I love this pick for the Rockets. Clint Capela's quick leaping ability, tremendous length and good timing could make him a force on the defensive end in a year or so, if properly developed. Offensively as long as he can finish at the rim, I'm okay with that. The guy is very unlikely to become an offensive juggernaut, but that's okay, since he could very well become a defensive monster. He just need's to further develop his body, get stronger, and get used to the physicality of the NBA. Like Asik, anything he could develop/provide on the offensive end would just be a cherry on top to me.
Beloved? Hardly. I've criticized Morey plenty of times, sometimes wrongly, but the Morey bashing is so over the top that it's important to counter some of the more ridiculous comments. Letting Parsons become a RFA was a calculated gamble designed to sign a third max player then match Parsons. It backfired, but we will never know what was happening behind the scenes. We will never know what Bosh told the Rockets. My guess is that Miami blinked once they say Morey dump Lin, because they knew what that meant. None of these things happened in a vacuum. Please acknowledge that for the Rockets to come up empty handed, both Dallas with Parsons and Miami with Bosh had to overpay.
Respected dobro, thanks for taking your time answering this. The way I see it is the larger picture. I don't mind Morey getting rid of Parsons, Lin or Asik. My problem with him and Les has always been another. Les' direction has not been very clear, all he says in public is he wants to win, but he does not want to pay for good role players, only stars. Which is heavy to digest but ok. Then there is his direction of never wanting to lose (ranting like a child never wanting to have a losing season) This is a problem in itself. You cannot draft top players without seasons of being really bad. Well the draft system and policies have changed a bit. But this fact remains to be the same. I would love to have some stability within this organization, I would love to see us drafting the top players, I would love us to sign an allstar as a complimentary piece but not as a cornerstone piece. I would love to see players groomed into stars here in Houston, with the franchise. Morey's own mistake is not going to an organization, valueing him more, where he can instantly build a contender from scratch. He is wasting away a lot of time here without accomplishing a lot.
I totally agree, both Dallas and Miami overpayed big time and I was surprised this offseason at the max money guys were getting. And your correct we don't know what went on behind closed doors between Morey and Fegan. In the end I think Morey makes up for losing Parsons somehow, he's to good of a GM and very patient. Morey made the correct decision in not matching Cubans poison pill contract that Dallas has to live with now. At least we as fans have a GM that's in it to win it all, you can't ask for much more than that.
The next Hakeem. According to clutchfans. Along with the next Chris Paul. Can you imagine the number of championships. Not 4, not 5, not 6.
I think there is some merit to these thoughts honestly. I get it. We want to have players we can call "Our Guys". Guys we have seen start out in Houston as young pups and grown into franchise staples. Parsons was about the closest thing that we've had to that type of player in a really long time, and it killed me to see him go because of what it signified. As for Les making the call on the certain transactions or lack of signings (aka not matching on Parsons, etc.) is actually more of Morey's line of thinking. Of course I'm speculating here because I've never been in the room when these guys talk 1 on 1 about team direction (although some here act like they do). After the Parsons decision was made, you kept hearing Morey say "If we had to bet on", or "We are gambling on"... etc. This is Morey's line of thinking here IMO. I think he wants to keep his job fluid and moving. He knew that if he matched Parsons' contract, his job just got a lot less interesting, and he'd have to finally sit back and let the chips fall where they may. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Morey actually talked Les out of matching at the end of the day because he felt like with the Parsons contract on board, he couldn't do his job the way he wanted to. I get what your saying though I think, or I'm translating it through my own thoughts. I think obviously grooming this team around Harden & Howard is the right approach, but I would love to see guys like Capela, Johnson, Beverley, etc. stay for the long haul this time and actually be groomed into "Rockets". However I do think they need to make at least one more acquisition through trade most likely. I'm realistic enough to know that they might not need a Superstar along the lines of a Carmelo Anthony, but I do think they need to go get one or two more veteran players. After that next move is made, I really hope that Morey can finally stop shuffling the decks and groom some of these guys to be the next generation of Rockets basketball after Harden & Howard's days are over.
Absolutely. The Chris Bosh contract could very well be on the D-Will/Joe Johnson level of bad in a year or two. Fact is, Miami with Bosh as their best player isn't going anywhere fast. They just locked themselves into mediocrity with that deal, and it wouldn't shock me at all if Bosh is VERY AVAILABLE at the trade deadline.
Sorry... back to the thread topic. IMO, If Capela can be trained to shoot the 3, he could very well be more of a PF version of Nic Batum(also picked at 25 FYI). Imagine if Batum was 2 inches taller? What kind of threat would he be as a long athletic stretch 4? That's pretty much what the goal should be for Capela. You know he's going to be a force on the defensive end. His arms and hands are going to be everywhere. The guy is a human Stretch Armstrong. The 3 point shot is going to be the wild card here. Can you develop that kind of range with just anyone? I guess we'll find out.
Agree 100%. At least Miami signed him and can get something for him in a future trade if his contract is tradeable.
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Here's some jumper footage. He's a shot-putter. Throws it off his shoulder. Definitely needs work. But potential. I'll say this. It'll be easier to fix this jumper than to fix TJones' jumper. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/yNiME3evozI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
