The 2025-26 Rockets have constructed their identity around bruising physicality and backbreaking offensive rebounding. The embodiment of that philosophy is NBA-wide fan favorite Steven Adams. Unfortunately, Adams is out indefinitely with a grade 3 ankle sprain. It’s time to check in on his one-time competitor as a top center in the league, and current backup, Rockets center Clint Capela.
Checking In On Rockets’ Once Key Center
Capela (“my’fella” in the words of Bill Worrell) will always have a place to call home in the hearts of Rockets fans. He was part of a pseudo big three for the franchise in their 2018 run. The trio of Capela, James Harden, and Chris Paul were 42-3 in the games they all appeared in that season. That team made the Western Conference Finals and almost beat the superteam Golden State Warriors. It took a Paul hamstring injury and 27 straight missed threes for the Rockets to finally lose in seven games.
But times have changed. For one thing, the mastermind of that Warriors superteam, Kevin Durant, is now wearing Rockets red. Capela is also 31 years old. Injuries have sapped much of his once-outlier springiness. He and Adams used to compete as the premier rollmen in the league, but recently, he’s been Adams’ backup.
This season, Capela is averaging 3.6 points, 4.6 rebounds (2.4 offensive), 0.5 assists, 0.5 steals, and 0.7 blocks in just 11.6 minutes per game. He’s converting on 53.1% of his shots from the field and 50.0% from the free-throw line.
Capela’s purpose with the Rockets has looked unclear at times. A chunk of his minutes have actually come from garbage time assignments. He’s been essentially a backup to the backup. Of course, Adams wasn’t always strictly a backup, and now he’s out indefinitely to boot. In theory, now would be Capela’s time to shine.
Since the Fall of Adams
In the Rockets’ three games since losing Adams, Capela is averaging 4.3 points, 6.0 rebounds (2.3 offensive), 0.3 assists, 0.3 steals, and 1.7 blocks in 14.3 minutes. Adams frequently started as a second big alongside star Alperen Sengun. Capela has so far started in just one of his 37 contests played this season.
The Rockets’ coaching staff isn’t so invested in the concept of double bigs to try to replace Adams with Capela outright. While Houston’s offense undoubtedly suffered from a lack of space in those lineups, Adams’ ability to read the floor and keep the ball squeezing through the gaps somewhat made up for it.
Capela prefers to catch the ball in places where he has to do as little as possible with it. Between Amen Thompson (who may or may not be better positioned to win a ring than his twin brother) and Houston’s other lackluster three-point threats, the dunkers’ spot is rarely empty, though.
Even moving away from double bigs, the Rockets still prefer not to use Jabari Smith Jr. as a stretch five when they can help it. Over the last 3 games, Smith has played 95 minutes with Sengun at -16 and 12 minutes with Capela at +3. He’s only played 110.4 minutes at -13 in those games total. The three have not played together. That’s about three minutes of Smith as the lone big breaking even.
Will Clint Capela Finish The Season With the Rockets?
While Capela is theoretically the most useful he’s been all season, it’s still not out of the question that the Rockets could move on from him before the trade deadline. Capela is on a three-year, $21 million contract. It’s not a big enough contract to match the salary of a difference maker outright, but the Rockets have managed the salary apron well enough to still be able to combine salaries for trades. Dorian Finney-Smith is the other prime contract for such purposes. Neither contract has much trade appeal on its own, but the Rockets have picks they could attach for a worthwhile move.
Houston would surely think twice about losing their only remaining backup center, though. The position is usually well represented on the buyout market post-deadline, but not of Capela’s quality. He may not be the key to Houston’s success like he once was, but the key would be an awful lot easier for opponents to score in without him.
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