It is debatable that one person did very little in the Rockets victory over the Nets. It would be better to get Landale back for $21.5 million.

As the second home game of the new season, the Rockets finally won their first victory of the season, defeating the Nets with a 28-point victory and giving their opponents a 4-game losing streak. In this game, the Rockets appeared to be very efficient in all positions, but judging from the entire game, Capela, the Rockets' backup center this year, did not play an obvious role in the team.

This year Capela signed with the Rockets with a three-year, $21.5 million contract. At that time, most people thought that this was another missed signing for the Rockets. After all, in 21.4 minutes of playing time with the Hawks last season, Capela still had 8.9 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1 block. The market price is more than 10 million US dollars.

The Rockets signed Capela, originally thinking that when Shen Jing takes the 4th position in the new season, he can partner with Adams at the 5th position to do a good job of defense and rebound protection. At the same time, the offensive end was able to complete the work of "eating the pie", but no one expected that VanVleet's injury completely disrupted the team's plan.

Since neither Capela nor Adams has the ability to attack independently, except for the second offense after grabbing offensive rebounds, most of their offenses require picking and rolling with excellent defenders to find opportunities. But after VanVleet was injured, the Rockets currently have no one who can take on this position. Amen Thompson lacks shooting ability, so opponents will only choose to shrink after the pick-and-roll, allowing the inside to bear greater defensive pressure. Due to Shepard's lack of breakthrough ability, the opponent only needs to simply switch defenses, which makes the pick-and-roll tactics he initiated lose their power.

So having two frame-protecting centers in the team is somewhat of a luxury for the current Rockets. Even though Capela has maintained a 100% shooting percentage in the three games since the start of the season, he only averages 6 minutes per game and averages 3 points and 2 rebounds per game, so his contribution is very limited.

This makes people somewhat miss the Rockets' third center Landale last season. After Landale's $8 million contract expired last season, the team did not choose to renew his contract. In the end, Landale did not receive much attention in the free agent market. He joined the Grizzlies with a one-year contract of $2.46 million, which is very cost-effective.

In the three games Landale played for the Grizzlies this season, he averaged 23 minutes per game, scoring 7.3 points and 5.7 rebounds, which is much better than Capela in terms of statistics. The most important thing is that Landale has a certain three-point shooting ability. With him in the lineup, he can open up space on the court for the Rockets. At the same time, he does not need guards to lead their offense. His technical characteristics are more in line with the existing Rockets lineup.

At the same time, after having Landale, the Rockets' tactics can be richer. In the team's regular rotation, it is enough for the three players Shen Jing, Adams, and Xiao Jia to rotate at the 5th position. Even if they insist on letting Shenjing take root at the 4th position, the combination of Adams and Landale at the 5th position is enough to cope with the defensive tasks inside.

Now it seems that if the Rockets do not sign Capela during the offseason, the team can use this contract to find a good scorer in the free agent market, such as Cam Spencer, who played for the Grizzlies last season. As a player selected with the 23rd overall pick in the second round of 2024, the 25-year-old Spencer has very mature offensive skills, especially his top outside shooting ability. In his rookie season, he averaged 4.2 points, 1.2 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game, and his outside shooting percentage reached 36.5%. Now that he has reached a four-year, $10.4 million contract with the Grizzlies, the Rockets could have acquired this outside slugger at a slightly higher price.

Or the team can give Alexander Walker or Grimes a large contract of nearly US$20 million without signing Capela and Smith. The former has outstanding singles scoring ability, and the latter averaged 20+5+5 per game for the 76ers. If the team can get one of these two players, the situation may be better than it is now. What do you think of the Rockets' signing of Capela during the offseason? Welcome to leave a message for discussion!