Would we have won last night if Omer Asik was still a rocket?

This. He did not want to be here.

 

His presence would have tip a few more rebounds back out for wide open threes...

 

Without the Asik trade, the Rockets would still have Ariza (as a free agent signing with cap room), but they would not have:

Kostas Papanikolaou (wouldn't have had the MLE to use on him)
Jason Terry (wouldn't have had the cap room/contracts to trade for him)
Multiple draft picks (a potential lottery pick plus 2 more second rounders)
The $8.4M Lin TPE (would have to waive it to sign Ariza outright)
The $2.1M Bi-Annual Exception (ditto)
A third year on Nick Johnson's contract (via the MLE)

Essentially--assuming that Houston would want to keep a core of Howard, Harden and Ariza together--the Rockets would be bereft of any meaningful way to pull off a significant trade this season or next summer, other than trading Jones, Beverley, Capela, a first rounder no earlier than 2017, and an Omer Asik playing backup C minutes on a deal paying him $14.9M this season. Not sure that package gets the Rockets that much.

 

Dude there aint no shame loosing to the Warriors, they are contender material this year. Steve Kerr is a much better coach than Mark Jackson, and their bench is freaking deep.

If we can come back and beat them when Dwight is back that would be a huge milestone to achieve.

 

This is a very short sighted view. Make investment, collect interest, profit.

 

Because Asik wants to be a starter and that was what promised to him when he signed here.

Why would you keep a player that is not going to give you 100% on the court?

 

Was it worse than OKC trading away Harden to us for that guy K-Martinez and Jermy Lang.

 

I have no doubt in my mind that Asik would still be a Rocket right now if that was what was in the best interest of the Rockets organization. Sure, there may have been some element to the trade that was to get Asik to an organization where he could start and fulfill his career aspirations. But that certainly wasn't going to be the key driving force in trading a player that talented.

This was about that potential lottery pick, plain and simple. There are VERY few of those getting traded nowadays. It is a very valuable trade chip and (like with the TOR pick from the Lowry trade) can be the key piece to a major, major trade down the road. The trade later evolved into a sign-and-trade for Ariza that also had some non-guaranteed contracts (which proved to be valuable assets) coming back.

If Asik couldn't net the Rockets a pick like the NOP pick they got for him, or if he made, say, $4M this season, there's a pretty good chance Asik doesn't get traded. It's all about risk-reward in the grand scheme of chasing a championship. Asik's feelings (while not to be ignored) were not going to heavily sway that equation.

 

Gonna go out on a limb and say you weren't upset when Steve Francis forced a trade immediately after being drafted by Vancouver.

We all know how that turned out.

 

Well Asik didn't help last playoff round why do you think he'd help this time? He doesn't want to be a backup in Houston, how hard is that to get through some people?

LOL@ the worst trade in the past few years, you do realize that it netted us a possible lottery pick right? And Asik has an out of pocket cost so whoever is paying him now has to cough up 15M for this year? It's a minor miracle the Rox managed to get an asset out of that and didn't take back salary, for reference the Lin trade cost us a pick and Memphis had to trade away Pau Gasol to the Lakers for Kwame Brown's expiring contract.

 

Have you been sleeping under a rock? Players have been demanding out of situations since time immemorial, you had Dwight demanding to be traded from Orlando, Melo demanding to be traded from Denver, Chris Paul demanding to be traded from NO, Kevin Love demanding to be traded from Minny etc. What precedent are you talking about?

Also if you're talking about the interest of the Houston Rockets team, Asik wouldn't give 100% if he's not happy and unloading him gave the Rox a chance to nab a max free agent apart from the $$$ savings and asset. When you study the pros and cons the obvious move is to trade Asik.

Finally, we lost the series LOL what do you mean the twin towers worked?

 

Would we have won last night if Yao Ming never got injured?

 

No. He didn't want to be here. He would have been out with sore ovaries.

 

Post of the month.

 

I think we certainly would have won had we had Hakeem there. For that matter, even Dwight would have sufficed.

 

If we had a healthy Yao we would have won...but we don't.

It would have been nice if Asik would have just accepted his roll for nights like last night and playoffs ...BUT just like wishing for a healthy Yao, wishing for a non-pouting Asik is just a fantasy. He wants to start.

He had to be traded.

 

If Asik wasn't traded at some point, he was definitely leaving at the end of the season.