Clint Capela is the Rockets’ starting center

The center battle in the preseason is ova... With opening day right around the corner, head coach Mike D'Antoni Tuesday announced that Clint Capela will get the starting nod against the Los Angeles Lakers.

"24-24," D'Antoni said of how many minutes he wants to give to Capela and Nene. "Then we’ll see in certain situations, Nene's got experience, Clint's got the youthful stuff going, will try to use them to the best of their abilities but both of them will be low 20's, mid 20's."

Depending on how they play, we could see Nene get the starting nod eventually. During the preseason, Capela did get outplayed by the 15-year veteran.

The offense at times in the preseason has struggled with Capela in the starting lineup, but D'Antoni has mentioned that the Swiss Roll was dealing with an "Achilles issue," and he’s looked good over the last couple of games.

Of course, this disputes Ethan’s prediction in The Dream Shake Podcast season preview, but a 50/50 playing time split is roughly what we expected.