MAKING A STAR
Chasing a dream: Clint Capela has grown into one of league’s best with assists from John Lucas, Roy Rogers
How Clint Capela’s work ethic turned him into one of game’s best centers.
Most of Las Vegas was still asleep. With the sun just peeking over The Strip, only the workers, those who can’t or won’t stay in bed, were already grinding through the start of the day. • That’s when John Lucas began pushing and measuring Clint Capela. That’s when, in July 2016, he began filling him with phrases like, “Chasing the Dream,” when Lucas told Capela that he would one day become the Rockets’ modern-day Hakeem Olajuwon and a max player, and told others that Capela would become Mike D’Antoni’s next Amar’e Stoudemire.
Lucas saw the eye rolls at the time. Even Capela did not buy that max-player prediction or Olajuwon comparisons. But every day at 6 a.m., Capela was there for the first of three daily workouts, pushing himself to be more than many thought possible.
“I could tell right away,” Lucas said. “For 10 straight days, we got together at 6 a.m., 12 and then again at 6 in the evening during the summer break.
“That’s how it was. It still is. Like now, it’s 10:30 (a.m.) every day. He has yet to miss. He has yet to say, ‘I don’t want to do it today.’ The day after a game. The day of a game. Even when he’s hurt. Every day. Every day.
“I tell him all the time, ‘It’s about you wanting to be great.’ Clint wants to be great.”
Each day still begins with sessions with Lucas, working on free throws and jump hooks, footwork and follow-throughs. Capela takes 3-pointers. mostly to work on the shooting stroke he will bring to the free-throw line. He is a rarity among the Rockets, a player without a green light from deep, but he takes those 3s every day anyway.
By the afternoon, he moves to the courtside classroom with assistant coach Roy Rogers, studying the video on iPads to make him a student of the opposition, able to anticipate and react quickly. For all the times the Toyota Center game operations sound effects blare “You can’t teach that!” after a dunk or blocked shot in a nod to Capela’s quick-twitch bounce off his feet, Rogers had taught the rest.
“I know where I came from since I came here,” Capela said with a wristband carrying the message, “Grind now, shine later” always there as a reminder. “I know the work that I put in, the focus, how to make myself important for the team. I’ve been watching a lot of film to really make myself that important. I’m just glad that now everybody sees it. It brings me even more motivation and confidence about what I’m doing now.”
Capela’s appetite for improvement has been voracious. His ability to learn quickly was cited by former Rockets coach Kevin McHale by the end of Capela’s rookie season. The sessions with Rogers are quicker now, about 20 minutes, with Capela now confident enough to argue or race Rogers to observations that he can bring to the floor when there is no option to rewind and look again.
“We spend a lot of time together on the mental part of the game,” said Rogers, who joined D’Antoni on the Rockets’ coaching staff before the 2016-17 season. “We go back and look at what he did right, what he did wrong, how can he improve, what can he anticipate. Clint has been able to take what has been shown on video and put it to use on the court. I’ve coached very few players that can take what they see on video before the game and have carryover in the game. That’s a credit to him, just his focus on trying to become a better player.
“That goes back to Clint and his desire to be great. He’s not striving to be an average player. If you want to be great, there’s a process, and you can’t skip steps. He wanted to be a better free-throw shooter, so he worked with Luke on becoming a better free-throw shooter. He wants to be a better defender and a better finisher around the rim. So we study that stuff, and he takes what he’s seeing on film and applies it on the game. There is no easy way to greatness.”
Rogers, who played five NBA seasons in a nine-year professional career on the strength of his defense, has coached his share of big men, most recently Andre Drummond, Brook Lopez, Greg Monroe and Marcin Gortat. Though coaches and players have reviewed film for decades and technological advances have made it easier to focus to those studies, Rogers said Capela is unusually adept at transferring what he sees to action.
“That’s a credit to him, just his focus on trying to become a better player,” Rogers said. “He’s extremely smart. I really enjoy working with him because he challenges me. There are times I didn’t pick up something on a clip, and he’ll say, ‘Rewind this. Here’s what I saw.’ And he’s right. It keeps me sharp because it has to be well thought out because he’s smart and he’s locked in.
“Part of being smart is he can be stubborn, too. There are some nights we go through video and say, ‘We agree to disagree on this one.’ His confidence has grown. My goal is get to the point when we’re watching film and he’s explaining it to me.”
Capela already has achieved at least the first part of his goals. The 25th pick of the 2014 NBA draft, Capela swatted back the idea of remaining in Europe for one more season as thoroughly as any of his 11 blocked shots in the past two playoff games on the way to the Western Conference finals. In his second season as a starter, he led the NBA in field-goal percentage. His 2.8 blocks per game in the postseason were the most in the playoffs’ first two rounds. His 12.2 rebounds are fourth and the most of any of the players still playing.
The Rockets rave most, however, about the shots he alters into misses, often sparking fast breaks that he races to finish.
“The best players can really impact the game at both ends,” no less an authority than Olajuwon said. “It’s amazing to see how he has developed into such an excellent player in no time.
“Fundamentally, every shot is challenged. That is a very unique quality. I’m so proud to see how he has developed. He has that toughness where he doesn’t back down. He believes he’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing and believes he can do so much more. He has so much more he can do. What he is doing right now fits that role, but he has so much more to offer.”
Olajuwon worked with Capela in his first two seasons in the NBA when Capela was still Dwight Howard’s backup. Capela is not asked to flash “Dream Shakes” in the low post. Plays are not called for him. D’Antoni, Rogers and Lucas often say much of Capela’s success comes from the way he has embraced his role in the Rockets’ schemes, cutting hard and serving as the last line of defense, switching on the perimeter and protecting the rim.
Olajuwon rarely works with Capela, having ceded those duties to Lucas and Rogers, but he has inspired.
“He makes me want to go harder,” Capela said of Olajuwon’s comments. “Whenever I hear stuff like that, it makes me want to work even harder, get earlier (to) practice and do what I do.
“My first year in Houston, he was always after me to move confidently, try stuff. I got more aggressive. It was all for him. At practice, he was always coming to me to try this, try that, stuff he felt that I got, that I can do. Especially from a guy like him, that comes to you every day to tell you that you can do it, you start believing it. That really helped me.”
By the time D’Antoni took over in 2016-17, he challenged Capela to be able to play with the energy he needs to succeed for longer. He had played just 19.1 minutes per game as Howard’s understudy, pushed it to 23.9 minutes last season and reached 27.5 minutes this season. He has averaged 32 minutes in the postseason, finishing strong in each game, most obviously with his five blocked shots in the final three minutes of Game 4.
“He’s just really good,” D’Antoni said. “Clint is guarding the rim. Blocked shots and … missed shots with people going in for layups gets us running. When we can run and we get a good pace to us, we’re really good offensively. That starts a lot with Clint.
“What he does for us in Houston and for me as a coach is invaluable. When I took the job, I didn’t know if he could make the leap from part-time player to a starting center on a team that wants to win a title. He’s done that and more. He’s been terrific.”
Even now, nearly two years later, with Capela established and coming off a breakout series that has him described as a member of a “Big Three” with James Harden and Chris Paul, and with Lucas now referring to him months before Capela is a restricted free agent as “The Swiss Bank,” Capela goes to work each day.
“I know where I came from. I know how much work and focus that I’ve put into this,” Capela said. “I’ve wanted to make myself important to the team. I’m just glad that now everybody sees it. It just gives me more motivation and confidence to continue what I’m doing.”