Bruno Caboclo sidelined for eight days after breaking quarantine

The Houston Rockets will be without big man Bruno Caboclo for about a week after he inadvertently broke quarantine at the NBA bubble.

Houston Rockets big man Bruno Caboclo inadvertently broke quarantine at the NBA’s “bubble” complex in Florida, according to a Monday report from ESPN. As a result, Caboclo must self-quarantine in his hotel room for another eight days before resuming team activities.

The mandatory quarantine period for anyone who breaks the rules is part of the league’s extensive safety protocols, all aimed at reducing exposure to COVID-19 and any potential spread within the complex.

Per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, Caboclo left his room during the initial self-quarantine period after the Rockets arrived at the Grand Floridian last Thursday night. All NBA personnel were required to stay in their rooms until testing negative for COVID-19 on the two days after their arrival, with the policy attempting to ensure that everyone who enters the bubble is free of the virus before they can interact with others.

Caboclo had played only sparingly after being acquired by Houston at the February trade deadline. In all, prior to the hiatus of the 2019-20 season in March, he played just 28 minutes across five games for the Rockets, typically in mop-up duty once a game had already been decided.

But Caboclo was one of the first Rockets back in the team’s facility once Toyota Center reopened to players in May for individual workouts, and he said he viewed this rare “training camp” late in the regular season as an opportunity to earn minutes. Monday night’s practice will be the third for the Rockets since their arrival in Florida late last week.

At 6-foot-9 and with a 7-foot-7 wingspan, Caboclo is taller and longer than every current rotation player for the smaller Rockets. Even so, he’s not the type of traditional big man that head coach Mike D’Antoni and GM Daryl Morey have chosen to move away from in Houston’s innovative system. He shot 36.9% on 3-pointers a season ago, and at 218 pounds, he’s agile enough to defend on the perimeter on switches.

Keep in mind, Caboclo was drafted as an 18-year-old wing player in the first round of the 2014 NBA Draft before transitioning to a frontcourt role in the coming years amid the NBA’s growing emphasis on versatility. That’s part of why Houston traded for him on deadline day, after moving Clint Capela for Robert Covington and committing to “small ball.”

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In 34 games with Memphis late last season, which served as Caboclo’s first extended NBA opportunity, he averaged 8.3 points and 4.6 rebounds in 23.5 minutes per game ⁠— largely as an athletic center.

Caboclo didn’t stand out in his limited playing time with the Rockets in February and March, but there were some extenuating circumstances. First, the 24-year-old was behind the curve when it came to learning his new team and its system on the fly. Second, Caboclo was coming off a knee injury that had kept him off the court for weeks.

Now healthy, that’s why Caboclo was looking forward to a rare in-season training camp in Florida as an opportunity to make his case to D’Antoni and the Rockets. Unfortunately, that now appears less likely, since he’ll miss more than a week’s worth of practices due to breaking quarantine.

When Caboclo is eligible to return next week, the Rockets will be only days away from their first scrimmage on Friday, July 24 and barely more than a week away from the 2019-20 season resuming on July 31. With games that close, Houston’s rotation could already be coming into focus.

While Caboclo will still be useful depth and bench insurance, no matter what, the unfortunate circumstances may have already taken away his best opportunity to earn playing time with this season’s Rockets. Caboclo will be a free agent once the season concludes.

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