The Hawks needed Clint Capela to focus on being as good as he could be from the start of training camp and beyond. Through 17 games this season, the veteran center has provided the Hawks with a defensive anchor but also a consistent and efficient scorer.
Capela has ended his last three games with double-doubles and already has five. He’s averaged 11.6 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. He’s shot the ball from the floor well, too. He’s made 62.1% of his overall attempts, up from 58.8% at this point last season.
“Yeah, I think I was very prepared about how we were going to play, our style, how the game has been changing the NBA the pace, and then I really tried to work more on how to get those legs faster,” Capela said. “And even when the season starts, it’s also part of getting back is when the season starts, I know that it’s going to take me a little bit to really get back to it.
“And obviously it’s not it’s not easy. Some season, it takes a longer time than other seasons. But I just felt that mentally, I really kept going on with it -- making sure my body is ready, feeling good, not missing any games, just stuff like that, even gonna have bad games or good games. But to me, the ultimate fight is to go out there every night and get it done.”
He’s played through some tough contact, as well and up until the last two games shot the ball at the free-throw line well. He’s had a couple of games where he’s gone 1-of-4 from the line, which dropped his free-throw shooting percentage from 61.1% through the first 15 games to 54.5% through 17 games.
But a lot of what Capela’s teammates have come to rely on him for doesn’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet.
“Yeah, I think with Clint, obviously he’s our rim protector,” Hawks guard Dyson Daniels said. “He’s our guy, you know, the bigs coming up, to set screens, so, he’s telling us the calls, where to send it. And Clint is kind of like that defensive anchor in a way. So, he rebounds the ball well. He protects the rim well, and he’s really good at using his voice, as well. So he makes our job a lot easier knowing where to send the ball, whether it’s over, get under channel or whatever. So he’s been really good on that side of the ball, but on the offensive side as well.”
Much of what has made Capela’s presence on the court beneficial comes to his instincts and ability to get into position at the right time. When Capela moves into position, he cuts off looks at the basket to deter drivers getting down low in the paint.
He also gets his hands up in the right moments and though they don’t always convert to blocks, he’s contesting shots that force scorers to adjust their shots. Even when opponents have employed a drive and kick strategy, Capela is among the first to try and recover and contest that jumper
The Hawks are allowing 6.6 fewer points per 100 possessions with Capela on the court than when he’s off, which puts him in the 81st percentile among other centers, according to Cleaning the Glass.
“Usually, whenever I find myself that I could give an extra effort to contest the shot.” Capela said. “I’m really trying to do, it. I don’t want to give anything easy to the other team. If I can be in the paint and contest the three, that’s what I want to do. If I can be there on the pick and roll and block a shot, there’s something, I want to be able to give two efforts at the same time.
“And because this is what I see from winning teams, I see that extra effort. And that’s why I’ve been taught early on in Houston, is be able to give extra effort, and that’s how teams get defensive stops. That’s how teams get rolling, and that’s something that I feel, that I’m unique in doing. So I’m trying to do that with consistency.”
Though Capela’s efforts on both ends of the floor stand out, it hasn’t paid off for the team consistently. The Hawks still rank toward the bottom of the league in 3-point defense. They’re tied with the Pelicans for 29th in opponent effective field goal percentage (56.3%) and they’ve struggled to slow opponents on the run after they’ve missed their own field goal attempts.
“We see that we have to be better transition defensively,” Capela said. “Like against a team like Chicago, that we knew that they were running and this is the way of winning games, as soon as they start getting confidence by running, it gets very hard, because, again, they get easy baskets, and then they start being confident shooting the three. They start getting confidence just by changing pace, and, ‘oh, I can give a layup by...’ there’s just stuff like that that we see on film.
“And then we know that we have to get better at. It’s very hard we will be able to flip the switch like that. But we know what we have to get better, and it’s something that we keep having to see, to be aware of and be better as good as we can.”
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