Ideal Trading Partners for Asik (Assuming We Get Howard)

I guess you could do something like Asik and Dmo for Ryan Anderson and Robin Lopez + future 1st round pick with low protection if Howard came here.

Then pawn off Robinson for Jeff Taylor and the Blazer's pick (from Charlotte) for cap space.

Beverley/Lin
Harden/J Anderson
Parsons/Delfino/Taylor
R Anderson/Jones
Howard/Lopez/Smith

 

None of the above. I think you keep Asik. He has really progressed this year from a back-up to a full-time starter. His defense is really good and I think he will only get better next year. In a league without very many true centers he is a rare find. You keep Asik and use your cap space.

 

I'm not sure if I'd want to run my last 2 minute offense through him.

i'd feel kind of comfortable with him anchoring the defense in the last 2 minutes though.

 

don't trade asik. don't sign howard. he's a cancer.

 

why would we trade asik? he's on a really good contract and is totally capable of playing his fair share of minutes. besides, howard has become injury prone with his shoulders and back, so having omer be there to step up would be huge.

 

If we got Howard, I'd trade Asik for a power forward. Given he's a center and a pretty good one, he should net a pretty solid veteran starter.

Yeah, I love having Asik, but in the hypothetical with Howard on board, it really doesn't make sense to keep him. You can't use both guys to maximum capacity because neither belong in the PF spot. And, we're really hurting at power forward.

 

You trade Asik because in the long run you can't afford both him and Howard. We don't want to mess around and end up in the same situation as the Bulls. When his contract is up in two years we won't be able to afford him+Howard+Harden+Parsons. His value will never be higher so trading him now is probably best. I am not completely against keeping him for another year but at some point in time you must move him because there is no way we are going to be able to pay him and Chandler during the summer of 15.

 

I think OP is pretty lame for making this thread when Omer is playing so well for us. Suck thread.

 

You don't trade Asik. If anything, extend him and lock him up even longer term. He's improved all facets of his game (including his hands) and will keep improving for the foreseeable future.

Screw Howard and his side show. I'd take Asik over Howard all day. Can you imagine having Howard at the line instead of Omer last night? We'd probably be talking about a loss.

Upgrade the 4 spot, not the 5.

 

Asik should be able to get us a high lottery pick. You are talking about the top 5 center going into his prime. This series have definitely elevated his stock.

 

Borrowing a quote from Prince Feisal in "Lawrence of Arabia", who, ironically, was talking about Turks; but let me change the words a little:

Acquire Howard? Then Asik would have to be traded. And I must do it because the Turk has great value but makes too much for a backup. But I fear to do it. Upon my soul I do.

Asik doesn't miss games, plays his butt off, and doesn't whine. He takes the game seriously, whereas Dwight Howard is an overgrown child.

If you can sign Dwight Howard, you sign him. Les would be counting up his potential profits right away. But I'd hate to see Asik go because Howard is waaaaaaaaaaay too high-maintenance.

I imagine Asik and Robinson would net us Josh Smith or some such player, but we'd have to move out another contract or so to sign Howard first, as Atlanta has delusions of DH12 grandeur as well. Maybe Asik to a cap-room-friendly team for draft picks.

Painful to discuss, though. I'd rather keep Asik and ship out our 2nd-rate might-be-good PFs for a solid starter or All Star (if possible?) at the 4, as our 4-spot is horrific.

 

Said it on 15 other threads. U keep Asik, play Dwight at the 4, and the 16 minutes of rest Asik needs, Howard can play the 5..... That gives roughly 24-28 minutes a game one of our young, high upside, players to develop. If we make a trade, to get another star/half star, I'd rather it not be Asik we send out.

 

Sign Dwight outright, and start him at the 4. Then when Asik goes to the bench, slide Howard over to the 5, and tell Jones and D-Mo that the one who can shoot the ball is the one who gets playing time.

 

Amen Brotha....I dont know why people want to get rid of Asik if we grab Howard

 

I have no idea why you guys wanna trade Asik so bad for a PF and then replace him with Howard. I'm a Laker fan and if the Rockets wanted to swap Asik for Howard straight up I would do it in a heartbeat. Howard is only a slight upgrade at the center spot over Asik but then you guys are paying him a max contract whereas with Asik you guys are getting a steal for a top 5 defensive center in the game.

Rockets need to improve their bench, as their backup PF and SG positions are atrocious and right now McHale is basically forced to play only 7 guys in the playoffs. Your franchise will only regret getting Dwight Howard.

 

Assuming that we do sign Howard then Asik will be traded no doubt about it. He is too valuable and takes up too much cap space to be a backup. So we need to find a ideal landing place that will not bring back much or any salary so we can maintain the ability to upgrade the roster.

