What is the highest pick in this draft that the Rockets could trade Asik for?

Putting a poll up here just for kicks, you know, since it's the off season.

I still believe Asik is worth a first rounder. I am looking at the current draft board with the Sixers projecting to have pick #10 and wondering if they would possibly move that pick for Asik since they'll likely have a top 5 pick already, if indeed that #10 pick from the Pelicans stays at #10.

The Celts also have 2 picks, including #17. I think they'd probably move #17 for Asik. I'm just not sure that's a good enough pick to justify moving Asik for.

So just perusing the draft board...it appears to me that the second tier starts around pick #7 or #8. The first 6 guys (Wiggins, Embiid, Exum, Parker, Randle, and Smart) appear to be dug in. Although to me, in my opinion, I really think only the first 4 are dug in. That being Wiggins, Embiid, Exum, and Parker. I think it starts to get dicey with Randle and Smart. One or both of those guys could tumble out of the top 6. But let's assume for the moment they don't.

Now the next layer of guys is Gordon (he could rise a little or fall quite a bit), Vonleigh, McDermott, Stauskas, and a whole pile of other guys.

Right now Cleveland is sitting there at #9. Draft Express is projecting them to be taking Jusuf Nurkirk, a 7-foot 280 lb teenage behemoth from Bosnia, who looks to have some Marc Gasolish like offensive skills but also a defensive underbelly and dumb-dumb mindset more along the lines of a guy like Robert "Tractor" Traylor. In other words...huge bust potential.

If Cleveland is there at #9, could they possibly take Asik for #9??? Especially of Aaron Gordon and Dario Saric are already off the board and they are staring at this kid or Doug McDermott?

Which brings us to Philly at #10 with the Pelies pick (provided that pick doesn't vault to the top 3). Philly already has a top 6 pick locked up. If they come out of that pick with another perimeter player (Wiggins, Exum, Parker) to play alongside MCW and Noels.... is #10 a possibility for Asik straight up? I think possibly. And I definitely think #17 would be available for Asik.

What say you? We'll start the poll at #9.

 

I still can't get confirmation on advances but if what I have been told is true then we may be able to advance Asik either $4.187 million or $7.5 million by October 2. If that is true, then that changes his value quite drastically. If, for instance, we could advance him $7.5 million, then that means he would be owed $7.5 million for the balance of the season with a cap hit of $8.374 million. Now all of a sudden his contract becomes extreme value.

 

Atlanta and Phoenix would be 2 teams that would probably be interested in Asik. I'm not sure I'd want either of those picks unless a 3rd team (Minny or Knicks or Miami) valued them enough to do a trade for one of Love, Melo, Bosh.

 

Zactly.


I actually think we are more likely to be able to trade Asik for a 2015 first round pick with some sort of lottery protection rather than trade him for a pick in this year's draft.

So the idea is if we can trade Asik for, say, the #10 pick in this draft, then shouldn't we be able to trade Asik for a pick in the 2015 with say top 10 or top 12 lottery protection on it? And wouldn't that be an asset that would be preferred by a team rebuilding (Minny)?

Minnesota has done N-O-T-H-I-N-G about getting a coach this off season so far. Meanwhile, Golden State went to the playoffs, fired their coach, and then hired a replacement and Detroit already got their man as well. Minnesota is just sitting there doing nothing. I think there's a reason for that. I think they are weighing a rebuild. I think they already know Love is leaving them and they are waiting for the draft lottery and draft this year so they can formulate trade offers.

If we could trade Asik for that 2015 style pick........that would give us #25, plus 2 picks in 2015 plus another pick in 2017............just say'n.

 

Hmmmmmmmm. Forgot about that one. Yes, I could see that. Asik in tandem with Big Al. Nice offense/defense contrast.

I actually like the thought of that...especially if we could flip that pick plus our own plus future picks for Love and also get Charlotte to hand over Brendan Haywood's contract.

****Just a FYI. Brendan Haywood may be washed up as a player...I don't know. But if we could acquire his contract while acquiring our 3rd superstar, his contract would give us tremendous trade flexibility next off season. Haywood has a non-guaranteed $10.552 million salary for 2015 that doesn't become guaranteed until August 1, 2015. And who knows what he's got left in the tank. He was a defensive dynamo a few short years ago. He may be able to adequately fill the void behind Dwight. Guys, Haywood is a guy with the kind of contract that Morey would love to have on the books if we had our 3rd superstar in place.

 

That's part of the equation here. A team trading for Asik would be out $15 million for one season provided we didn't include cash or we didn't advance Asik salary. However the other side of the coin is a team could be out the same amount of money over 3 to 4 years for basically a crap shoot draft pick.

Asik is a big man. He's a center. Not only that but he's a dominant defensive presence in a league where dominant post defense is a staple of great teams and it is very difficult to find those guys. On the other hand, the draft is s total crap shoot and becomes an even more dicey crap shoot one you get out of the first 6 picks.

So you can consider it from that perspective. And you can consider it from the perspective of taking back expiring salary of either trash players or perhaps decent to good players.

For instance, my personal feeling concerning Asik's value is that he is worth Paul Millsap plus Atlanta' s pick in the teens. That would be fair value to me. Millsap may be the better overall player on both ends of the court but Asik is an elite defensive and rebounding presence in the paint and Asik is the much rarer talent to find and acquire.

Now if you're talking about taking back a trash expiring context...... like Kris Humphries re-signed for $24 million/2 years with one year guaranteed them I think the pick had better be better than 17.

And the last case would be for a straight draft pick. If Philly does wind up with Wiggins or Parker, they've got the cap to trade#10 for Asik outright if the Pele pick does fall there. Would they do it? I don't know. But I would consider that close to fair value personally.