The Houston Rockets are embarking on another audacious strategic shift, surprising many with the return of center Clint Capela for the 2025-26 NBA season, signaling a dramatic pivot from their infamous “micro-ball” era to an unprecedented “macro-ball” approach designed to dominate with sheer size.
Capela, who was famously traded in 2019-20 to facilitate the Rockets’ ultra-small lineup, now finds himself rejoining a team already featuring a strong big-man rotation, raising questions about the front office’s vision and the specific role he will fulfill alongside existing talent.
This decision appears to be a continuation of head coach Ime Udoka’s experimental approach, particularly his willingness to deploy “double-big” lineups, a strategy notably utilized in a playoff series against the Golden State Warriors, even challenging the unique offensive threat of Stephen Curry.
The addition of a third starting-caliber center grants Udoka unparalleled flexibility to implement his “double-big” schemes, offering diverse strategic options for pairings with Alperen Sengun, and with Capela’s renowned lob threat, providing a dynamic offensive dimension that complements Sengun’s playmaking.
Capela’s previous tenure in Houston saw him emerge as one of the league’s premier centers, a consistent double-double threat and a crucial component of the Rockets’ late 2010s title-contending window, whose unique lob-catching ability made him nearly irreplaceable in that specific role.
His initial departure marked a significant inflection point in the NBA’s spacing revolution, where Houston pushed the boundaries of small-ball to an extreme, a contentious experiment that ultimately proved unsustainable against the dominant size of the Los Angeles Lakers in the playoffs.
While Capela is not at his previous athletic peak and shares availability concerns with Steven Adams, potentially leading to shared back-to-back duties reminiscent of Nene and Tarik Black, his presence reinforces the team’s commitment to physical dominance.
For the 2025-26 season, the Houston Rockets are poised to become the most physically imposing team in the NBA, a collection of formidable athletes engineered to relentlessly pursue offensive rebounds, impose their will in the paint against drivers, and overpower opponents in transition.
The initial “micro-ball” experiment of trading Capela away concluded disastrously, but with his return, the 2025-26 season will reveal whether this new “macro-ball” philosophy delivers the monumental returns the Rockets front office is clearly anticipating.
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