Houston Rockets: Three reasons why Clint Capela will be a top three center

Clint Capela is young, scrappy, and hungry

Capela is determined and he is not going to throw away his shot. He just got the first big payday of his career and he is showing absolutely zero signs of slowing down and getting complacent. While he was waiting to get his money, he wasn’t worrying, he was in the gym putting in work and that hasn’t stopped yet.

Capela hasn’t settled for anything less than improvement towards greatness throughout his career. Every single counting stat has improved all four years of his career except for assists which dropped from 1.0 to 0.8 this year but he is still a good passer.

The number of shots he has taken has jumped every year, however, so has the number of shots he’s made. The exact same correlation goes for his free throw attempts, every year he takes more attempts and every year he makes more shots, in terms of average number per games.

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Not only that but, Capela is also becoming more and more disciplined in his basketball. In the 2015-16 season, Capela had 190 fouls in about 1,450 minutes. The next year, he had 179 fouls in about 1,550 minutes. Last year, he had 185 fouls in about 2,050 minutes. That type of improvement takes hard work and dedication.

Capela has also improved in offensive and defensive rating every year he’s been in the league, minus his first year in which fewer minutes favored his defensive rating. Offensively, that means he’s scored more points per 100 possessions every year. Defensively, that means he’s allowed fewer points per 100 possessions.

Without a doubt, Capela will surpass Gobert, Drummond, and Karl-Anthony Towns this year in terms of overall value. He’ll challenge Embiid and Davis as well but those guys have an established three point shot while Capela doesn’t. However, with Embiid’s injuries and inconsistencies, it’s reasonable to assume Capela could be top two with Davis in the NBA. That’s his potential for this year.

For his career, 10.6 points per game, 8.1 rebounds per game, and 1.4 blocks per game. He’s also a career .629 shooter from the field and .482 from the charity stripe. You can safely bet that all of those numbers will continue to improve this season.