Harden, Howard, McHale for whatever. A pick maybe? Once they're all gone, the Rockets problems will be solved and Houston will be better off. Git'r done Morey! Houston doesn't need these fake stars and fake head coach. Back to scrappy Rocketball who play team ball and try on defense and fight like hell. Hope Morey is on the phone.
A different type of Asik Trade I know this can go in the random trade thread. But thought I might spark some thinking by posting this here. This forum has talked about trading Asik for Love/Aldridge (both unlikely) and Millsap/Anderson/Ilyasova (possibly on the table), and two first round draft picks (is Asik worth that much and which GM will blink)? I want to propose a trade partner. Atlanta Hawks. But not for Paul Millsap. How about Rockets trade Omer Asik (and fillers if necessary) for - Elton Brand ($4m expiring contract) - Lucas Nogueira (1st round pick 16 in 2013 draft - currently stashed overseas) - Atlanta's 2015 1st round draft pick (Atlanta has rights to swap 1st round picks with Brooklyn) - Fillers if necessary Why it makes sense for Atlanta - Need a Center next to Horford, probably don't want to give up a great contract and very good player in Millsap - Can play a frontline rotation of Asik, Horford and Millsap (of the bench), thus can ship out Elton Brand's contract plus back-up C role - Not over the cap this year and much below next year, can absorb Asik's salary - Currently 3rd in Eastern Conference, can probably cement this position with Asik this year - Still have upside in 2014-15 season with a 2014 1st round draft pick (right to swap picks with Brooklyn, could be in range of 5-10) - Teague, Korver, Millsap, Horford, Asik, 2014 1st round pick, they've got a pretty good rotation for the next few years Why it makes sense for Houston - Unless we can get the target PFs (Love, Aldridge, Millsap, Anderson, Iiyavoa), and assuming no team will give us two first round picks (let alone one in the 2014 draft), this is a decent haul - Elton Brand gives us a dependable, smart defending, good rebounding back-up C on an expiring contract, so we don't need to go Marcus Camby route - Lucas Nogueira has a lot of promise, at 7 foot with 7'6 wingspan, and growing into his body. Only 21. He could eventually be Howard's back-up C and long-term may even replace Dwight. - Atlanta may be more willing to give us the 2015 1st round pick given the less talent, plus that their rotation would be set with Asik and the 2014 likely lottery pick. - Nogueria plus 2015 1st round Brooklyn draft pick is essentially two 1st round draft picks that doesn't count towards the salary cap (no cap holds), hence the Rockets can get under the salary cap by letting Brand go next season, and go after free agents before re-signing Parsons in restricted free agency. - The Rockets would have a great stable of overseas player stashes in Sergio Llull, Lucas Nogueira, Kostas Papanikolaou and Marko Todorovic, of which Llull could be Lin insurance and Papanikolaou could be Parsons insurance down the line. We would probably take a little step back this year, but we'll have free agency room next year, and a lot of versatility for trades with - two 1st round picks to trade in the next two years (can't trade successive year, so 2 of 3 1st round picks) - 2nd round draft pick from the Knicks in 2014 and 2015, and a second round pick from Minnesota or Denver (lower of two) in 2015 and a possible second round pick from the Clippers in 2015 if falling withing 51 to 55 (possible) - 4 overseas players stashed which all have upside What do you think?
I think picks are much more valuable to Morey than players so unless he's getting impact guy or one of those cheap, diamond in the rough guys like Lowry or Scola were at one time I don't think something like this happens.
How About This : As is pretty obvious now for some time, the Rockets have a defensive problem where Lin, Harden and Parsons are all average/below average defenders. We have put Beverley in place of Lin and so far it has not been working. Beverley's percentages have fallen down and we still have scrubs with career nights against us. What would you guys say about trading Lin to the Knicks for Iman Shumpert ? We can go ahead and roll with this lineup : PG: Shumpert SG: Harden SF: Parsons PF: Jones C : Howard This lineup now has two elite defenders (Howard and Shumpert), plus another excellent shot blocker in Jones. This will be an elite defensive team for sure. Shumpert has a big height advantage over Beverley and can help Harden guard his shooting guard assignment for the day. We will not lose anything offensively as all Beverley does in our offense is bring the ball up to Harden. Knicks can have Lin to either start or back up Felton. Both teams come out stronger. Beverley goes back to being a spark off the bench and imagine this, you can rest Harden for : Beverley Shumpert Parsons Jones Howard which is a complete lockdown lineup, with Brooks getting some minutes if offense is needed. Give me an honest critique of why you think this would be bad ?
He's a better off-ball player this year. It could work. I would not do the trade as I think it makes the Rox worse.
lol shumpert is not an elite defender... no better than beverley with much worse 3pt shooting.... also not a good playmaker
Nevermind the impossibility of making the cap numbers work(Rockets would need extra salaries back) or that Lin going back to NY to play with Melo makes no sense. Ignore all that for a moment. If you think Shumpert as a talent is worth Jeremy Lin, you are either a Knicks fan or a LOF who wants Lin to start rather than for him to win. Seriously. Shumpert? dafuq!?
Absolutely not. That's just a band aid fix for the real problem. If anything, it delays the long term solution for our defensive woes. "Learning to play team defense." The knee jerk reaction to bad defense is "get better defensive players". When in reality, defense is more of a team game than offense is. We have no coherence in team defense. Our guys are committing rookie mistakes like ball watching, not calling out picks, over playing help defense and having no clue how to defend a PnR. All of this can be solved with coaching and repetitive drills. Our players are just fine athletically to play defense. Harden has a motivation issue, but that's something else. What we need is competent coaching. I wanted to kick Sampson in the shin when he said "Our defense isn't a coaching problem." McHale is trying you strategy by jamming in "elite defensive" players to mask up the coaching failure and look how that is working out. Beverly can't just "muscle through the pick" all night and every night.
Trade Lin because, start Bev or Shump bc Harden can't play D. Makes a lot of sense. Y don't Harden just give max effort on D&O since it's his lazy Azz that's makn max $. Anyone can shoot the **** out of the ball. But Garden needs to step it up in D. So we gave $ to a one way player?
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=nyuyec3 Houston sends Asik to Cleveland Cleveland gives us CJ Miles (expiring) Dion Waiters (young, talented player that doesn't fit) and Sacramento's 2014 pick. We then flip Waiters to a middling team for some bench pieces and maybe a pick. Collecting future picks will allow us to maintain flexibility and make solid offers for the next big player to be on the market.
