His price tag is the hold up. Not to mention that he may be a redundant player with Giles/WCS/Bagley on the court. It's risky to wrap up 20million a year in a guy who's skill set may be the same as the guys we already have on the roster.
He's a good player but his numbers will go down in Sacramento and whether he's needed or not is a question mark.
Few things. I think if any Capela deal did come to fruition, we'd almost assuredly be sending back WCS in a trade. So we wouldn't be losing an asset for nothing and not be in the awkward spot of having to pay WCS $10-$12 mil for a "maybe?" starter.
Agreed about Capela maybe being redundant, but this is different in a sense of where we were at with Lavine and Parker. We KNOW Capela is a freaking awesome player, we're not betting on him making significant strides when he comes here. Dude is just flat out good. The offensive efficiency will go down obviously, but I don't see any reason the defense or the rebounding suffers. And Capela is still such a smart offensive player that he's not going to pull a WCS on us and for some reason become inefficient.
I like the fit as well with Bagley and Giles long-term, both of whom project as "do it all" kind of guys, especially on the offensive end. Getting a dominant rim protector and rebounder to take the pressure off as they develop can't be a bad thing for a couple seasons. And you have to imagine that Capela at age 26 wouldn't be too hard of an asset to trade if Giles and Bagley are cooking by then. Even if not, is having 3 mega-athletic, long, gifted bigs who project as great rebounders truly a bad thing?
I was on the "Fade Capela" train for awhile because I want Giles to be a thing from the get-go, but thinking about it more, there's just too many benefits and too much opportunity cost to pass up here if we get something to materialize.
-Capela makes us significantly better on defense and rebounding, two of our team's bigger weaknesses. And even with the expected offensive efficiency drop, I still expect Capela to put up great efficiency numbers. He just isn't going to all of a sudden forget who he is as a player.
-We get something for WCS and aren't put in that awkward spot of having to decide if he's worth $10+mil
-We won't get close to adding a player of Capela's caliber in FA for a long, long, long, long time if ever. $60 mil won't do us any good next off-season
-Bagley/Capela/Giles is a freaking awesome big man rotation with insane amounts of upside. We'd have a chance to be truly unique in the NBA and force teams to match up to us and punish small-ball teams.The athleticism, length, rebounding, defensive potential, offensive upside for all three guys is super enticing to put together and something that no team would be able to deal with in a couple seasons.
-As I've been saying all off-season, a big deal this year doesn't affect the long-term future. Paying Capela doesn't cost us Buddy/Bogdan/Giles/Fox/Bagley.
-If Giles and Bagley ARE cooking 2 years down the line, I think a 26 year old Capela will certainly be a desirable asset on the trade market, unlike George Hill.
