I looked up Mutombo's stats, and in the first ten years of his career, Deke AVERAGED a double double (12.4 points and 12.3 rebounds). And he averaged 68.4% in FT for his career. Hardly an offensive non-factor. I feel like the mental part of DMo's game will be the deciding factor in whether he makes the leap to the next level in the upcoming season. Even in regular season games, he seemed hesitant when he was taken out of his comfort zone. same goes for Jones.
I don't remember a player quite like him. I keep forgetting the guy was a rookie and completely rough on the edges at the beginning of the year. What if his summer progress is equal to his regular season/playoff progress? The man might have some cool moves up his sleeve. Edit: Capela doesn't wear sleeves so he may have to pull said moves from his jock strap.
Because Mutombo's 10 year career is totally comparable to Capela's rookie year in which he barely even played More importantly 10 pts for a center in the 80's can be considered a non factor offensively, considering his FG% is hovering at 50% (horrible for a big man limited to the paint). Except for his rookie year Mutumbo averaged single digit attempts his entire career, not sure how you can look at that and tell me Mutumbo is an offensive force. Dude played 30+ mins and would shoot only 7 times the entire time, that's pretty much the definition of non factor offensively, the coach just forgot him on offense.
Mutumbo is not a back to the basket nor PnR big man He's strictly an offensive rebound and put back big men, or a catch and dunk big man
Since we have all these potential Superstars / Stars on this team, we shouldn't have any problems winning it all for the next 2-3 seasons straight.
I never said Deke was an "offensive force," but I'd argue against him being a zero offensively. And I'm not sure what Capela being a rookie has anything to do with this either. And given that he wasn't anywhere near the primary offensive option for his team makes it all the more impressive that he was able to average 12 points per game in his first ten years.
When I say zero offensively I don't mean it literally, there are few players who will score 0 pts night after night, even guys like Chuck Hayes or Hibbert score 4 pts or whatever. Averaging 12 pts isn't that big a deal when you consider Mutumbo played 30-40 mins a game, most guys who average below 10 pts do so because they're subs/fringe players who get very little PT per game which is not the case here. The point is Mutumbo got just around 7 shots a night. This generally makes him a non factor offensively because clearly the coach doesn't take him into consideration when he's making plays, majority of his shot attempts come from his own putbacks or passes from players when they have nobody else to pass it to, the team game plans like they're 4 on 5 on O. In this case I think it'll be easy for Capela to eclipse that considering Mutumbo had low efficiency on his shots, just 50% FG on these layups and dunks (DH had 60%). Everything depends on his work ethic, but considering DM and other guys have praised his work ethic on separate occasions I think he's gonna be either a star or at least close to it in a few years.
When stars break out? Big men peak at 26-27 and Capela's like what, 20? Plus, star players aren't exactly rare, for example guys like Iggy, Bogut, Wilson Chandler, Batum, Faried, Ibaka, Gallinari, Lowry etc all these guys at their peak can be considered stars yet on their own they don't make a team a contender yet alone guarantee a championship.
Dwight is at the end of his prime, Harden is at the very beginning of his, Lawson is in his prime. Other than those obvious three, DMo and Capela are really the only ones that get talked about as having star potential and for good reason. Three already established stars/superstars and two that show potential.
I would. All those guys are stars in their prime. Iggy was an impact player and still is, Bogut was in conversation as the best center in the league before his arm injury. Lowry has played like a top point guard in a league flooded with point guards. Gallinari had one season where he carried a lot of the load for a nuggets team that did pretty well. Batum was one of the best small forwards in the league before his dismal shooting performance this year. There is a reason Ibaka and Faried both got large contracts under the old cap. Both of them played like stars for this teams. Especially Ibaka. Let's not forget how he torched the rockets in the playoffs.
Mutombo never played in the 80's FYI. FWIW, I sign off on Mutombo not having much offense, as I actually remember his play with Denver. They did force-feed him in the post a bit even though he was real awkward there (like we do with Dwight), since that was what you did back then.
I tried to think another star defensive big not known for his offense, and the first guy that I thought of was Tyson Chandler. In his first 10 seasons, Tyson averaged 1.5 fewer points than Mutombo (as well as 1.2 fewer rebounds). And that's with the advantage of regularly being on the receiving end of alley oops, unlike Mutombo. I'm repeating myself, but I don't think Mutombo's 12 point average is something to sneeze at, and you obviously disagree. Anyways, my beef was not necessarily with your post, but a lot of the posters' dismissive attitude towards Mutombo's contributions. I've said in a previous post that I saw breakout potential in Capela more than I do in DMO and Jones. So in that, we agree. And if Capela is somehow able to climb and surpass Mt. Mutombo, more power to him. But I'm betting that mountain is probably a lot higher than it may appear at first.
I was thinking the same thing. Maybe he works at NASA (10 Billion galaxies with 100 Billion stars in each galaxy). Stars really aren't that rare are they... But I'd love to see Capela become an All-Star.
The only guy I ever saw give Dream trouble one on one from the defensive side... Mark Eaton, he made one all-star game. He was a terrible rebounder for being 7-4 280lbs but he protected the rim. He was about as zero as you could get on the offense.
Clutch Fans: Where we compared a Legend of the game with a player who has been around for 10 minutes I'm excited about Capela as well, but just settle down a bit boys and girls.
I remember that awkward looking, yet effective jumphook that he had. He was able to use that even in Atlanta.
If mutumbo is close to "zero" offensively, and "zero" scored 16 ppg his rookie year - then yeah I'd say 20 points about does it. Hack-a/FT shooting has kept DeAndre Jordan mired in the 10-12 ppg plateau that he currently inhabits, and has inhabited for years. Realistically I don't see how Clint Capela gets past this plateau. Is that " higher than Mutumbo's offensive ceiling?"....nope, it probably more accurately represents Mutumbo's floor. in many cases. The reason why the Hack-a is more effecitve now vs. players like Capela and Jordan than it was against Shaq (aside from, you know, Shaq being one of the greatest inside forces in the history of the planet nad a guy whose Jock Capela couldn't carry with a forklift at this point) is that the opportunity cost of missed FT's is much higher than it was 10 years ago. The 3 pointer is a much more potent weapon, and transition opportunities are more frequent given higher pace, so the tradeoff (at least for good teams) between havign somebody go 2-6 from the line on 3 straight possessions (and setting up possible transition opportunities for hte other team) is a lot worse than it was back when it was Kobe and Shaq in a half court offense with Derek Fisher and Luke Walton along the perimeter
