and I totally get it. His back hurts. Setting hard screens is brutal to your body. He's afraid of getting hurt. But please call it like it is. Dwight is a pus*y.
Capela's got a long way to go, but the talent is there. He just needs more playing time. I really do think by the end of next season if he's getting starters minutes, he could be one of the better defensive centers in the game. And unlike Dwight, I could see Capela developing a decent go-to move in the post like a hook shot. Dwight is way better than Capela now, but his body is breaking down. I'm really worried about what he's gonna look like as he gets further into his 30's.
This is a good breakdown from a few years ago with the lakers. He got into the habit of slipping through all his screens like he's doing with us but then the Lakers corrected it. http://www.silverscreenandroll.com/2013/2/28/4039948/nba-lakers-analysis-2013-dwight-howard-screen
If you are already starting Capela, because Dwight has to miss, why not bring Dwight off the bench. Atleast play him 15 mins each game. Will he be ego hurt? It's better than the chemistry roller-coaster of having him one day in and the other out. Capela can really benefit from lnowing his minutes are safe and play more relaxed and Dwight can get back in shape but rest.
Honestly, the numbers are absolutely crazy. When Capela is on the floor, the Rockets are REALLY GOOD. Like, better than last season good. Especially the offense is clicking, the 106.0 OffRtg would put the Rockets at number 4 in the league. With Capela on the bench, both offense and defense fall apart. Of course, a substantial part of this is that when Capela sits in games in which Dwight doesn't play, the team has to go to small ball lineups that just get killed, but even with Howard in the game, the Rockets are bad. On Court stats Spoiler Off Court stats Spoiler
This is a much better way to evaluate who is better starting. You can see a few things. 1st to small of sample. 2nd All the number are about the same defensibly while offense is better with Capela but Capela play way less as a starter than Dwight. 3rd The opposition in the front court has been way to easy for Capela so far so judgment may be reserved. 4th Vs the same opponent as Starting centers Dwight numbers are all around better, again only one game to judge. Starting Capela look like is not a better option until we see the results with the changes with new coach, so far Houston got a great start when Lawson was on the bench with Dwight and Capela starting under the new coach.
This is a much better way to evaluate who is better starting. You can see a few things. Spoiler [/QUOTE] 1st to small of a sample size. 2nd All the number are about the same defensibly while offense is better with Capela but Capela play way less as a starter than Dwight. 3rd The opposition in the front court has been way to easy for Capela so far so judgment may be reserved. 4th Vs the same opponent as Starting centers Dwight numbers are all around better, again only one game to judge. Starting Capela look like is not a better option until we see the results with the changes under new coach, so far Houston got a great starts when Lawson was on the bench with Dwight and Capela starting.
Good stats, Capela is the man, can you imagine benching a 22m dollar player? I don't think our team has the balls to. I'm betting harden is pretty pissed off at Howard for slipping 90% of the screens he sets. Could be what's driving a wedge between them.
