So you're assuming that we do a 3 way and trade Asik/Lin/Jones to Boston, flip Rondo to Dallas (or Atlanta) and we get draft picks? First problem is that you're making the assumption that Asik/Lin/Jones will get you Rondo. Why would Boston do that? They are an aging team and they need young stars. Why would you flip Rondo for role players? They'd be dooming themselves to mediocrity for the forseeable future. If they trade Rondo then they need a young star or near star and draft picks. Secondly, where does Dallas or Atlanta get enough draft picks to give us fair compensation for Asik/Lin/Jones? You mentioned 4 picks? Ok, that sounds fair so are we going to get Dallas' first rounder every other year for the next 8 years? Remember you can't trade away all first round picks in consecutive future drafts. Dallas doesn't even have it's pick this year so the best they could do is a 1st in '14, '16,'18 and '20. Atlanta has their pick this year and likely our pick so they could trade 2 in '13, 1 in '15 and one in '17. If the Rockets were able to acquire Howard and Paul, do you think that stockpiling draft picks that far in the future would be what they'd do? Of course not, they'd be in "win now" mode. If a team had the cap space and was willing to spend it on Rondo and that team also had draft picks to trade, then it's more likely that Boston would just trade Rondo for those picks rather than for a Asik/Lin/Jones package. Asik/Lin/Jones are all valuable players but none has franchise player status and that's what Boston needs. Theoretically, most any team in the league COULD trade off players for draft picks and open up enough cap space to sign Paul or Howard. Realitically though that just isn't going to happen. Teams that have cap space are generally looking to acquire a franchise player and then fill in the role players. Spending your cap space on role players before you acquire a franchise player doesn't make any sense.
