After 12 seasons, Clint Capela’s days of being an NBA-caliber center are gone.
Capela was a foundation of the early Trae Young era, holding down the paint with incredible effectiveness on a team that didn’t play much defense. He was the prototypical rim-running big on offense, setting screens and finishing lobs from Young. There was little flash or glitz to Capela's game; he did what nobody else wanted to.
He moved back to Houston, where his career began, in a record-breaking seven-team sign-and-trade this offseason. As the third-string center behind All-Star Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams, Capela has not been asked to do much this season outside of holding down the Rockets’ interior defense for spot minutes.