OFFICIAL: Omer Asik a Houston Rocket (3 year/$25.1 million)

"We've sucked for 20 years."

"Clippers are a good example of building a contender, based on their expiring superstar and 1 playoff series win"

Ehh, I don't think you're looking at this objectively. Saying we've sucked for 20 years, despite having a superstar for all but 3 or 4 of those years and having little playoff success.

You'd rather be the Warriors? Raptors? Bobcats? Tanking is as much a guarantee of success as our current path.

 

Nice try to misquote me there - but i didn't say either of those statements.

I think you are reading something else completely.

Raptors don't tank, they try to be mediocre to sell tickets just like us. We are the Raptors dude! Wake up! That's my point. We are the Warriors. Just a better coached version with guys who hustle, but talent wise - that's who we are.

The bobcats are just poorly run dude.

I want us to be the Bulls, the Sonics/Thunder, the Celtics, The Lakers, the Heat - teams that are smart enough to TANK when they have to, and have the brains to BUILD a team from scratch.

We have the right scouts and managment - or we did at least - we just don't ahve the commitment to losing.

 

Bulls have to be bluffing.

Morey will call it

 

so he's making 5M for the first 2 years and 15 in the last?

 

Morey still has to sign Asik come July 11. If he believes Bulls would match 100% he could still refrain from sending the offer sheet and tying up the money? I don’t think it will be matched.

 

Actually, the Bulls just got lucky. They had a 1.7% chance of landing Rose. They were in the same boat as the Rapts at that time.

 

20 of the last 25 years we've sucked? 20 of the last 25 years we've had a superstar. Correlation or causation, you be the judge! Superstars are for suckers.

 

When have the Lakers tanked? When have The Heat tanked?

 

Full quotation from Gar Forman, GM of the Bulls:

"In regards to Omer, obviously I’ve seen reports of an offer," Forman said Monday. "But we haven’t seen anything yet. I don’t want to speculate until we actually we see something. We’ve made it clear we value Omer and it’s been our goal that Omer would stay with the Bulls. I’m not going to talk about any type of negotiation or anything contractually until we see something."​

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...react-to-asiks-offer-20120702,0,2996187.story

And a good short summary of Asik's game, by someone who knows:

"When teams win, the value of the players goes up," Thibodeau said. "And he’s done a great job for us. Obviously, his defense, shotblocking and rebounding is obvious. He anchors our second unit defensively with Taj (Gibson). Offensively, his ability to run the floor, screen, get to the offensive board, that’s what makes him so valuable to us. We certainly value all that he brings to our team."​

 

Excellent post.

 

You don't remember when they got the second pick and drafted Michael Beasley?

 

Didn't the Heat sign veterans that offseason and trade for vets? My memory is that season was more about a collapse and aging than it was about intentional tanking.

 

No it was because Dwayne Wade got hurt early and missed the entire season.

 

I know that, but didn't basically all of the moves they made suck? I thought they traded for guys and they just didn't play well. Maybe I'm wrong.

Either way it wasn't them tanking for a good draft pick.

 

Correct. You are right, they did not get bad on purpose. It was just the perfect storm of bad team building and Dwayne Wade going down.

 

I think Chicago does not match due to their cap situation.

A 3 year/25 mil dollar contract is a fair deal for a young center who has already shown that he can be a defensive anchor for a good team. However, Asik has yet to average 20 minutes a game in his NBA career. So it's a risk whether he can handle starter's minutes for a full season which he would likely be asked to do if he came here. From what I've seen although he's a great defender/rebounder Asik's got bad hands on offense and is a poor FT shooter. He needs to get better on the offensive end to be a starter caliber player.

Asik does fill a hole on this team but he is not going to be a franchise changer. He may help us to finally get that 8th seed but would not prevent a 1st round loss. From the long term perspective for this franchise I don't know how I feel about this signning.

 

I hope I'm wrong. But I think the Bulls match.

Asik will only be making about 3 million more this coming season than he makes now. The Bulls have until the trade deadline in Feb 13 to make adjustments to their roster to get themselves below the threshold. They till Feb 2015 to figure out how to get their payroll below the threshold after the jump in Asiks salary to 15 million a year.

To me this is a no brainer for the Bulls. They will match.

 

I don't think Asik will be any sort of savior at the position, but I think he will be a nice addition to it. I actually like the contract offer a lot. There's only a single season of it where he's heavily overpaid, after which we'll have the option to:
-Trade him out midseason as a large expiring deal
-dump him and better our cap situation by $14M
-resign him at an appropriate value

I've got no issues with a true center who at worst gives you strong minutes as a reserve at the MLE for two years and a one-time balloon payment.

But again, I'd still be very active trying to find a more appropriate starter.

 

"Adjustments to the roster" will not be easy or cheap. Specifically, it will almost certainly have to involve one of their big contracts Noah, Deng, Rose, Boozer, being traded for little $ in return (and, given their bind, the trade partners will likely not offer equal talent in return) or straight up amnestied. We are talking about starters who played significant minutes for you last year, not some ancillary guys. Losing Asik hurts, but those "adjustments" will also hurt.

Also, remember that Taj Gibson-- a better player and more important to the Bulls-- will be eligible for an extension right now or free agency next offseason. Basically, Taj is gonna get paid a lot. A lot more than Asik will get. If you combine Asik's salary (even at $5M) and Gibson's, it means the Bulls will have few means to add talent without paying tax even if they amnesty Boozer.

 

I'm hoping your right and maybe it's just the pessimist in me. When is the earliest the Bulls can trade Asik? At worst couldn't they sign him and then trade him to someone at the trade deadline if they can not adjust their salary cap situation? Even that would be better than just losing him for nothing.

I guess I'm hoping the Bulls and Rockets can make an unrelated side deal to keep the Bulls from matching. Not sure how the league would view it since it would be circumventing the rules.