People need to stop comparing Asik to Gortat in terms of offensive potential. Gortat was a know commodity in European/International circles when he was the backup center for the Magic. He was a beast playing for the Polish team. He pretty much single-handily carried their team. He showed flashes of offensive potential anytime he got more than backup minutes on the Magic. Asik has done none of that. He may get better offensively. He may even turn out to be a double guy, but I seriously doubt he'll ever get anywhere near 15+PPG like Gortat did. Now, that said -- while Gortat is no slouch on defense -- Asik is one of the premier defensive bigs out there. He's a tremendous at defending the pick&roll and protecting the rim. Guys like him are really hard to find/get and I have no doubt that Asik would be a valuable addition to this team.
Sorry about that... Is Bynum really a bad plan B? Goodness, this guy does so much with so many other pieces around him. Imagine what he would do if he was really the "man" on his team.
I'm understanding what he said differently. He said LA is the front runner for Dwight, which I took as that is Dwight's preferred destination over Houston, not the front runner in a deal with Orlando.
This is the only problem I have with Asik, he seems to have developed the Yao no-handitis syndrome. If he can somehow get some offensive game would be absolutely shocking but at the same time more than welcome here. Very doubtful though.
I'd love him, but I'm just worried about his knees. Not to say that I'm not worried about Dwight's back, it's just Bynum's knees that concern me more. In the scenario where we get Bynum would we have to take back as many bad contracts? I would prefer not to "gift wrap" Dwight to LA.
3 team trade LA gets Howard but sends Bynum to Rockets and Gasol to Orlando. Houston gets Bynum, Hedo and sends Martin, Patterson, White, Toronto pick, Hou 1st rounder, NY 2nd rounder. Houston lineup Jeremy Lin/ Livingston/ Machado(dleague)/Douglas Lamb/CLee Parsons/Morris/Forbes DMo/Jones/Harrelson Dwight/Asik I see a nice team that make some noise but not contend for the Championship. Would be pretty fun to watch.
Who said that? Please don't create a side issue that the OP never implied. It does bad things to otherwise good threads when posters do that.
Lin/Douglas Lee/Lamb Parsons/White Motiejunas/TJones D12(or Bynum)/Asik Playoff team that can make noise.
How does Dwight end up in Los Angeles if Orlando wants Houston's assets over the Lakers' and Houston wants Dwight over Bynum? Are the Magic accommodating Dwight's preference of Los Angeles over Houston?
He went to Germany and did the Kobe procedure on BOTH knees. Last year he didn't miss any games because of injury. This was in a compressed TOUGH schedule. He is coming back from an Alaskan fishing trip today and headed to ATL to start training. Dwight isn't even running yet.
Is that what you want? Just a nice middle of the road team, where the ceiling at best would be a 2nd round playoff team. That's not what Morey is paid to do.
No, not a poor plan B but A. His knee issues are scary for a 24 year old. B. I would much prefer Howard C. Who knows how he'll perform as the focal point.
