Clint Capela To Miss At Least Two More Weeks

The Hawks' newly-acquired center will miss at least seven more games with a heel injury.

Clint Capela, whom Atlanta acquired from the Houston Rockets at the trade deadline, will miss at least another two weeks with plantar fasciitis in his right heel, the Hawks announced via a press release on Wednesday. 

The Swiss center has begun light on-court work with coaches, including close-range shooting and limited ball-handling drills, and will continue "non-impact conditioning and strength work" as he rehabs from the nagging heel injury. Skal Labissière, who came to Atlanta from Portland at the deadline, is continuing to rehab from a left knee chondral injury and participating in modified shooting workouts. Both he and Capela will be re-evaluated in two weeks. 

Prior to Wednesday's news, head coach Lloyd Pierce estimated that Capela could miss anywhere from seven to 10 of Atlanta's remaining 26 games this season, and said that the center was "weeks away" from returning to live action against live NBA competition. The Hawks have made clear they will not rush Capela or Labissière back from their respective injuries, and given the team's standing in the Eastern Conference, it would make no sense to do so. 

Still, the Hawks will likely want to see how the big man fits into their current system and with their other young players. While the fit should be relatively clean, Atlanta will eventually need some actual evidence. 

"Any sample size we can get would be tremendous. It’s still more than none, if we can get a month of activity with him on the court with those other guys."  

When he does return, Capela should give Atlanta another lob threat on offense and a defensive anchor around the rim on defense. He is among the NBA's best defensive rebounders -- a major weakness of the Hawks' -- and theoretically fits well into Atlanta's pick-and-roll-centric attack. 

"He’s a double-double, he’s a rim-runner, he’s an unbelievable pick-and-roll threat at the rim, which ties right into what we do," Pierce said. "So we don’t have to see it to know it’s there."