Yes, I asked because you implied it by comparison. Sounds like you don't think of them or that deal as good management. Just don't know why you brought it up. You're comparing a backup to a 3rd string. The backup should do more and get paid more for it.
I agree it's about flexibility, but not just about whether we trade Sengun. It's just optionality. At the end of the Harden years we used to beg them to expand trades to take on more salary in the available space as part of the matching so they could use that player as a trade piece later or to fill out a roster. @The Cat will remember all of those talks every time there was a Morey deal we would talk about what random player could be added into the deal to make it bigger. So the Rockets have done that here. Capela can contribute, he can also be more useful if they need to trade a player like Sengun, he himself could be a trade piece, etc.
it was a joke, he’s solid I would have preferred naw over dfs especially given his age fits better with our team
Has to do with fitting guys in under the 1st Apron. Clint makes 6+M this season and we barely are under the 1st Apron hard cap. Other guys were too expensive.
Also feel the same. My #1 worry on this team is "downhill pressure." A LOT will be on Amen's plate. Same with Reed though he is not downhill. Rockets have indexed heavily on perimeter wings and bigs. But downhill pressure is a huge concern of mine.
It would also give us flexibility to trade Adams to the Lakers in a sign and trade for DFS and use the NT-MLE on a guard if there is anyone left. I doubt it, but no one has brought it up.
No they are viewing him correctly. Landale played 500 minutes last year. That's right in between Jeff Green and Tate, who got minimum and $3mil respectively. Which kind of gives you players of that kind of role makes. Capela is also 31 and his athleticism has been really been sapped over the years. And the Rockets went over the luxury tax line with the move and will start the repeater clock this year. Pelton is absolutely right this is a "luxury" move. You can argue it's one they can make cause it's just Tilman's money and all that. But objectively speaking it's both an overpay and at a questionable position.
I am curious how much of this is Udoka having confidence in Sheppard and/or Amen and how much of this is that Udoka just doesn't prioritize it as much as having bigs. The idea that Udoka doesn't care about offense is foolish or the Rockets would not have gotten Durant and DFS. My "guess" is that they are that confident that at least Thompson will break out - and figure there are players like Fultz and others that may not cost more than the minimum.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6464849/2025/07/01/nba-free-agency-day-1-thoughts-rockets-hawks/ What’s up with Houston’s frontcourt jam? In the past week, the Houston Rockets signed Steven Adams to a three-year, $39 million extension … and signed Jabari Smith Jr. to a five-year, $122 million extension … and traded for Kevin Durant, who makes $54.7 million this year and likely will want an extension of his own … and signed Dorian Finney-Smith for four years and $63 million … and added Clint Capela at three years and $21 million. Did I mention they still have All-Star Alperen Şengün entering the first season of a five-year, $185 million extension? Or that Jeff Green is back again on a minimum deal? Or that none of the people I just named are guards or wings? In particular, I’m not really sure how this is supposed to work at the center spot with Şengün, Adams and Capela. Which one of them is OK not playing? Yes, I know the Rockets leaned into some lineups with Şengün and Adams on the court together late last season, but this can easily go the other way too. The Rockets may not stay traditionally big all game, especially given how effective Finney-Smith has been as a small-ball five in his stops with the Los Angeles Lakers and Brooklyn. Meanwhile, the power forward situation seems just as jammed. Durant is a four in today’s game but may be pushed down to the three by the presence of Smith and Finney-Smith, not to mention the minutes that Şengün may spend there. I haven’t even mentioned Amen Thompson and Tari Eason, the tag-team chaos agents who both seem best suited to playing the four, even if they’re listed as small forwards on the depth chart. Even excluding those last two, Houston has seven players making a combined $136 million — that’s about 87% of the salary cap — in its frontcourt for this season, with Smith’s extension set to increase that by roughly $10 million a year from now. (Durant’s number in an extension may change this.) Meanwhile, the Rockets have three guards on the roster, only one of whom (Fred VanVleet) was a full-time rotation player a year ago. The others are Aaron Holiday, returning on a minimum deal, and Reed Sheppard, the 2024 No. 3 pick who hardly got off the bench last season. Thompson is the starting “shooting guard,” I guess, because nobody who truly plays this position is on Houston’s roster at the moment. So … what’s the endgame here? Another trade? A season-long experiment in bruiserball? Houston has the draft picks, matching contracts and young talent to go in a lot of different directions in the trade market, even after all these deals. But in the wake of the trade of Jalen Green and Dillon Brooks for Durant, the lack of a true wing on the roster of a win-now contender is glaring.
Why are some people still so hung up on this "guard v forward" nonsense in 2025. Everybody knows in the switch happy NBA of today 2/3/4 is often interchangeable. Amen will "technically" be the SG replacing Green, not that it means anything. Do people think Jalen Green brought some lockdown defense on guards that can't be replaced.
I agree that the Capella signing was a bit off the grid a bit, but this guy has no idea about non-positional basketball. Amen, Jabari, KD, DFS, Tari can all play multiple positions and all of them are wings. Amen is a Pg that can play 1-4. DFS is a pf that can 2-5, Durant can play 2-4. Tari can 3-5. I agree we need more backcourt help and would have preferred that to Capella, but there is still nothing that indicates we are completely through either now or at the deadline.
It’s a very legitimate question. But Ime’s style of last year is likely to continue and spacing we damned, we are going to win the rebound battle and defensively get after it.
Yes. I don’t think it will ultimately be championship basketball unless Sengun and/or Amen develop good 3 pts on good volume, but it does seem to be the direction Ime is headed. We should be the absolute best rebounding team in the league.
Wanted him at the deadline, but this way we don't lose assets to get him. Nice. I know he fell off, but he's still a good rebounder and rim protector, and we need a rim protecting big for certain matchups. Just having him on the bench brings some nostalgia to me. When we drafted him, he was raw as hell but towards the end of his rookie year and into the playoffs he was better than Dwight in spurts, because he clicked with Harden instantly. His early dunks were insane. I will also always remember how he used to own Jokic during our peak Harden years. Welcome back Cap!
Heck Amen even played point when FVV was injured. I cancelled the Athletic for asinine takes like this.
So Adams is a year older and Sengun didn't miss much time. If either goes down for a month I prefer Capela to Landale. I noticed you didn't mention what Landale was paid which is the actual role Capela is taking. I wonder why you picked Green and Tate? Why did you not use Landale exactly?
We're going big ball with Clint, Durant, Sengun, Thompson, Jabari, and Adams rotating around little Fred and Reed at PG.
Assuming only 7% cap growth for 2026, if the Rockets run it back entirely and give Durant a max extension (35% of the cap), I have them down at around $12.7M under the second apron before signing Tari and running a 14 man roster for the year. If you drop Cam for a vet minimum, you can get to around $15.2M and change available for Eason, essentially the non-taxpayer MLE. That doesn't quite feel like enough in my book to get him signed unless KD or FVV take an additional paycut, and personally, I do not want to be running a 14-man roster for two consecutive seasons when half of your rotation is age 32+. Obviously this deal has been in the works for weeks if not months if they're announcing it on Day 1 of free agency, and they can't back out of the terms now. But that loss of around $6M in projected 2nd apron space for 2026 looks like it's going to make it very tough for them to stay under, which is why I'm hoping that they've already planned for that contingency and are willing to go for it next year if the team is a true contender.
3 year window with these FA deals and KD extension coming up. We can wipe our hands clean after that and core will be hitting their primes.
