Houston Rockets: Clint Capela may be an easier re-sign than we think

The off season will officially kick off tomorrow and the Houston Rockets will have a ton of work to do to keep this team together. One of the biggest factors is the status of Clint Capela who is a restricted free agent. What’s the latest?

Houston Rockets fans — it will be “go” time for the front office and general manager Daryl Morey will be at the ready to try to kick off the free agency period with a bang. It’s quite peculiar that no significant rumors have surfaced about the Houston Rockets which any type of deal struck would’ve surfaced by now.

I’ve been covering free agency for years and it has been mighty quiet on the Houston Rockets front. What could that possibly mean?

It may be easier to sign our free agents than what we previously envisioned.

The latest is that the Houston Rockets have extended a qualifying offer to Clint Capela, who is now officially a restricted free agent, which basically gets the ball rolling to his own sweepstakes.

Keith Smith of RealGM had the scoop on this info, which occurred last night:

The Houston Rockets have tendered qualifying offers to Clint Capela and two-way player Markel Brown. Both players are now restricted free agents and Houston can match any offer sheets they sign with another team. If Brown signs his QO, he’ll be on a second two-way contract.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) June 29, 2018

Capela’s qualifying offer is worth $4.75 million for 2018-19. This move was required because it officially starts the bidding process for his services. The QO is a one-year deal that a player does have the option to sign, especially if the offers that they are getting from other teams not up to snuff.

Although a highly-unlikely but worst-case scenario for him, Capela could take the qualifying offer for 2018-19 and hammer out a new deal with the Rockets — or other potential suitors — next off season as he would be an unrestricted free agent. But I can’t remember the last time that has happened to a guy with Capela’s accentuated value.

For this example, Brown will likely sign his QO because he’s developmental player and any type of guarantee that a guy of his stature is worth signing. With the NBA now in the age of two-way contracts, this will certainly be the case for Brown. His salary through the season will be cyclical depending on if he’s on the active roster or with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. All in all, it will be GTD money for him.

I highly doubt that this will be case for Capela, who will still be offered something close to lucrative but possibly not as much as the Houston Rockets brass had envisioned. He has tremendous value as he’s a “new age” center that not ball-dominant, to which he can also keep up with our frenetic pace and play both ends of the floor with near precision.

This will make it easier to sign Chris Paul, who is an unrestricted free agent, and reportedly wants

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a max deal. That will remain to be seen, especially if the Houston Rockets want to sign or trade for a third superstar. LeBron James? Paul George? Kawhi Leonard anybody?

But I have to say that I am a bit stunned that no news has surfaced about Capela having gobs of money thrown at him.

Kelly Iko of Rockets Wire reported last month that the Phoenix Suns had interest last month in regard to a big deal but that notion has quieted a bit with the team snatching up versatile forward/center DeAndre Ayton in this year’s draft with the 1st pick. He’ll be just a fraction of the cost of what it would be to pay Capela for the next half-decade.

Unfortunately, Capela is in free agency along with LeBron who is always the biggest domino to fall before everybody else’s deals are done. LeBron obviously has drawn the ire of multiple teams — including the Houston Rockets — and franchises alike are waiting on his decision before we start hearing the incessant scribbling of ink pens to paper in unison for the rest of the NBA’s free agents.

We’ll have to see but I strongly feel that the Houston Rockets have an excellent shot to not only get Capela back but not as high of a price as we all thought. Don’t get me wrong, he should be rewarded for his hard work because there’s no way we could’ve had the successful season that now in the books without him.

But it will be off to the races in less than 24 hours — LEGGGGGO!

Next: Five ways the Rockets can replace Trevor Ariza

Capela, 24, averaged 13.9 points, 10.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocks off 65.2 percent shooting from the field and 56 percent from the charity stripe in 2017-18, all career-highs.

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