Houston Rockets: Will Capela Reach his Contract Incentives this Season?

Free Throw Percentage of 65% or Better

This is an area in which I think Capela is sure to fall short, at least based on his past. Capela has never shot higher than 63.6% from the line, and that was just this past season. The easy thing to point out is the fact that Capela has had increases in his free throw percentage in each season he’s played in the league, during the regular season at least. Based on that upward trend, it would seem like a sure thing for him to reach the 65% next season right? I’m not exactly sure about that, because in the post-season Capela came back down to 42.9% from the line, which is not surprising considering his history.

I think the Rockets will actually be immensely better if Capela does shoot 65% or greater from the line, but this feels like a classic Tilman Fertitta move, as he likely wouldn’t have included this in the deal if he thought Capela would easily accomplish it. If he does, however, he could make upto $2.5 million over the life of the extension, but if we base the likelihood of him accomplishing this on this past season, he’s in line to miss it this coming season.

There’s also the law of averages regarding his free throw attempts, in that in each of the last 2 seasons his free throw attempts have gone up in addition to his free throw percentage. Will he continue to have more attempts from the line? I’m not so sure of that, as he averaged 4 attempts per game last season, which is a number the Rockets surely do not want to see go up, considering his struggles at the free throw line.

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