We need to be having a discussion about the Harden/Howard pick-and-roll. In my humble opinion, Harden doesn't wait for Dwight to set the pick. In the Trailblazers game it looked to me like Harden aborted the pick and roll before Dwight even got up top, even before Dwight slipped. Harden was shooting, driving, or skip passing while Dwight was still coming up to set the pick. So I made it a point to watch the Grizzly game to see just how many times this play repeated itself. I only saw 2 pick and roll plays between Harden/Howard in the Grizzly game. The first play, Harden waited for Dwight, and he did have to wait a second for Dwight to get his butt up there and set the pick. But anyways Dwight got up and set the pick, they went to the hole and Harden threw it up for a Dwight dunk. The second (and last) PnR ran between Harden/Dwight wound up in a skip pass from Harden to the corner and in that second PnR play...Harden left just a tidgen early and Dwight slipped the pick a little bit. That was it. 2 PnR's run between your 2 best players. I'm going to keep watching this. But it's pretty obvious to me that Harden/Dwight ain't working together good on the PnR. Now, I can understand to a certain degree why we got our PF running PnR with Harden when they're in there with Harden. If I were coaching I'd probably be doing that IF I HAD TO PLAY TERRENCE/HARRELL with Dwight. Because those boys don't rebound and they're not a serious offensive threat. They can't shoot and spread the floor. So the only thing they can do is drift in to the paint/rim when the PnR is being run by Harden/Dwight and attempt to clean up garbage. That leaves Harden/Dwight fighting 3 defenders on the PnR, their own defenders plus the PF defender. When you run the PnR with the PF, Dwight can go stand down on the baseline and his defender CANNOT CHEAT off him to help with the PnR. Because Harden can throw the ball up to Dwight for the finish and Dwight is much, much better at cleaning up garbage than either Terrence or Harrell is. So that's the reasoning behind running PnR with the PF when Dwight is in there. But that does not explain the many aborted PnR's between Harden/Dwight in the Trailblazers game. IMO this is Harden, not Dwight. Because Harden is aborting them so early. He aborts them as soon as Dwight takes his second step out to set the screen. Dwight doesn't even have a chance to plant and slip the screen. Harden is moving out of the PnR before Dwight even plants. So we went from Harden aborting a bunch of PnR's with Dwight in the Trailblazer game to only running 2 PnR's with Dwight in the Grizzly game. Doesn't add up to me. I'm going to keep watching.
Sadly, I agree with OP. The real tragedy with Dwight is that when it finally clicked mentally for him his body started to give out.
THIS! Even start Dwight, but play less minutes. That way his ego won't get hurt (as much). Capela has done really well. BUT...... he has been getting better pass (and more) than Howard has been of late. Howard has had to get his own ball more. Harden's passes to Capela were excellent in the 1st half against NY. Haven't seen Howard get those types of passes recently.
I want to rewatch some of the games too, but as much as I can remember, everytime I see Dwight set a screen, he slips out without creating contact. But I have not actually broken it down and looked at all the screens to make sure if it's selective memory or not. My honest opinion is Dwight shouldn't slip any screens at all. His athleticism is waning so he's slipping them so he can catch up on the roll to the rim. Also I think you're wrong when saying Jones isn't a floor stretcher, he's our best 3 point shooter.
I took the liberty to pull some gifs after re-watching the boston game. I want to say about 75% of the screens he slips early, or really has no idea what he wants the guard to do. A lot of this is low bball IQ or lack of familiarity, especially with Lawson. Him and Harden really have no excuse for not knowing what the other wants or reading the floor correctly. You can see in the below gif, Dwight slips the screen a early leading to the instant double team on Harden, instead of holding on the screen to force a mismatch as he rolls or open up a passing lane, Harden faces a double team and difficult situation. I think the reason he does this is because his athleticism has degraded to the point that if he held the screen and without a pop game, he wouldn't be able to roll fast enough to the rim. This play actually leads to an open corner three that misses, but it could have been better for instance if Ariza moved to his right earlier so Jones could hit him instead of the corner or if Dwight split the double team and gave harden a passing lane for the roll. This one, Dwight simple fails to realize that he should have set Harden a screen at the top and just casually walks to the Rim accomplishing nothing. Harden still beats his guy off the dribble but he faces Dwight's man as he approaches the paint. Dwight really accomplishes nothing on this play, even though it led to a Harden FT. For instance if he had ran up and gave Harden a screen (thus pulling his man away) Harden would have either had a free path to the rim or could have hit the opposite side for an open 3 (as that defender shifted over to cover harden at the rim.) The entire team is really just too slow here. This one, Jones gets the OREB off a Harden missed 3, they miss Dwight a few times but still hit him directly under the Rim. Another example of Dwight losing his athleticism, 2-3 Years ago, this is a dunk, but instead this is just a block and turnover. This last one is Lawson on an inbounds play after a timeout. Howard attempts to set a screen, but ends up not doing much of anything as his man sags off into the lane / Lawson not reading it correctly. The right corner 3 would have been open if he had just used the screen and opened up a passing lane, instead hits it late and gives the ball up.
I've been pushing for a Dwight/Capela Twin Towers since last season. Capela has a lot of potential; he could learn the 4 (NOT a stretch 4) and those two would be an effective presence near the basket.
