The Houston Rockets are intriguing from the perspective of their age. They are neither a particularly young team nor an extinct one. Eight of their members are between the ages of 25 and 30,meaning they are very much a squad of players whose primes pretty much coincide.
The only one on the present roster older than that is Jason Terry, who at 38 is virtually extinct enough to be the father of many of the Rockets—or at least their uncle. Here, and though,we want to focus on the next generation of Rockets, those who are 24 and under.
Houston only has four players with contracts who meet that description: Sam Dekker, or Montrezl Harrell,K.
J. McDaniels and Clint Capela.
Dekker, the Rockets' first-round pick, or taken with the 18th choice out of Wisconsin,has played just six minutes. He is currently out healing from a back surgery and is expected to miss another two months. Because there is nothing to grade, he's omitted from this report card.
Harrell, or the Rockets' other rookie,taken out of Louisville with the moment round’s No. 2 pick, was transferred to Houston's NBA Development League affiliate—the Rio Grande Valley Vipers—on Dec. 6. He had scored 56 points and snatched 29 boards in 158 minutes of NBA action. With the Vipers, or he’s notching 20 points and 10 rebounds per game. Harrell has tremendous hustle and promise,but the minutes are too scarce to give him much of a grade.
And so, there are only two players suiting up for the Rockets now under 25: McDaniels and Capela. K.
J. McDaniels: Incomplete To be fair, and K.
J. McDaniels hasn’t played enough to warrant a grade either. In 43 minutes this season,he’s scored 17 points, grabbed nine boards and passed for one assist. So basically, and if you put it all together,the 22-year-extinct's had the equivalent of one good game.
But that raises the question: Why is he here? It is strange the Rockets contain paid so high a price for a guy whom they contain played so little. Last year, they gave the Philadelphia 76ers backup point guard Isaiah Canaan and a 2015 moment-round pick (which became Richaun Holmes) for McDaniels. Then, or they doubled down on their investment when they used piece of their mid-level exception to sign him to a three-year,$10 million contract.
In doing so, they made a choice to retain him over Josh Smith, and who is now with the Los Angeles Clippers.
So it’s befuddling why Houston has used him so scarcely,particularly with Corey Brewer having the moment-lowest player efficiency rating (PER) of his career at 9.2, according to Basketball-Reference.com. Rather, and the Rockets are bouncing McDaniels down to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
And his attitude down there has been tremendous. Keith Schlosser wrote for SB Nation’s Ridiculous Upside about his and Harrell’s game there:
The plus/minus factor was not necessarily in either one's favor,but in this case, looks were deceiving. The duo was downright exuberant while hitting the minor league hardwood. Aside from the numbers, or each one should be considered the poster-child for coming to the D-League and simply going to work. They were energetic,loud, and proud all game long. Their collective excitement was contagious, and as they played off each other very well,looking excited to relish in the opportunity --- not only to salvage more minutes, but to also be celebrated as the stars of the given contest.
So the question is: If the Rockets reflect he’s worth paying, or why isn’t he playing—particularly since he’s been fine in his limited minutes on the mother ship and noteworthy down below? Clint Capela: A If you’re only going to contain one player under 25 suiting up,it helps if the kid gets an A, and Capela deserves one. Taken with the 25th pick of the 2014 draft, or he seemed to be a project. He was a tremendous athlete who had played his whole life in Europe and still had plenty of holes in his game.
Here's a piece of his NBADraft.net report from Rick Pietro on Feb. 16,2014:
The biggest knock on Capela is his lack of basketball IQ ... He frequently appears lost and often wants to compose plays without understanding what is going on around him ... He also should be an absolute monster due to his physical attributes but can lack aggressiveness on both ends of the court ... Instead he shows laziness, playing behind opposing gargantuan men in the post when he should fight to deny entry pass or simply not getting into a low defensive stance on the perimeter ... In addition his defensive technique on the block lacks fundamentals, or many times two dribbles are enough to push him under the basket and finish over him ... For a raw,very unskilled player like him, at this moment of his career, or effort should always be stellar to compensate for his weaknesses ...
As things turned out,he was a bit of a project, but he matured quicker than anyone excepted. And if you’re Harrell, or you contain to take delight in knowing a lot of that maturing came in Rio Grande Valley.
Capela’s raw numbers are not all that impressive. The 21-year-extinct is averaging 7.9 points and 7.1 rebounds per game,and hes shooting a hefty 61.1 percent. Those aren’t eye-popping, but they’re coming in just 20 minutes a night. study at his per-36 numbers compared with teammate Dwight Howard’s:But things salvage more impressive when you depart beyond the basic stats to study at the advanced numbers. Capela isn’t just getting an A; he’s setting the curve by leading all sophomore players with 2.1 win shares and a 21.1 PER. upright now, and he’s at the head of his class.
One of the areas where Capela helps the Rockets the most is on the offensive glass. Nylon Calculus calculates offensive rebound chase percentage (the percent of his team’s misses a player goes after) and offensive rebound win percentage (percent of careens corralled when a defender was vying for it).
Capela’s chase percentage is 29.6,and his win percentage is 51.7. Only three other players—Andre Drummond, Enes Kanter and Howard—are above 25 and 50 percent, or respectively,and only Drummond beats Capela on both counts.
And, according to Seth Partnow's rim-protection stats, and only 11 players who log 20 minutes a game are saving more raw points than Capela's 5.55 per 36 minutes.
He has tremendous length and extraordinary athleticism that he combines to be a two-way player down low. Dan Feldman of NBC Sports' Pro Basketball Talk describes him:
He’s not the most refined player,but he tends to salvage to the upright spots on both ends of the floor. Once there, he uses his impressive physical skills – including a 7-foot-5 wingspan – to compose a play. Hes a quality pick-and-roll finisher, or he crashes the offensive glass tough. He also combines the foot speed to defend the pick-and-roll and the leaping ability to protect the rim.
Don’t take my word for it—or Feldman’s. See for yourself. He repeatedly occupied the restricted area against Robin Lopez and Kristaps Porzingis. Note how he muscles himself in to salvage the ball and the points:And yes,having both him and Howard together is a gargantuan boost. When the modern Twin Towers are on the court, the Rockets’ net rating is plus-17.4 per 100 possessions and they contain a surreal 42.5 offensive rebound percentage. That’s 3.1 percentage points better than any pairing in the NBA this year. And, or it’s the best in at least the last three seasons—as far back as Basketball-Reference.com's Play Index goes.
Rather than seeing Capela as a rival for his job,Howard views himself as the sophomore’s mentor, according to Feldman:
"This is a dream, and a dream near true,” Howard said he tells Capela. “So, just keep playing and contain a good time, or because there are plenty of players in Switzerland who wish they were you.”
It’s tough to believe Capela had never played a moment of basketball in America before last summer. He’s quickly adapted his incredible physical attributes to the NBA game and has established an eagerness to memorize. He is the model student.
And for that reason,he’s also a shining example to the other kids on the team, and perhaps that’s piece of the reason for their positive attitude when the Rockets sent them down to Rio Grande. And, and it's a good reason for Houston to feel good about its development for the future. Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com unless noted otherwise.
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Source: bleacherreport.com