He's not at the forefront of my thoughts, no. But he's still an option. Playing well right now. Still loads of potential. I'd still trade Capela for him and the cap space back. Unless there were a better trade available.
Man, I won't even continue trying to debate Capela's worth to this team, because it's obviously pointless. But this quote from you, and this sentiment that seems to be shared by many in Clutchfans leaves me a bit baffled. Last season, during the playoffs, the Rockets were one game away from reaching the Finals and were up 3-2 (with home court) to the goliath warriors, playing essentially a 6 man rotation. That rotation was: Harden CP3 Tucker Ariza Capela Gordon Notice who is missing there? Now, I probably would not have given Ariza 15 million either. Who knows what went on in those negotiations and whether he could've been had cheaper. Or would CP3 had taken a paycut? Whatever, it is what it is. But to say he was NOT a key loss given the facts above is short sighted. (Not to mention that Capela is also among that 6 man rotation...). We won 65 games during the regular season, in part because of our depth, as even Ryno was a contributor early on. LMM was a contributor as well, for sure. But in the end, when it counted, it was 6 men that were taking us to the promised land, and when one went down, it was pretty much over. No LMM, no Ryno, no Joe Johnson, no Melo, no Thon Maker, no Winslow, no Rubio. It was 6 men. Now, more on topic; I think our main problem is lack of length and a reliable perimeter defender to put on the opponents best or hot player, such as when a Sexton is torching us from mid range. Both of those things Ariza brought to the table. A good defender, a somewhat reliable outside shooter, a strong rebounder with good fundamentals (another thing missing right now), and somebody that could do the dirty work, for BIG minutes, that usually does not show in the box score. Ennis doesn't bring that. He seems to be a better offensive player, but his defense is nowhere near as good and he is not tough like Ariza. Gary Clark might bring it, consistently, eventually, but he is a rookie, so who knows... Also, I'm not putting it all on the loss of Ariza, as the suspension, injuries, integration of new players, etc., have all played a part in this weak start. But to say the loss of a 35 minute a game player of a 65 win team, one win away from the Finals, is not a contributing factor to our struggles, seems to contradict the facts, as well as what I'm seeing on the court this season.
Luc was injured, shoulder. Key injury. This team played its best when he was healthy. It was not at its best against the Warriors even in the first 5 games with Paul. And the Warriors did not have iggy basically the whole series. Iggy was their 5th starter. We weren't better than them last season with both teams completely healthy. But with Luc healthy it would have been real close.
I think we're really struggling with dribble penetration this year vs last, that break down is what is setting up these big men - in a way teams are mimicking what the Rockets did last year.
I agree that the Rockets played their best when they had Luc healthy, but the fact is, during the playoffs, whether because he was not healthy, or he choked, he was a non-factor. If we assume he was indeed playing injured, and the Warriors were without Iggy, then at least lets call that a wash; both were injured. And with those things considered, the Rockets 6 man rotation had the all star warriors on the brink of elimination. That was with Capela and especially Ariza, playing a significant role, and LMM riding the pine or clanking wide open 3 pointers. Again, you can say that Ariza was not worth the 15 million + lux tax hit to the Rockets, so the team needed to move on this season and so on. Billionaires gotta make their millions. But I vehemently disagree that he was less of a factor than LMM, and given the performance of the team this year, with him being the ONLY player not part of that 6 man crew that almost took us the finals makes for a very convincing case.
This is all you got when I'm using text to speech and don't have time to fix everything. You won't answer my question. Now you're down to talking sin tax. Double down on a losing argument.
Before he was injured, the lineup that was killing everybody had Luc and Tucker at the 4/5. We found our magic right there. Ariza finally became part of that, and started playing 5 minutes as well. And he did get the lion's share of minutes being the starter. Ariza simply ran out of gas. He's done as a major impact role player. Still able to contribute in spots but if you had both Ariza and Luc healthy today, Luc would earn the bulk of the minutes. Luc is better at the small ball 5 spot. One of the main reasons being Luc has a handle and passing skills that Ariza has never had.
Speaking of interior defense, last night the Wizards scored 62 points on 43 shots in the paint. That's 1.44 points per shot. They were 21/33 in the paint when Capella was in there. 1/2 when Hartenstein was in. 4/5 when Chriss was in (had to be a showcase). And 3/3 when Clark was essentially playing center with no other bigs in the game. What did all that mean? Not much. What it really points to, and what all the evidence point to, is that at the very least Capela is not a difference making defensive player. And it points in the direction of Capela being a negative defensively against teams like the Warriors. Our defense is current ranked 25th, giving up 111.5 points per 100 defensive possession. That's 6 more points per 100 than last year. Defensive rebounding way down. Opponent second chance and free throw points way up. Who's at fault? Who you gonna put that on? Have Harden, Paul, and Tucker changed as players? Have they quit rebounding.....which is part of defense? Are they the ones getting beat more often at the rim? Go look at the numbers? Is it them? Or......Is it Capela and Ennis that have changed?? Capela from last season's Capela and Ennis from last season's Ariza? You gonna put this whole thing on Ennis and absolve Capela? You could only do that if you either don't watch the games or you don't know what you're watching when you do watch the games. Did you watch last night's game? Did you see what happened? Who beat who? What matchups did the Wizards exploit? What switches did they like???? Careful...... It's all right in front of your eyes.
Lmao. Jesus effing Christ. Trade capella for the 26 yr old Thon "Bruce Lee" maker who is averaging 5pt/3rebounds?
Says the stats have "not much" value, then proceeds to use them to make a rather big point. Below, I'm going to teach you how to Watch the Game, versus take stats out of context...then drop the mic. Defensive Stats without context are meaningless. I just watched every single PITP by Wizards (according the nba.com stats) and of these 31 Makes, Capela was only in the play 6 times, and two of those were offensive rebounds after initial miss. Wizards pulled Capela completely out of the play on 26 out 31 of these videos. Watch. All Videos of PTS_PAINT for Last Game the Washington Wizards during the 2018-19 Regular Season
Translation: "Um... yeah, I meant to do that." For every intelligent point you make, you sabotage it with at least a dozen nonsensical, idiotic declarations. Then you double down on the most moronic of them. That's why everyone here laughs at you. But yeah, knock yourself out. I just read your posts for the entertainment value anyway. If you don't expect to find anything of substance in them, then they're pretty funny.
I'm really glad you posted this because I didn't know how to look it up but this is what the eye test was telling me. The rockets give up so many points in the paint because Capela is never in the paint! They switch everything every time, so it's really easy to pull him out of the paint, and teams take advantage of that.
Bwahahahaha I knew somebody would go there. Now....Go ahead and tell me how important Capela is to rim protection... Go ahead....make my point for me. Waiting!
