NBA: 10 candidates for breakout seasons in 2017-18

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9. Clint Capela

Clint Capela would be higher on this list if not for the Houston Rockets‘ 3-point onslaught, but even with James Harden, Chris Paul, Eric Gordon and Ryan Anderson set to take the majority of the shots, there’s no question this fourth-year center is something special.

Last year, Capela put up career-bests across the board with 12.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game on 64.3 percent shooting. He also served as the defensive anchor for a Rockets team that would’ve been league-average if it had been stingier by 0.1 points per 100 possessions.

He was mostly a rim-runner and put-back guy on the offensive end, but he’s shown flashes of being an adept passer on the roll, and running screens with both CP3 and the Beard will open him up for more easy looks at the basket than ever before.

He’ll never be the focus of this high-powered offense, but if he can ground a top-10 defense and bump up his numbers a bit, we might be talking about this 23-year-old as the third member of a Rockets Big Three around this time next year.