[Source] Rockets expect to keep Omer Asik for the rest of the season

We have no way of knowing what kind of offers Morey got last Summer, probably much worse than the current offers, which pretty much suck. It made sense that Asik's value would go up closer to the deadline, and it made sense for Morey to be patient on trading him.

As for Lin, he's hamstrung because of Harden, but he's not overpaid as long as he's starting.

 

I believe Morey is much smarter than you are ...

 

Any half-way smart GM would have thought the way Morey did and your point only re-enforces it.

What the people here who are down on Morey because he didn't trade Asik this Summer need to realize is that -

-A. The Market IS better now than in the Summer for a starting center
(Everyone is a contender in the Summer, Injuries happen, teams young bigs aren't as good as they were hoping, etc)
-B. If the offers for Asik were as bad as reported last month than JUST IMAGINE HOW BAD THE OFFERS WERE THIS SUMMER for Asik.

The longer Morey waits the more suitors there are for Asik up until the trade deadline theoretically.

What Morey couldn't have predicted (and its not his fault for not predicting) was how horribly bad Asik would start sulking, and how he could all the sudden wind up with a bad knee injury that could have GM's worried about his long term health.

The best thing for everyone right now is to get Asik back on the court ASAP. If he can get two solid weeks under his belt and no more emotional breakdowns Morey will be able to move him at the deadline for something of value.

 

1) You know what offers Morey was getting in the summer? Wow, please pray tell. But guess what -- Morey's patience is what makes him a GOOD GM. If I wanted a GM that just sold low every time instead of finding that optimal deal, which Morey often does, I'd go get Billy King or a bunch of other terrible GMs in the league. I am not saying Morey is perfect, but he knows how to get himself into good situations; even if it ends up poorly, he's able to very quickly rectify the issue...unlike say what the Knicks or Nets are currently looking at.

2) Lin's signing made a lot of sense when we did not have Harden. Keep in mind, this team was probably tanking and Lin would allow us to tank while putting butts in the seats. I wouldn't be surprised if Les pushed for that move too...it was a smart business decision, sort of like resigning Kobe to $48M/2 yrs. Terrible basketball decision; decent business one.

And even setting that aside, Lin's production so far this season has pretty much made him worth the $8M cap hit he's been commanding from us. The injury was a snag in that otherwise stellar start, but even after that, he's steadily improved in all categories and is playing a pretty good season, esp. considering how the team is structured. I am unclear why that was a BAD signing. Not starting does not mean you are not as good of a player as whoever took the spot. It depends on team comp and goals. Look at Harden on OKC, Manu on Spurs, last yr Jamal on LAC, Odom when he was still good, etc. etc.

 

no money to sign parson better trade somebody.

 

lol, let wait and see

 

Actually, we have his bird rights and can re-sign him over the cap. His cap hold is also tiny so he wouldn't really be much of an issue if we planned to sign someone else (say if we waited till Asik and Lin were off the books to re-sign Parsons as an unrestricted).

 

parson would be a fool to accept and resign with the Rockets . He should test the market , I bet a fewteams would sign him to a backload poision pills.

 

his contract is not subject to the poison pill rule. we have the ability to match all offers should we make him an RFA

 

How did you get past my last ignore roundup?

 

Parsons is not Lin.

McHale......loves Parson. Wants to adopt him.

McHale......rues the day Morey foisted Lin on him (and I'm saying, McHale's a bit of a favorites-playing dolt).

McHale: "Hunh? Lin? Jeremy Lin? Didn't we cut him?"

Morey: "Do you even watch ESPN?"

Parson is one player the two M's can agree on and isn't going anywhere.

Amen, bro.

 

Expect Linn & Asik to be traded during the offseason or next season because thier contracts jump from 5 million to 15 million & the plan the whole time was to trade thier expirin contracts for players with higher salaries who teams are trying to pick up expiring contracts for free agency.

 

Not how it works, their salaries jump but their cap number remains 8.3, unless you are saying they are a package deal.

DD

 

Ummm.... No. Not the way it works bubba. If they were going to be traded it will happen before this Feb deadline. If they aren't traded, we should just assume they will be Rockets throughout the remainder of their contracts. Very unlikely they get traded after then as their cost vs. actual value get skewed less in the favor of the team as time goes on with a back-loaded contract.

 

Ya'll can't have it both ways with Morey. If he pulls off a big move it's due to his incredible forsight along with "he's the best GM in the NBA". But when he's not able to get a deal done, especially one involving a disgruntled center who no longer wants to play for us, it's "Morey's patience makes him great" or "he doesn't like the offers". The reality is Asik requested a trade and should've been traded, period. Morey set his own personal deadline and failed to get a deal done. No we're stuck with a player who's getting paid to sit on the bench. Mistake

Huh? I thought Morey didnt believe in tanking? Isn't that his moniker? Plus giving Lin all that money just made us look bad. We basically bamboozled NY just to overpay a Lin. I never liked the signing. Morey's the GM, let's not place blame elsewhere.

