Return of Capela leaves coach juggling court time for 3 centers
MIAMI — As problems go, Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni did not mind the one he encountered Tuesday. He never thought one of his teams would be said to have too many centers.
Center Clint Capela returned after missing 15 games with a fractured fibula in his left leg and was immediately inserted into the starting lineup for Tuesday’s 109-103 loss to the Heat.
Happy as the Rockets were to have him back, and to point to Capela’s open giddiness to be playing again, the production they received from Montrezl Harrell and Nene while Capela was out left D’Antoni trying to determine how he would juggle all three in the rotation.
“I talked to them today and told them we will try to take care of all three of them,” D’Antoni said. “There will be times somebody will get the short end of the stick. That’s just the way it is. I can’t produce minutes for them.”
‘Good problem to have’
Because of D’Antoni’s determination to always have the spacing in his offense that comes from using rangeshooting power forwards, playing one of his centers at power forward was not an option. That was made clear when Ryan Anderson was sidelined Tuesday with the flu.
With Anderson out, D’Antoni shifted Trevor Ariza to power forward and started Corey Brewer at small forward.
Brewer has averaged 4.1 points per game on 40.9 percent shooting, but he is second to Pat Beverley on the team in net rating, with the Rockets outscoring opponents by 10.6 points per 100 possessions with Brewer on the floor.
The Heat’s use of a smaller, perimeter-oriented lineup, with Luke Babbitt at power forward, helped justify the move of Ariza to power forward. But D’Antoni sounded happy to have him in the role anyway.
“He can guard inside and he’s long enough, he’s good at four, three,” D’Antoni said. “He can guard anyone you want. He’s great.”
Determining the rotation at center will be more complicated and will last longer than Anderson’s flu. Before Capela’s injury in Minneapolis on Dec. 17, either Nene or Harrell often sat out games.
With Harrell’s production — he averaged 14.2 points on 67.7 percent shooting since Capela’s injury — D’Antoni would like to play all three centers. He made a point to tell them Tuesday that the juggling will at times be difficult.
“We have other circumstances,” D’Antoni said. “We have Clint coming back so he’ll have to go slow. We have Nene we want to keep fresh, some back-to-backs we want to give him some rest. It’s a good problem to have so long as we all approach it as something inevitable. No one is going to be happy all the time totally, and if they have problems we need to talk about it, make sure everybody is OK.”
The matchup game
With Capela out, D’Antoni determined his starter based in part on matchups, using Nene against the bigger, low-post centers and Harrell on the perimeter-oriented center. The coach said he can do that with both coming off the bench, especially until Capela works his way back into game shape.
“Maybe the first guy off the bench will be a matchup consideration,” D’Antoni said. “Or if bulky centers give Clint a problem, I’ll substitute early and get Nene in there. Or if we need energy today, maybe here comes Montrezl. The good thing about the centers is they’re (not) all the same. When they’re all the same, what do you do? They bring different attributes. We just have to pick the right one.”