Rockets' Management Pushed For Clint Capela To Play Over Dwight Howard

[RealGM Wiretap]

The front office of the Houston Rockets pushed for Clint Capela to receive more playing time last season over Dwight Howard.

The push added to the disharmony that played a big role in the Rockets' disappointing season.

J.B. Bickerstaff resisted complying with the wishes of general manager Daryl Morey and owner Leslie Alexander regarding a drastic reduction in Howard's playing time. 

Input from James Harden influenced Houston's desire to decrease the minutes of Howard but team sources insist Harden was never part of those discussions.

"There were times I was disinterested because of situations that happened behind the scenes that really hurt me," Howard said in a May interview with ESPN's Jackie MacMullan. "It left me thinking, 'This is not what I signed up for.'"

Asked to elaborate, Howard added: "I felt like my role was being reduced. I went to Daryl and said, 'I want to be more involved.' Daryl said, 'No, we don't want you to be.' My response was, 'Why not? Why am I here?' It was shocking to me that it came from him instead of our coach."

Howard learned of management's attempts to cut his minutes in midseason and shared a mutual interest with the Rockets front office to move him before the trade deadline. 

The Rockets anticipated that Howard would likely leave in free agency, making Capela's development critical to the franchise's future, and management felt that Capela's performance merited more minutes.

Via Tim MacMahon/ESPN

[Pedro]

This is very typical of Howard to blame others for his lack of involvement in games and not his complete lack of assertiveness the on-court to command such interest from teammates & coaches. Its amazing to me that after 12 seasons and numerous teams with the same issues that he has yet to even come close to realizing that he cant just stand on the floor and expect teammates to pass to him with little effort to establish solid open position. The owners and management were right. Dwights just a pansy.

[hyberx]

What part of Dwight did wrong here?

It's so clear that the Houston Rockets, both management and Harden, wanted him to be out, so they reduced his minute and forced him out. The coach didn't want to play him less, meaning he was still better than the backup in Capela. It's a screw job by management and Harden. That's not new by them, they did it to JLin too. They wanted all of these players in the first place, promising big roles, then once they don't mesh well with Harden, they push them out.

Yeah, it's everybody else's fault, not because Harden plays no defense and jack up every shot, right?

[TdotRap4Lyfe]

This is very typical of Howard to blame others for his lack of involvement in games and not his complete lack of assertiveness the on-court to command such interest from teammates & coaches. Its amazing to me that after 12 seasons and numerous teams with the same issues that he has yet to even come close to realizing that he cant just stand on the floor and expect teammates to pass to him with little effort to establish solid open position. The owners and management were right. Dwights just a pansy.

You can't possibly blame Howard for this. It's clear management was pushing him out of the picture to run a more Harden dominant system. It's clear he still has game, he seemed motivated this preseason with Atlanta. The Rockets just want a big man to rebound and defend.

[blitz41]

Its kinda a self fulfilling prophecy on both the rockets and howards part.

[likashing]

The Rockets are sucking up Harden like the Cavs on James.

Except that this is Harden we are talking about...

Not surprised by their downfall.

[MaxRider]

This is very typical of Howard to blame others for his lack of involvement in games and not his complete lack of assertiveness the on-court to command such interest from teammates & coaches. Its amazing to me that after 12 seasons and numerous teams with the same issues that he has yet to even come close to realizing that he cant just stand on the floor and expect teammates to pass to him with little effort to establish solid open position. The owners and management were right. Dwights just a pansy.

exactly
he's not a bad person
but he needs to realize the world doesn't revolve around him

[Bruteque]

No surprise there. All Howard wanted to do was post up all day and the Rockets wanted no part of his post-up attempts.

[24istheLAW]

This is very typical of Howard to blame others for his lack of involvement in games and not his complete lack of assertiveness the on-court to command such interest from teammates & coaches. Its amazing to me that after 12 seasons and numerous teams with the same issues that he has yet to even come close to realizing that he cant just stand on the floor and expect teammates to pass to him with little effort to establish solid open position. The owners and management were right. Dwights just a pansy.

You can't possibly blame Howard for this. It's clear management was pushing him out of the picture to run a more Harden dominant system. It's clear he still has game, he seemed motivated this preseason with Atlanta. The Rockets just want a big man to rebound and defend.

How can you blame the Rockets for not wanting to run their offense through a bad post player?

Per synergy he was a below-average scorer as a post player last year, 0.82 PPP. 1.10 PPP as roll man. Yet of all players at ALL POSITIONS who play more than 10 min/game, the only big men who were used in roll man possessions less frequently were Teletovic and Mirotic. It's hard to comprehend how wrong that picture is. For a player to sabotage his own team's performance because he "likes" playing a certain way.... it's indefensible.

Maybe the Hawks can get to him, in a way that no one at any of his last 3 destinations has been able to. But it would be surprising.

[Pedro]

This is very typical of Howard to blame others for his lack of involvement in games and not his complete lack of assertiveness the on-court to command such interest from teammates & coaches. Its amazing to me that after 12 seasons and numerous teams with the same issues that he has yet to even come close to realizing that he cant just stand on the floor and expect teammates to pass to him with little effort to establish solid open position. The owners and management were right. Dwights just a pansy.

You can't possibly blame Howard for this. It's clear management was pushing him out of the picture to run a more Harden dominant system. It's clear he still has game, he seemed motivated this preseason with Atlanta. The Rockets just want a big man to rebound and defend.

Im not saying Rockets management and coaching didnt have their faults. I commented on Howard. If he ever played with intensity to command offensive positioning on offense then there would not be this delusion by Howard that he doesnt get the ball enough due to any source other than himself. Instead of acknowledging his faults then he wouldnt be having the same exact complaints with yet another team.

[BallerTalk]

What part of Dwight did wrong here?

It's so clear that the Houston Rockets, both management and Harden, wanted him to be out, so they reduced his minute and forced him out. The coach didn't want to play him less, meaning he was still better than the backup in Capela. It's a screw job by management and Harden. That's not new by them, they did it to JLin too. They wanted all of these players in the first place, promising big roles, then once they don't mesh well with Harden, they push them out.

Yeah, it's everybody else's fault, not because Harden plays no defense and jack up every shot, right?

Yeah why would a team ever be interesting in developing a younger, hungrier player like Capela, who has a potential future with the team, over an older disgruntled player who is giving half effort like Howard?

And we all know Houston and Harden are the reasons JLin is on his 6th team in 7 seasons. They were clearly foolish for choosing to build around one of the best players in the league instead of holding on to a journeyman backup.