Clint Capela and the Houston Rockets have until Oct. 16 to hammer out a contract extension, otherwise he’ll enter restricted free agency next summer. As of now, according to what league executives have told The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor, it doesn’t sound like a deal is close to getting done:
The Rockets have three other young, talented 5s in their offense in Zhou Qi, Cameron Oliver, and Chinanu Onuaku. But none of them, at this stage, are on Capela’s level as a defender or finisher. They’ll need Capela to once again elevate his play this season. The question is whether they should extend him now or wait until next summer. Multiple league sources confirmed the Rockets and Capela have had “very introductory” extension talks.
Unless the Rockets are going to get Capela for a friggin’ steal, they might as well let this situation leak into next summer. They retain the right to match any offer he receives, and his cap hold will sit at $7 million until he puts pen to paper, affording general manager Daryl Morey more flexibility if he tries to manipulate the books through salary dumps and by renouncing the rights to other players.
Waiting, of course, opens up the Rockets to big-money offer sheets from rival suitors they wouldn’t otherwise have dangled. But the market from 2016 hasn’t yet fully corrected itself. Contract offers won’t be insanely lucrative next summer. Even if they are, a quick scroll through the NBA’s depth charts shows there isn’t a pressing need for bigs who don’t shoot threes. Letting Capela hit the open market shouldn’t yield anything too crazy—particularly with other bigs such as DeMarcus Cousins and Nerlens Noel also slated for free agency.
Granted, if Capela is a bargain-in-waiting, the Rockets should act. Paying him more than $7 million will handcuff their flexibility, but they won’t have any breathing room if they’re bent on re-signing Chris Paul and haven’t managed to dump Ryan Anderson’s deal without taking back money in return. If they can lock him down for $12 to $13 million or less per year, and they’re not totally certain someone won’t pay him more than that next July, they should move to strike.
