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Clint Capela makes the Rockets nearly unbeatable
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Clint Capela makes the Rockets nearly unbeatable

As of this writing, the Houston Rockets sit a game above the Golden State Warriors for the best record in the NBA and look like the team with the best shot at unseating the champs from their throne. James Harden is having another MVP-esque season , Chris Paul has been a near perfect complement and the shooting from the entire team has been excellent. Mike D’Antoni is running the NBA’s best offense, not just for the 2017-18 season, but in the history of the league. For everything great that the Warriors have done over the last four years, their season-long peak has not reached the Rockets' offensive rating of 115.9 right now. It could come down to the fact that the Rockets have Clint Capela, and the Warriors don’t.

For every Rocket who has played in at least 20 games this season, Capela ranks second on the team in individual offensive rating at 126, a shade behind Paul’s 128 and a few ticks above Harden’s 122. Capela leads the NBA in field goal percentage and effective field goal percentage and is eighth in PER, giving the Rockets three players who are in the top 10 of that category. He has been so incredibly efficient that he could be the first Rocket in franchise history to lead the NBA in field goal percentage — quite the feat when you consider the long line of all-world bigs who have played in Houston.

Capela’s success makes sense considering the combined ethos of the team’s general manager and head coach. Daryl Morey is the ostensible face of an era of NBA executives who place a premium on advanced analytics. Morey is a graduate of MIT and created the MIT Sports Analytics Conference, an annual coming together of some of the most brilliant minds in sports to hold panels about advances in that space. In a nutshell, Morey believes any shot not taken at the rim, beyond the three-point line or that isn’t a free throw is essentially a wasted possession.

Considering Morey’s core principles when it comes to how basketball should be played, D’Antoni has been a perfect wheelman in a numbers-driven vehicle. D’Antoni was one of the coaches in the mid-2000s who helped usher in a new era of basketball that has transformed largely into the game we see today. He has been a sort of a point guard whisperer, bringing out the best basketball in Steve Nash’s career, turning Jeremy Lin into "Linsanity," and transforming Harden into a perennial MVP candidate and front-runner for this year’s award. Paul is playing inspired basketball in D’Antoni’s system as well after years of frustration in Los Angeles.

For everything great D’Antoni has done with point guards, he has said that the center is the “most important piece” after point guard in his system. Rim protection and soft hands are among the list of demands that the coach requires of his big men, and Capela has been among the best at both all year, making him a derivative of the Morey ethos and D’Antoni system at the same time.

Defending Houston in pick-and-roll sets has become borderline impossible this season. There is rarely a time when Capela isn’t on the floor with at least three sharpshooters, and the ball handler is almost always a future Hall of Famer with the ability to score from anywhere on the court. Capela’s ability to finish through traffic creates a new existential dilemma for opposing defenses every possession; 33 percent of all plays with Capela on the floor feature a P&R set where he is the roll man, and in those situations, he’s first in the NBA in points, fifth in points per possession, third in field goal percentage, third in and-one frequency and fourth in scoring frequency.

Because of Capela, Paul is sixth in the NBA in points per possession as a ball handler in P&R sets while Harden is fifth in overall scoring, and with these three, you can see the formula that has created the most efficient offense in NBA history. However, the other end of the floor is the reason Houston will have a shot for home court throughout the postseason this year.

Capela has cleaned up a lot for the Rockets this season, ranking fourth in the NBA in block percentage. Knowing that he has grown as a rim protector, all perimeter players have been allowed to play more aggressive and take more chances, which has increased forced turnovers created by the Rockets. Both Paul and Harden rank in the top 15 in the NBA in steal percentage.

The Rockets have the best offense in the league and a top 10 defense, and an overwhelming majority of the credit has been thrown the way of Harden’s career year. Capela has been just as important despite any gaps between talent level, and if Houston is to make a title run, Capela is going to have to continue his stellar play for three more months. Considering that he’s only 23, the extra time on the floor shouldn’t be a problem for him, but he’s going to be a problem for the rest of the league for quite some time.

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