2024-25 Atlanta Hawks Roster Preview: Clint Capela

This seems to be the center's last season in ATL - is he going to be a starter or backup?

Apr 17, 2024; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Atlanta Hawks center Clint Capela (15) dunks the ball on Chicago Bulls center Nikola Vucevic (9) during the second half during a play-in game of the 2024 NBA playoffs at United Center. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images / David Banks-Imagn Images

Age: 30 (10th season)

Height, Weight: 6'10, 240 lbs

2023-24 Averages:  11.5 points, 10.6 rebounds, 1.2 assists on 57.1%/0%/63.1% splits (73 games)

Career Averages: 12.3 points, 10.7 rebounds, 1.0 assists on 62.1%/0/54.5% splits

Realistically, this is Clint Capela's last season in Atlanta. The only question is how it ends.

There are two main reasons for this. First, the Hawks already drafted his replacement back in the 2020 NBA Draft. Onyeka Okongwu has not necessarily lived up to being the sixth overall pick, but he is still a good player with legitimate upside. He's been relegated to a backup role due to a combination of injuries and not taking the role away from Capela. However, the Hawks gave him a $64 million dollar extension largely based on projecting him to be an above-average starting center. They are not going to be able to find out whether that contract is worth it with Capela as a starter.

Secondly, Capela himself is not quite the same player he was at his peak. For as good as Trae Young was during the Hawks' ECF run, their success does not happen without Capela. In 2020-21, he was the best rebounder in the NBA in 2020-21, one of the best rim protectors in basketball and an elite roll man working off of Young. The Hawks were 10.5 points better with him on the court than off. Things are not quite the same in 2024-25.

To be clear, Capela is still a helpful player. He's a solid rim protector and a force on the boards. His offensive rebound percentage of 18.7% in 2023-24 was a career-high and he held opponents to shooting 59% at the rim, which is lower than league average. However, that is not enough to ignore his struggles on offense. He is not much of a threat outside of being a roll man and his mobility has clearly decreased. After two straight years of shooting above 60% from the field, he shot 57% from the field on more attempts.

It's fair to wonder whether the Hawks would be better served by inserting someone with more mobility. Now, it should be noted that he was dealing with several injuries throughout the season and ofte played hurt., However, it can't be ignored that he forces the Hawks to play a certain style of offense. They cannot play Okongwu and Capela together because both are going to be ignored by the defense as three-point shooters. Therefore, it is really a question of which one is more suited towards the scheme.

There is also the persistent question of his trade value. Capela would be extremely helpful as a backup center. A team like the Knicks, who is currently a Mitchell Robinson injury from being in serious trouble at center, could certainly use a player like Capela. Unfortunately, his salary for 2024-25 is $22.2 million dollars (second-highest on the Hawks). That's simply too much of a commitment for most teams to make towards a backup center with his skillset.

Trading Capela also removes a theoretically helpful part of the offense from Atlanta. Granted, possessions with Capela as the roll man was not a highly-successful part of the offense last year. Below is a description of possessions with Capela as the roll man in the pick-and-roll across his four seasons in Atlanta.

Season	Possessions	Frequency %	Points Per Possession	Percentile
2020-21	3.3	24.2	1.2	70.6
2021-22	2.6	26.3	1.37	86.8
2022-23	2.5	28.6	1.38	90.9
2023-24	2.1	19.4	1.16	55.0

As the table shows, he was a far less effective roll man last year than he has been at any other part of his career in Atlanta. Part of that could be related to both his injuries and Trae's injuries, but it's worth considering that the offense did not necessarily find success in this way. He can still operate as a back-to-the-basket center, but spamming post-ups seems like a ineffective way for Atlanta to play given the talent of Young and Jalen Johnson.

All of this is a long way of saying that the Hawks should seriously consider making Capela a backup in 2024-25. They need to take a serious look at what they have in Okongwu and Capela's deal is expiring at the end of the year. Whether on offense or defense, his value to the team has not been as high as it has been in previous years. Keeping him as a backup also preserves his health for a move at the trade deadline to a contender/playoff team dealing with injuries to their center position.

Best-Case Scenario: Whether as a starter or backup, Capela is a good defensive anchor and continues being a force on the boards. His defensive rebounding is a bit better and he's healthy enough to move around in Quin Snyder's scheme. His finishing at the rim improves.

Worst-Case Scenario: He begans to slip as an offensive rebounder while his defensive rebounding takes an even more drastic spiral. The finishing numbers do not improve and he is relegated to a backup role, further depressing his trade value.