It’s been less than a month since Houston Rockets coach Kevin McHale laughed at media questions over additional playing time for rookie big man Clint Capela.
In fact, exactly three weeks before Tuesday’s Game 2, McHale said the idea of meaningful postseason minutes for Capela would mean that “a lot of guys are hurt”, adding that the Rockets would be “in trouble” if that happened.
Yet there Capela was on Saturday night at Toyota Center, running the floor like a gazelle while playing 16 critical minutes off the bench for the Rockets in a 118-108 victory over the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of their best-of-seven series. He will likely be in that same role tonight, too.
“I’ve just liked him,” McHale said following Game 1. “He’s a good kid. He plays hard all the time. Nothing bothers him. Whether he had a really good last play or a really bad last play, he plays hard on the next play. That’s key. You do that, and you don’t drag all your baggage with you down the floor because you missed a shot, or if you don’t defend? You don’t do that. Miss or make the shot, run down and defend. Get a rebound. Get a blocked shot. He comes back on offense and rolls hard.
“He just does his job well. He’s really a nice, easy guy to like, nice young man. We’re fortunate. I think he’s going to be a very good NBA player. He’s got a lot to learn, but the kid’s just so willing to learn.”
The extended minutes for Capela, a 6-10, 240-pound rookie from Switzerland, weren’t all by design. The Rockets found Donatas Motiejunas unexpectedly sidelined for the rest of the season with a back injury, and Dwight Howard was limited to 17 minutes because of foul trouble.
But Capela seized the opportunity and ran with it, scoring eight points on 3-of-5 shooting along with six rebounds and two blocked shots in 16 minutes off the bench.
It wasn’t a flawless performance, of course. Capela remains very raw – especially in his pick-and-roll coverages on defense – and was immediately targeted by Dallas coach Rick Carlisle on that end.
But the 20-year-old showed an ability to adjust. After picking up three fouls in the first half of Game 1, Capela didn’t have any in the second half as the Rockets pulled away for a big victory.
“The refs were more strict with me,” Capela said. “They make me feel in my head like I got to do better. I got to be in better position on defense. It feels like it motivates me, like a challenge. So it’s good.”
Capela has had plenty of experience this season with challenges. After being selected No. 25 overall last June, he spent most of his rookie NBA season with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Rockets’ affiliate in the NBA D-League. To his credit, he played very well there, averaging 16 points, 9.7 rebounds and 3.0 blocks in 38 games while shooting over 60 percent from the field.
But Capela seemed nervous in his limited NBA action to start the year, missing his first 10 shots from the field and first eight free throws over six appearances, all during garbage time.
At this time a month ago, Capela — now seemingly a fixture in the playoff rotation for a contender — had yet to even score his first NBA point.
His first true opportunity came on March 30 in Toronto. With Motiejunas sidelined, Howard resting on the second night of a back-to-back, and Terrence Jones still out with a partially collapsed lung, the Rockets found themselves with Josh Smith and Joey Dorsey as their only healthy big men.
So Houston called Capela back up from the D-League out of necessity and immediately threw him into the fire. Capela responded with eight points and nine rebounds in just 19 minutes, including a highlight reel of dunks off pick-and-rolls with James Harden.
The performance didn’t thrust him into the rotation immediately, though. McHale sat out Capela entirely in three of the next six games – largely against contenders – and only played him sparingly in the others. But last Monday, McHale found his hand forced again by Howard sitting out the second night of a back-to-back, and Capela took advantage of his latest opportunity – scoring 10 points on 4-of-4 shooting and grabbing five rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench in Charlotte.
Then, in Wednesday’s home regular-season finale against Utah and vaunted big man Rudy Gobert – a game the Rockets had to win to secure home-court advantage in the first round and the West’s No. 2 seed – McHale inserted Capela immediately behind Howard, seemingly bumping Dorsey out of the rotation. Capela scored eight points and swept six boards in 17 minutes as the Rockets won big, securing their first division title since the 1993-94 championship campaign.
“I feel more comfortable now,” Capela told Sheridan Hoops after the game, adding that he had been working with legendary Houston center Hakeem Olajuwon in practices throughout the season. “Because I proved that the more I play, the more I can bring some help to my team.”
The decision to promote Capela ahead of Dorsey as the team’s backup center didn’t come easily for McHale. Dorsey remains a strong rebounder, excellent pick-setter and a solid position defender. But at 6-8 and a 29 percent free-throw shooter, Dorsey’s offensive limitations are significant and a potential liability in the high-scoring Western Conference playoffs.
As a result, McHale appears to be gambling on Capela’s length, athleticism and touch around the basket. In effect, he is betting that the extra points Capela can provide near the rim and the presence he commands in the pick-and-roll on offense can outweigh any decline in defensive savvy and experience.
The matchup against Dallas, a team whose bigs are long but not especially physical, could also be another factor pointing to Capela over Dorsey in this series.
Even so, it remains a bit of an unusual move on the surface. Coaches of veteran-laden, contending franchises typically don’t change up their rotation in the final game of the season, especially for a raw, 20-year-old rookie who was seen as a multi-year project.
But McHale deserves credit for his flexibility. Now in his fourth season guiding the Rockets, McHale has done strong work navigating the team through a barrage of injuries – and his ability to quickly trust young players to pick up new roles has proven significant.
In the final week of the 2013-14 season, McHale inserted little-known rookie guard Troy Daniels into the rotation when he felt the Rockets needed an extra shooter. In Game 3 of those playoffs, Daniels hit a game-winner in Portland to temporarily save Houston’s season.
The Rockets would prefer that Capela not have the singular dramatic moment now that Daniels did last season. After all, if Howard isn’t the guy manning the middle to close out playoff games, something has clearly gone wrong in the form of fouls or an injury. But they are hoping that Capela will give them meaningful minutes, and McHale is once again willing to take the leap of faith on a young player.
“He’s just out there playing,” McHale said of Capela. “He’s just one of those kids. He’s really disciplined. He works extremely hard, he’s a wonderful kid to be around and he just gives you confidence in him because of his approach.”
Ben DuBose is a veteran sports reporter who has followed the Houston Rockets and the NBA since Hakeem Olajuwon was Akeem Olajuwon. He writes for both SheridanHoops and ClutchFans, an independent Rockets blog. You can follow him on Twitter.