“They clearly are going as far in as any team can be on playing two centers,” The Ringer’s Zach Lowe says of the Rockets following their surprise signing of Clint Capela.

Zach Lowe on the Rockets’ off-season moves…

“They clearly are going as far-in as any team can be on playing two centers. They firmly believe in the Sengun-Adams magic that happened last year. I assume Capela will fit into that and allow them to load manage Adams”

“I think HOU… pic.twitter.com/VnLWnET7aP

— Steven Adams Stats (@funakistats) July 1, 2025

Clint Capela is just 31 years old, and he’s spent the vast majority of his accomplished NBA career as a starting center.

Thus, at face value, it came as a shock when he agreed to sign in 2025 free agency with the Houston Rockets — where All-Star Alperen Sengun and veteran Steven Adams are clearly ahead on the depth chart.

But the Rockets did increasingly play more “double big” lineups at the end of last season, which could provide Capela with perhaps more opportunities than what Houston’s depth chart would initially suggest.

In his latest podcast, The Ringer’s Zach Lowe makes the case:

They clearly are going as far in as any team can be on playing two centers. They firmly believe in the Sengun-Adams magic that happened last year. I assume Capela will fit into that and allow them to load manage Adams.

I have no criticism of what the Rockets have done. It’s been a home run all the way around.

Adams and Capela are both 31 years old, and each brings more than a decade of NBA experience to the table. Thus, perhaps it makes sense for Houston to put together some sort of time-share arrangement over the grind of an 82-game regular season.

Or, perhaps Adams proved so valuable late last season that head coach Ime Udoka is viewing him as a quasi-starter, which could make Capela’s role of greater importance than what the depth chart might suggest.

Whatever the case, the Rockets are happy to have Capela back home in Houston, where he played five-plus seasons to begin his NBA career from 2014 until 2020. The “Legacy of Bigs” is back on, it seems.