Rockets' Clint Capela Claps Back at Lakers' Deandre Ayton After Strange Call Out

On Thursday, ESPN's Dave McMenamin released a story regarding Deandre Ayton's first season with the Los Angeles Lakers, which has been a bit of a disappointment. At least based on the expectations of Ayton when he was signed.

He's struggled to be a consistent player for the franchise. In part, because he's struggled to carve out a steady role.

This week, he posted his first 20 point-10 rebound game in all of February. Which was also his first such game since January 30th.

Ayton has become rather vocal about his role with the Lakers. To him, the franchise has attempted to turn him into Houston Rockets reserve big man Clint Capela, which he stated that he is not.

He is right about that, but not in the way that he meant, which was an intended slight and/or insult to Capela. After the Rockets beat the Orlando Magic on Thursday night, Capela took to Instagram to respond or "clap back" in more modern terms.

Capela's post contained the below message.

"U got 2 of the best floor general in the game my dawg Lockinnn".

Capela's post concluded two crying from laughter emojis.

Again, Ayton isn't the player that Capela is. He couldn't fit the role that Capela plays.

He's not a rim runner or a defensive stalwart. Just Thursday night, Capela had four blocks in Houston's victory over the Orlando Magic.

In a back-to-back game, in which Capela had played both nights. And it only took him 16 minutes to pull it off.

Ayton, to be fair, does have a four blocks performance this season, but it took him 27 minutes to pull it off.

And it was against the tanking New Orleans Pelicans. That's a little different.

The reality here is that Ayton appears to think a bit higher of himself than he should. He's not quite a high impact player.

Certainly not consistently throughout his career. Capela has proven his value in each of his stops throughout the league.

The Atlanta Hawks made him untouchable at one point, after giving him a new deal. The Rockets jumped at the first opportunity to bring him back, after trading him away during the microball era under then head coach Mike D'Antoni and Rockets front office executive Daryl Morey.

Ayton could've used many other examples to drive his point home. And after his performance in the Lakers' loss to his former Phoenix Suns (two points and four rebounds in 22 minutes), we probably shouldn't hear from him any further.