{"id":560398,"date":"2026-01-25T19:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T19:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/560398\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T19:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T19:20:13","slug":"checking-in-on-rockets-once-key-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/560398\/","title":{"rendered":"Checking In On Rockets’ Once Key Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>. Unfortunately, Adams is out indefinitely<\/a> with a grade 3 ankle sprain. It\u2019s time to check in on his one-time competitor as a top center in the league, and current backup, Rockets center Clint Capela<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Checking In On Rockets\u2019 Once Key Center<\/p>\n

Capela (\u201cmy\u2019fella\u201d in the words of Bill Worrell<\/a>) 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<\/a>, and Chris Paul<\/a> were 42-3<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But times have changed. For one thing, the mastermind of that Warriors superteam, Kevin Durant<\/a>, 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\u2019s been Adams\u2019 backup.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s converting on 53.1% of his shots from the field and 50.0% from the free-throw line.<\/p>\n

Capela\u2019s purpose with the Rockets has looked unclear at times. A chunk of his minutes have actually come from garbage time assignments. He\u2019s been essentially a backup to the backup. Of course, Adams wasn\u2019t always strictly a backup, and now he\u2019s out indefinitely to boot. In theory, now would be Capela\u2019s time to shine.<\/p>\n

Since the Fall of Adams<\/p>\n

In the Rockets\u2019 three games<\/a> 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<\/a>. Capela has so far started in just one of his 37 contests played this season.<\/p>\n

The Rockets\u2019 coaching staff isn\u2019t so invested in the concept of double bigs to try to replace Adams with Capela outright. While Houston\u2019s offense undoubtedly suffered from a lack of space in those lineups, Adams\u2019 ability to read the floor and keep the ball squeezing through the gaps somewhat made up for it.<\/p>\n

Capela prefers to catch the ball in places where he has to do as little as possible with it. Between Amen Thompson<\/a>\u00a0(who may or may not be better positioned to win a ring<\/a> than his twin brother) and Houston\u2019s other lackluster three-point threats, the dunkers\u2019 spot is rarely empty, though.<\/p>\n

Even moving away from double bigs, the Rockets still prefer not to use Jabari Smith Jr.<\/a> as a stretch five when they can help it. Over the last 3 games<\/a>, Smith has played 95 minutes with Sengun at -16 and 12 minutes with Capela at +3. He\u2019s only played 110.4 minutes at -13 in those games total<\/a>. The three have not played together<\/a>. That\u2019s about three minutes of Smith as the lone big breaking even.<\/p>\n

Will Clint Capela Finish The Season With the Rockets?<\/p>\n

While Capela is theoretically the most useful he\u2019s been all season, it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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<\/a> 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s quality. He may not be the key to Houston\u2019s success like he once was, but the key would be an awful lot easier for opponents to score in without him.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025-26 Rockets have constructed their identity around bruising physicality and backbreaking offensive rebounding. The embodiment of that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,984,292,194,4066,6,211,962],"class_list":{"0":"post-560398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-clint-capela","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-rockets","12":"tag-houstonrockets","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-rockets","15":"tag-steven-adams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115957361965662186","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560398","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=560398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}