We can agree that Capela is not perfect. I hate when he misses, but all players miss. No player in the league has every skill. It's all about putting them into positions where they can be most successful. Shooting 65% is successful and it's what Clint does and the positions he's put in make him that way. He can switch everything and finishes at an incredible rate doing what he's already doing. Why reinvent the guy when he's scoring at that percentage? Nobody in the league shoots better than him. Dude has the absolute best offense in the league doing what he does and his weakness in your mind is that he doesn't shoot threes. I put together a list of all the players that play center and shot at least 100 threes last year: Thon Maker .298 Zach Collins .310 Channing Frye .339 Pau Gasol .358 Dewayne Dedmon .355 Myles Turner .357 Mike Muscala .371 Nikola Vucevic .314 Joel Embiid .308 Al Horford .429 Marreese Speights .369 Nikola Jokic .396 Karl-Anthony Towns .421 DeMarcus Cousins .354 Marc Gasol .341 Brook Lopez .345 Kevin Love .415 Dirk Nowitzki .409 Now the equivalent of shooting 65% from the 2 point territory is shooting 43.3% and none of these guys touch that. Of the guys that shoot really high percentages: Kevin Love can't finish at the rim or switch on defense like Clint. Karl-Anthony Towns straight sucks on defense and he's pretty unlikely to be traded. Nikola Jokic is untouchable. Al Horford would probably not be the good above the rim finisher that we use efficiently in our offense. He's also not a rebounder. The more I look at it, the more I realize how special Clint is for us. I'm shocked you can't see it too. I really am because normally you try to call it like it is. In this case it feels like you're sticking to your guns from 3 years ago and not looking at what's changed. I think this center shooting threes might be a little over-hyped. There's other ways to make centers successful in today's NBA and Clint is the literal perfect example. The new open space on the court you can pass into successfully is above the rim. Clint owns that space.
Like who? There is one player in the NBA who comes close to doing it, and he is garbage at 3pters, and he is an atrocious scorer. Oh and he pulls down less rebounds than Capela in more minutes.
PnR will never be a dinosaur play. Centers who can help guys like Harden drive to the basket will never be dinosaurs. I think what you really mean is he can't be an All-Star or Superstar without shooting 3s. That's not the same thing, and it costs much more than $17m/yr, if you add that to what he already brings. Due to his great chemistry running PnR with Harden, we are getting tremendous value for that $17m spot in the team salary. And due to his dominance over KAT and Gobert, it's obvious he's still improving. I expect another shocking improvement this year, based on his playoff performance against those two.
I'm hopeful that Capela is working hard to improve his overall game. I'm looking forward to seeing him in training camp. His rebounding is very good, and his shot blocking is tremendous. His defensive rotations have gotten better too.
When I argued he wasn't a good rim protector....He was actually a poor rim defender. Nite he's improved somewhat. He's always been decent helping off. He's never been good when attached directly or when compacted underneath with no space. Goal post hasn't moved. He is NOT a great defender. Just now reaching up to be an AVERAGE defender in the middle. IF he could actually become a great rim defender while becoming a good switch defender on smalls (he ain't), THEN he could also be worth his salary and become a true top 7 piece that we could use down the stretch to beat the Warriors. But with us bulking him up......it's actually more likely that he could learn to shoot the 3 ball them that he morphs to a higher level defender. That's why I didn't mention the defense. K?
You have to consider the 3-ball in greater dimension than just comparing their finishing. It's the effect on the team on the shots the rest of the guys can get. That's the hidden value of the 3. Not to mention the increased offensive rebounding and the fact that in transition your big man can get van into the defensive paint so much quicker. These are all things that have not been fully quantified yet. But the best basketball people know them instinctively. 3-point shooting 7 footers is the rage. It will continue to grow. Dinosaurs will go away.
Portzingis and Davis are a lot closer to perfect than Clint. And Qi could possibly be. Could be several guys.
Thats funny considering Clint Capela lead all PF/Cs in WS/48 last year, edging out two #1 overall picks in Anthony Davis and Karl Anthony Towns, with "Dinosaur" Rudy Gobert not far behind them. How do you get that damn high without a 3 pointer? Having the highest eFG%, third highest BLK%, 5th highest TRB%, third highest ORTG, and fourth highest DRTG may account for that. Do I also have to mention he led the team in WS/48 during the playoffs? Capela ain't a dinosaur, hes The Mother****ing T-Rex!
I didn't say you did. btw: according to your defintion, Kerr just won a title with two dinosaurs (Bell/Looney), replacing other dinosaurs -- Pachulia, and McGee, who won the previous year. And the title before Cupcake was won with Tristan Thompson getting 32mpg vs the Warriors. What I'm saying is no center is a dinosaur who can run PnR at Capela's level, because *that* simple play (with it's advanced variations that Capela also does so well) is still the most potent play in the game. Dwight Howard is a dinosaur. Bigs who can only shoot and do nothing else are dinosaurs, too. I still say your criteria of shooting (or tremendous passing) is the criteria of making All-star, and you'd be correct. Capela won't make All-Star providing spacing for guards no matter how elite his PnR play is. But, he also isn't being overpaid like Gobert and Adams -- hitting our cap at a tremendous $5m-$10m less per year.
Dinosaur? Nope. Dinosaur more describes Asik. A center does not have to hit 3ptrs to be successful if he can defend and provide vertical space. Capela does not need to shoot 3's. He needs to double down on his skills and continue to improve on his stamina. Would it be great to have Anthony Davis? Sure.
Bigs that can't shoot are dinosaurs, unless they are Holic personal favorites like Cole Aldrich, Nerlens Noel or Cody Zeller. Neither of which can shoot, but that doesn't suit this argument, does it Holic?
I think it's more reasonable to see the next-level improvement from things we've already seen. Let's not bite on 'holic's criteria, as if it defines an allowable domain of thought. Only rookies do that. I expect increased amounts of high-post play-making ... his passing to cutters (especially Harden playing off-ball) is one of the more under-the-radar roles MDA has been putting him in. We also saw Capela's confidence growing in sealing as an additional Option off the PnR. We may never see Capela get straight low post plays, but Harden/MDA used to completely bypass him on plays when defense covered initial vertical threat, using it just to get the D moving. But, in the playoffs, we saw the Rockets persist on getting him the ball if he sealed someone or otherwise got a quick-hit move look at the rim.
