{"id":139520,"date":"2025-07-01T15:58:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T15:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/139520\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T15:58:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T15:58:25","slug":"clint-capela-returning-to-houston-rockets-on-three-year-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/139520\/","title":{"rendered":"Clint Capela Returning to Houston Rockets on three-year deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Houston (KIAH) &#8212; One of the most familiar faces in recent Rockets history is officially coming home. Veteran center Clint Capela is rejoining the Houston Rockets after agreeing to a three-year, $21.5 million deal, according to multiple reports. The move brings back a fan favorite who spent six full seasons anchoring Houston&#8217;s defense during its playoff-contending years in the James Harden era. Capela, now 31, was originally drafted by Houston in 2014 and quickly became known for his rim protection, rebounding, and lob-finishing ability. He was eventually traded to Atlanta in 2020, where he continued to be a steady interior presence. The big man averaged 8.9 points and 8.5 rebounds last season, his lowest outputs since 2016-17. Now, he returns to a much younger but reloaded Rockets squad that&#8217;s looking to build off last season&#8217;s leap under head coach Ime Udoka. The 52-30 Rockets finished second in the Western Conference last season before being upset by the seventh-seeded Warriors, 4-3, in their first-round playoff series. With young stars like Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, and Amen Thompson, Capela brings much-needed veteran depth and playoff experience to the frontcourt. The move signals that Houston isn&#8217;t just rebuilding, it&#8217;s ready to compete now. This signing comes on the opening day of NBA free agency, with the Rockets also making moves to add veteran forward Dorian Finney-Smith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston (KIAH) &#8212; One of the most familiar faces in recent Rockets history is officially coming home. Veteran&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[1307,883,676,7,984,374,27252,292,194,4066,861,560,6,211,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-139520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-amen-thompson","10":"tag-atlanta","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-clint-capela","13":"tag-dorian-finney-smith","14":"tag-familiar-faces","15":"tag-houston","16":"tag-houston-rockets","17":"tag-houstonrockets","18":"tag-jalen-green","19":"tag-james-harden","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-rockets","22":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114778807233975340","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}