So before Harden we we're committed to building around Lin, and now he's been demoted to 6th man (when PB gets back)? He's had a decent season scoring but he's still a turnover monster and cant be trusted down the stretch of games. I won't call it a complete failure but the conclusion should be we should've kept Dragic.

 

Lol! Sorry this cracked me up though

 

People who both defend & rationalize the moves Morey made, and the ones who say they were bad moves in the end and question them are both right to some extent.

Here are a few different situations to look at from BOTH angles-

-The Lin signing did make sense at the time. The team was gutted again, the window for being bad was probably 3 to 5 years so ... what the hell... lets at least put some butts in the seats with a player that sells tickets, can get better and better over time, might even get an all-star nod, and can be in and out of a Rockets uniform in 3 years.

Is Lin overpaid now that the team has 2 REAL superstars... not necessarily at face value, but his contract makes him hard to move which might as well equate to being overpaid. Is the Lin signing a mistake.... not at the time, and its only a mistake now if Lin under-performs this year and next which is debatable. Either way the Lin signing is still up in the air. There aren't currently great options available at the PG position at the cost the Rockets can afford, and if Lin keeps improving the signing can still be a win in the end.

-Dragic was a better player than Lin at the time of the signing, is on what looks like a slightly better contract, and is still a better player now more than a year later. I understand at the time why Morey went for the bigger name player, and stayed away from the player option for the additional year Dragic had on his contract, but the fact is Morey did make a mistake in the end by choosing to go after Lin instead of matching Dragic's offer from Phoenix.

The one thing that could change this destiny for Morey would be if Lin takes further steps to improve and if Morey makes magic happen again and pulls in another big name in the Summer of 2015 free agency. If he does this than opting for a shorter term contract with Lin WAS THE RIGHT MOVE. Right now, not so much.

-The Asik situation.... we all have no idea what kind of offers came around this Summer after the Dwight signing, but I will say this, if the offers in December (when the market IN THEORY should be better) were as crappy as they were reported, I can only imagine how terribly crappy the offers were this Summer for Asik after Dwight signed. If the offers are going to be that bad I'd rather just keep a disgruntled Asik.

-Even if Morey was a miracle worker GM, he can't just trade a player with that kind of contract out of thin air. There needs to be a market for that player with true demand, and no supply of bigs. Anyone claiming that Morey should have traded Asik needs to supplement that argument with factual reports that a deal was on the table that Morey walked away from.

If that report looks legit enough than I will tell you straight up that Morey made a mistake in NOT moving Asik when he had the chance. However, I dont see too many of those reports to be able to say that myself.

 

A perfect response dobro. Thanks for the concise summation. Morey has no crystal ball. But IMHO Lin as a backup playing 35 minutes a game and Asik as a backup playing 20 minutes a game is well worth the $16.6 million cap hold. It makes the Rockets so much deeper and stronger as a team. I guess a lot of readers are not aware how abysmal the bench is playing right now. I cannot imagine an Asik trade right now, other than for Milsap, that would actually improve the Rockets this season.

In addition Morey has aligned contracts to be a big player in the free agent market during the summer of 2015. He then could exercise the Bird rights to retain Parsons. That is the real reason that Morey chose Lin over Dragic. With Howard Harden and Parsons there will be many very good NBA players marking Houston as their preferred destination.

 

To add on the Dragic thing. It was reported that not only were the Rockets unwilling to give Dragic the PO, they wanted a TEAM OPTION for 2015-2016 season. I think this part is telling on partly why he later signed both Lin and Asik to 3 year deals. If Dragic took the Rockets offer, he would also essentially be a 3yr deal with Rockets.

Morey likely was targeting 2015 FA as far back as 2011. It made sense that of all the star players available each offseason, 2015 was the best year to have players expire. Especially since the Rockets were so desperate for a star at the time. It also explains why Morey didn't have a problem with Les adding $5mil to Lin's offer sheet. Since it would not actually hurt the Rockets pursuit of a star.

Does Morey make deals that in hindsight turn out bad? Of course. He makes tons of decisions that end up looking bad. But his methodologies have always been sound, even in hindsight.

 

Sort of related (to the folks thinking we should have traded for Ryan Anderson if a deal was actually on the table for the taking)


Marc J. Spears ‏@SpearsNBAYahoo 31m
Pelicans said forward Ryan Anderson has been diagnosed with a herniated disc and is out definitely.

You never know if this injury would have happened with the Rockets or not, but maybe.... (hate to sound like your mother but....) things happen for a reason.