Thus I think finding a lottery team that has the cap space to absorb his contract is the best option. However most lottery teams are not an Asik away from competing and only a few would consider the trade. I think the two teams most interested in him will be Portland and the Sixers. Asik would put both of those teams on the right track. These two teams are projected for lottery picks 10 and 11. We would also dump White on this team as well freeing up even more cap space.

Ok now what do we do with this new pick and cap space. Do we want another rookie that likely will not get much PT on our new contending roster. Or do we look at using this pick to obtain a veteran player to upgrade us at the power forward or point guard.

I would love to get Love or Aldridge but I don't think we would have enough assets to pull it off. First Portland is very close to competing and would have to get a top 20 player back for Aldridge. So what about Love? I think with the turn over in Minny (new GM..maybe new coach) then they may look to move the disgruntled star. The question is will we have the best offer. They don't need Asik so the number 10 pick would be valuable to them. We could offer the 10th pick, next years #1, and any or all of Trob, Dmoe, and TJones. I don't think it would be enough to get Love in my opinion.

So now what? Do we hold onto our cap space for a run at FA in 2014 and hope our young players break out. Or do we go for it now and not wait on the FA fairy to bring us our final roster pieces. I say carpe diem and go for a total rebuild and for the championship next year. And here is what we should do:

1. Trade Lin as a salary dump. Find a team to give us a 2nd round pick for him. We might have to even dump a few million dollars and our own 2nd round pick to get it down. 8.3 million more in cap space... yeah. We would no longer need Lin for his exposure since will would be a top 4 team and selling out the Toyota center.
2. Trade the obtained lottery pick from the Asik trade for Eric Bledsoe. He is making 2.6 million next year but will be in line for a big payday after that. 8-10 million likely. Bledsoe and Beverly would be a great combo moving forward. No PG would look forward to seeing those two for 48 mins.
3. Trade Trob for a future 2014 1st round because we need that salary space for the next step and to keep Delfino on next years roster.
4. Sign a free agent PF. All of the big free agents PFs have warts but would be a great upgrade over what we have. I would go with Josh Smith if we could get him at a decent contract --- 13 to 14 million. He would take a slight discount to play with Howard on a championship quality team. Smith can play 3-5 five depending on the lineup. Imagine Smith on LBJ/Durant and Bledsoe on Wade/Westbrook with Howard cleaning up the paint. We would suffocate them into submission.

Now we have build a defense monster of a team that could still score with ease and throw out several different lineups. We could build a championship contender that won't even be paying the luxury tax until we have to extend Parsons in 2015 if we choose do to do (assuming Bledsoe comes in around 10 million in 2014). In 2014 we will be over the cap but under the luxury tax so the MLE can be used the strengthen our bench even more.

Starters
Bledsoe 2.6m
Harden 13.7m
Parsons 930K
Josh Smith 13M
Howard 20.5M

Bench
Beverly 789K
Delfino 3m
Smith 885k
Tjones 1.55m
DMoe 1.43m
2 roster cap hold spots: 901k

Next years salary comes out to 59.3 mil. The salary cap is reported to go up above this number. If not then I hope DMoe didn't buy a house because he will be sold off to the highest bidder for a future pick. After the FA signing of Josh Smith then we can sign decent vets who will take the league minimum to fill out the roster and chase a ring.

 

LOLwut? My defense is Asik costs half of DH, and he doesn't any health issues, emotional baggage and ft kryptonite.

At double the cost, Howard should be twice the Asik is, but he's not. In fact, as you yourself admitted Asik is actually better at some things. Instead of getting Howard, you can use that 8M to upgrade at the PF spot and get a scoring dynamo like Landry, Ryan ANderson, or ironically Luis Scola.

 

Because Asik is too expensive to keep as a backup and neither have a jumper. The spacing for Lin & Harden drives would be godawful.

Whomever we keep, we need a 4 who can hit long range shots. Josh Smith, Ryan Anderson, or even Illysaova are ideal.

 

Can we please get off the Howard bandwagon? Has he not shown everyone how much of a pansy, baby, cancer he can really be?

Why not save all that money. Keep Asik who doesn't need to have the ball to succeed and get a true stud at PF and fill up the roster with some extra talent.

Seriously stop getting hung up on names. It's like all those fantasy football players that want to keep drafting players based on the name of players and not what they really can bring to the team. Why tie ourselves up with him and his injury/headaches.

 

unless we are getting either a legit center like Pek or Dwight, or a superstar like Chris Paul in return, i don't think you trade Asik.