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Grading the Atlanta Hawks’ acquisition of Clint Capela

By Dallin Duffy

PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 30: Clint Capela #15 of the Houston Rockets dribbles the ball against the Portland Trail Blazers on March 30, 2017 at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 30: Clint Capela #15 of the Houston Rockets dribbles the ball against the Portland Trail Blazers on March 30, 2017 at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Garrett W. Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Handing out grades to the Atlanta Hawks for their trade pick up of Clint Capela.

Well, its finally official, the Atlanta Hawks have made a trade. After weeks of reports that the team was interested in a center, the Hawks were apart of a 4-team deal that landed Clint Capela in the ATL.

The full trade details are below, which was first reported by Woj:

The Hawks also received Nenê, a 17-year vet yet to play this season with an injury. He’s very likely to be cut in the coming weeks.

Coming out of Atlanta was Evan Turner, who will join fellow former Hawk Allen Crabbe in Minnesota. They also gave up the Brooklyn 1st round pick they owned from the Taurean Prince trade, which is lottery-protected.

Acquiring Capela is something I’ve been very high on since the initial rumors came out, and I think the Hawks hit big here. Capela is just 25 years of age, on year two of a five year, very affordable deal that pays between $14 and $18 million until he hits free agency in 2023. More importantly, he’s pretty darn good.

The former 25th overall pick is currently 4th in the league in rebounds per game with 13.8, and is a high level rim protector as well as glass cleaner. He’s averaged 1.5 blocks per game on his career, 1.8 this season.

The one knock on him has been his lack of outside shooting, which is one of the main reasons the free-firing Rockets were looking to move on from him. Sill, the Hawks have enough floor spacers as it is (including John Collins, who’d he’ll be sharing the frontcourt with), and Capela is making 62% of his 9.9 attempts per game. That’s the league’s 5th best clip.

Capela can help the Hawks win now, and in the future, which is exactly the type of player that the Hawks need in this point of their rebuild. He slides right into the Hawks core of Trae Young, John Collins, Kevin Huerter, Cam Reddish and De’Andre Hunter, and should be set to be the Hawks’ center of the future.

Grade: A

For what it’s worth I also like what two of the other three teams did here. Minnesota got some good young pieces like Malik Beasley, Jauncho Hernangomez, and Jared Vanderbilt as well as the Brooklyn first, which they can keep or flip to Golden State in the long-rumored D’Angelo Russell trade.

Denver strengthened it’s bench with more established vets in Gerald Green, Noah Vonleh and Shabazz Napier.

Next. Were any Hawks snubbed from Rising Stars?. dark

I’m not quite sure what Houston is doing however. While RoCo was one of the best players available on the market, they gave up quite a bit for him, and lost their only quality big man. Jordan Bell was brought in from Minnesota here, but he’s averaged less than ten minutes per game this year, and was pretty bad in the playoffs for the Warriors in last season’s playoffs.

More coverage on this trade and potentially others to come right here.

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