NBA: Top 10 candidates for 2018-19 Defensive Player of the Year award

9. Clint Capela, Houston Rockets

Over the summer, the Houston Rockets essentially wound up trading Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute for Carmelo Anthony, James Ennis III and Michael Carter-Williams. Newcomers Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss are notorious defensive sieves too, so what does that mean for Houston’s sixth-ranked defense?

More than likely, quite a bit of regression. The Rockets are going to be decidedly worse on that end, but the one player who could help stave off rapid decline is Clint Capela, the team’s defensive anchor, the league’s second-leading shot-blocker (1.9 per game) and the NBA’s eighth-leading rebounder (10.8 per game). So why is he only No. 9 on the list?

The problem is, as much as Capela deserved much more than the extension he got this summer, that’s a lot of pressure to put on a fourth-year big man, since he, Chris Paul and P.J. Tucker are really the only good defenders left. Houston’s defense was actually marginally better with Capela off the floor last year, and though he can hold his own on the perimeter, when push came to shove in the postseason, small-ball lineups played him off the floor.