David Andersen was signed to a 3 year, $7.5M contract (3rd year team option). The Rockets held the draft rights to each of them (acquired via trade) at the time they negotiated these contracts.
Both of those guys were veterans being added. This is a young project. It's hard to imagine a team that is contending for a title using up the ability to add a valuable player to the roster to add a young unknown. That isn't a knock by the way. I'd rather be the team that needs to use those resources to add definite contributors even if they are just bench players. But that's why I hope this guy either comes over now or gets traded for a useful part.
Agreed. I think the pick is a reflection and acknowledgment of the value of a good potential backup big. It was an extreme luxury to have Asik when healthy. The kid is only 20 years old and as he matures will, hopefully... and hope is what picks like this rest on, ultimately... develop; i.e., translate his athleticism into a viable NBA player. I don't think the pick is just a coincidence that his potential as a big comes on the heels of trading Asik. Just because one analyst criticized him doesn't mean much. Einstein didn't like Quantum Mechanics. His future is in his hands. I'd like to see him get invited to Summer camp just to get a better evaluation of his potential and also let his contact with Hakeem, Howard and the taste of the NBA atmosphere, hopefully (there's that word again) light a fire under him and help the criticism that he lacks a good work ethic. Let him measure himself against high-level NBA players. Give him the feeling of a real chance to play in the NBA as long as he addresses issues identified by the trainers and coaching staff, and then see what he does. The 1 and 5 spots are, arguably, the hardest to fill with above average talent.
Oops, forgot about David Andersen. But I'd include him in the same category as Scola (as a guy ready to come over whose draft rights were dealt for with the express intention of immediately signing him to an NBA contract).
Clarification: My comments regarding Capella and Badiane have to do with their on-court games and skill sets, size, age, and athleticism when they were drafted. My comments have nothing to do with our ability to get the kid signed and over here playing ball. Here's an old thread on Badiane: http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?t=73351 Interesting comments here about hoping he'd develop. We always hope that for sure. And I for sure hope I'm dead wrong about him if we indeed keep him (I think we trade hiim.). But from sniffing around this kid with my sources he's another lunkhead. Just like Badiane. The problem with Badiane was he wasn't teachable. He just wanted to run up and down and roam around. You couldn't teach him to play the game. That's why he is were he is. I have the same suspicions about this kid. Capella and Badiane are virtually the same size with Badiane even having an extra inch or so in wingspan on Capella. Both of them have huge hands and can jump. Which is all good. But what they couldn't do was shoot free throws (Badiane was like a 30%'er.) And I'm afraid they share similar noggins. If the noggin is broke...the player is a joke.
I think the counter to that argument is this: If the Rockets are successful in attracting their third star this season there will not be anyway to get back below the cap. The need to shuffle main rotation pieces will no longer exist like it does when the team is trying to maintain cap flexibility to get the 3rd star. The Rockets will have the MLE this season if they trade for the 3rd star or next season at the latest. By the way, shuffling the roster IMO is a good thing. You get your core in place (Harden, D12, CP25, 3rd Star) and the rest of the roster are always subject to improvements, revisions etc... San Antonio does it every season, they have their core but outside of Duncan, Parker, Ginobli (and now Leonard) there are no sacred cows on that team. The most important thing is to get your core together and stable and then work around that. Once that happens the Rockets can spend their MLE on Kostas Papanikolaou or Sergio Llull or whoever is stashed over seas.
When was Badiane draft? When was Capela drafted? See the difference? There is a reason Badiane was drafted in the 2nd round, 20 picks later than Capela. Maybe Capela will be a bust and maybe not but since neither you our I have actually watched him play, maybe we should give him a chance. Add to the fact that Daryl Morey has had enough success drafting in the 2nd round that I think he has more than earned the benefit of the doubt that he has a clue with what he is doing.
There're 2 seasons of data for him both domestically and internationally. His performance at such young ages is very impressive, and couldn't possibly be achieved purely by size and athletic ability. He just turns 20 last month, and Wiggins/Parker all have significant weakness at similar age right now. Bigmen do take longer to develop, but his translated rebounding/blocking/finishing rate would put him right into rotation level player IMO.
