Did Rockets make the right move by trading Capela?
In a podcast interview with ESPN’s Zane Lowe this past weekend, Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey said that the trade that included four teams and sent Clint Capela to the Atlanta Hawks and brought Robert Covington to Houston, it wouldn’t get done without coach Mike D’Antoni.
“The reality is without Mike D’Antoni, this Clint for Covington trade never happens. I’d be shocked if there are very many coaches in the league where I could get that trade done,” Morey said.
“As a GM, you’re making what is a pretty big gamble. If you don’t have the coach on board in a way that he understands how to use what we were going to try and do, you can’t make that move. It’s just too risky.”
Rockets currently use PJ Tucker or Robert Covington in the frontcourt, as the team runs an ultra-small lineup.
“With Mike, I was like ‘Hey, we’re going to do this. If there’s a 5 [center] that makes some sense, we’ll look at it. But frankly, I think it makes sense maybe not to do it at all,” Morey added. “Coach D’Antoni saying, ‘I trust what you guys are doing, I see what you’re doing, and we’re going to make it work.’ That means so much. That’s what I look for the most, someone who challenges me, works with the whole organization, and can execute.”
Of course, it is a challenge. Even if the team won the first five games with their new formation, they struggled later as they lost their next four games. This new lineup requires a lot of drives to the basket and ‘’no easy buckets’’ as they don’t have a big guy to dominate in position five. I am not sure if it will work, because as it seems to exhaust the players and at some point, this fatigue will affect their game and their outcomes. Coming playoffs this will be a problem.
In my estimation, every team needs a big man that can defend at a high level, screen very well, space the floor and so on. Capela was that guy and they decided to move him. Losing Capela is a serious problem and we can see it at least defensively. Most people considered him to be the guy that finishes the alley-oop move, a guy that just dunks and disparaged him, but he was doing way more than some eyes could notice.
Clint Capela on Houston’s goals and small-ball post-trade “Their goal is way beyond (the reg. season). It’s the playoffs. It’s at least the Finals. I know that right now they’re really focused on getting there and not just having a couple of winning streaks in the regular season.”
According to Basketball-Reference, Capela played 39 games with the Rockets and he averaged 13.9 points, 4.3 offensive rebounds, 9.5 defensive rebounds (in total 13.8 rebounds per game), 1.2 assists, 0.8 steals, 1.8 blocks in 20.73 minutes.
Now he is a member of the Atlanta Hawks but he has been out for a long time due to plantar fasciitis and as a report mentioned two weeks ago ‘’he was progressing well but the additional bone bruise has made things tricky.’’ There was also a prediction that he could make his return in the middle of March. The next update that was a week ago, made clear that Capela was cleared to participate in impact activities and that he would be re-evaluated in two weeks.
According to Sarah K. Spencer, Capela said he hasn’t been told it’s a possibility he might miss the rest of the season. Added that everyone is taking a day-by-day approach with his injury. “They just said every day, they’re really trying to see how I feel on what I can do.”
Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NBA-Western-Conference-644047762388472/
And on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SteliosK24