It's unfortunate that these two on the floor aren't dominating the glass like they in the first game. Really surprising actually. It's clear that its not working but I hope we don't completely give up on it only after 7 games.
So, what? It's okay to be over the cap. Those are the salary-matching rules for teams over the cap. The Rockets would still be nowhere near the luxury tax threshold this year.
People look at the Twin Towers set up and don't really look at ways it can work. The biggest issue is we can't just throw it to Dwight in the block and spread out, Asik needs to be active. For example, we don't we have Asik to see a strong pick on the weakside low block, Howard can go over the screen and either get the mismatch and/or get deep position. Also Asik needs to be active on the weakside. Set a little screen for the wing in the corner, and if set properly that wing player becomes the open player. Put Parsons in the corner and he can have the ball thrown up for him to throw down. If I can see examples of this and the TT's still don't work in combination with Jones consistently playing well, then we need to bite the bullet and make a trade. If Jones continues to shine and Dmo shows some improvement I would be happy to settle for Ryan Anderson. Dmo and Greg Smith are the key, one of them has to show they can play behind Howard.
8M a year for a guy of Asik's caliber is a bargain, in comparison the Mavs paid 10M a year for Brendan Haywood or the Knicks who paid 15M for Tyson Chandler, a guy who's pretty much the same player as Asik. A lot of posters have itchy trigger fingers and want a trade for the sake of trading, I mean guys like DD here want to trade Asik for anything, if somebody offered a 2nd round protected pick for Asik they'd probably be all over it lol. Bottomline is Asik gives us great value at the 8M slot, as 12mins of rim protection and Howard insurance he's worth more to the team than some random dude who can hit a 3 pointer...c'mon you think that guy will be better than Parsons/Casspi/Jones/DMo significantly enough to lose DHoward's backup? Unless we get bowled over with an offer we can't refuse Asik should stay on the squad.
Ros - please don't put words in my mouth, I want to trade Asik as I really don't think he has a legitimate role on this team - and we could get something better for this year or the future. I would trade him for a first and an expiring contract though from a bad team. DD
If Asik would play as a Howard backup, I guess the Rockets would be unbeatable. The starters based on H&H and the second unit on Lin & Asik would be deadly and without ego clashes. Lin would play much more minutes as the designated 6th man. In fact I don't think that it would be such a bad deal for either Lin or Asik. They would have 1 to 1.5 season to establish their contract value for their future. If Lin and Asik would play with Casspi and Garcia with the addition of Jones or Brewer, that unit would be truly one of the best, if not the best, in the league. If Jones or Casspi starts, DMo and Smith are there waiting for their chance. I'm sure Lin will buy into that. I truly hope that Asik will as well, because in the long run I believe it will benefit him. If he wants to be traded, I guess Hawes or Varejao would be good alternatives. I don't see a trade with Blazers (LMA), Minny (KLove) or Bucks (Ilyasova), because they are all well established at the center position. Millsap is intriguing, but the Horford-Millsap combo seems to work great for the Hawks despite the lack of size. Would they be willing to look for something else with Asik? Toronto is hooked on Valanciunas, so they don't need Asik as a starter. All that said, I still believe that Asik coming from the bench covering Howard is not such a bad deal for Asik at this point. He may be worried about his next year $15 mil salary burden as a trade problem. However, for the cap it is only $8 mil, which makes it much more tolerable.
