[CBS Sports] Rockets make Asik, Lin available in trade talks

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>As enticing as it is to imagine Omer Asik coming to Portland, it's hard to imagine Houston doing a deal unless it involved Aldridge.</p>&mdash; Jason Quick (@jwquick) <a href="https://twitter.com/jwquick/statuses/351808929367465984">July 1, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>A sign-and-trade with Hickson is not realistic to get Asik. Morey is not stupid.</p>&mdash; Jason Quick (@jwquick) <a href="https://twitter.com/jwquick/statuses/351809106765545473">July 1, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Shocking. I can't imagine we could put together a good enough package for The Marcus though.

 

Could be Dallas trying to sabotage Houston's max contract pitch to Dwight. If the media gets wind that Morey is "Desperate to unload Lin and Asik." This would make it all the more difficult to trade them.
Dallas already has the cap space to sign Howard to a max and bring in another superstar. They don't really need to make any moves to do it.
Dallas GM Donnie Nelson can play this game too.

 

Can S&T's occur with 3 teams involved?

Rockets can afford to give Josh Smith the max if they ship out Asik, Lin, and Royce White (or his contract) in the same deal.

Hopefully he would take less, but let's assume he doesn't.

Houston Trades: Asik, Lin, Royce White and Terrance Jones
Houston Receives: CJ McCollum and 2016 1st round pick from Portland

Portland Trades: CJ McCollum and 2016 1st round pick
Portland Receives: Omer Asik and Royce White (or his contract, however you look at)

Atlanta Trades: Josh Smith (sign and trade)
Atlanta Receives: Jeremy Lin and Terrance Jones

Portland has already traded their 2014 1st rounder to Charlotte (with pick protections, but I would assume the same lottery protections by them anyway) so 2016 is likely the earliest they could give the Rockets a 1st, but I think the Rockets would then expect it basically unprotected for 2016 and certainly 2017 if it would end up bumping that far out.

Hawks don't need and may not really want Jeremy Lin, but instead of losing Smith to someone (Dallas?) for nothing, they get an asset in him and a young player in Terrance Jones. Portland gets their man in the middle to please LMA and gives up one valuable asset plus a far in the future pick that you would think they are devaluing based on their belief they will contend by then.

Houston gets to reunite Howard with Smith, while getting a young, cheap, controllable combo G who would seem to be a nice fit alongside Harden. Also, they get a potentially valuable future asset in the pick. All this without adding salary for the next 2 years.

Who says no? Rockets? Hawks? Blazers? All?

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>My point on Asik: I don't think Blazers have the assets necessary to make a deal; especially when hard for them to deal future first</p>&mdash; Jason Quick (@jwquick) <a href="https://twitter.com/jwquick/statuses/351810925235412993">July 1, 2013</a></blockquote>
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Are you doing this JUST to get McCollum? Because if not, no reason to include so many teams and so many players.

Straight up Asik for JSmith if Smith will agree to $12.5M, or if Smith wants more, we can try Asik + White and offer Smith up to $15M. ATL says hell yeah in the first scenario, and probably still yes in the second.

 

I did that so Houston gets Smith, but also McCollum, without increasing salary. Basically you get good value for both Asik and Lin at the same time. Not sure of a lot of good scenarios where separately Asik and Lin return that much, unless you could get Smith to take less and Atlanta to take Lin.

Who needs/wants Lin and has the rights to a FA S&T candidate or assets that make sense coming back?

 

Batum/Hickson

 

Smith is looking for a max contract. So why yall think he would take lesser than what he was making in Atl. Dude wants to prove he is max player.

 

Interesting, Hinkie doing us a solid?

John Canzano@JohnCanzanoBFT about 5 minutes ago

76ers linked to Omer Asik: nj.com/sixers/index.s…

 

Since Asik is well regarded you could force White onto the other team. Still not worth a sign and trade for Hickson but its an idea.

 

Hickson is a very solid player. Better than Josh Smith in a number of ways. I haven't seen him play enough to say for sure, but he could very well suit the Rockets better than Smith.

 

If he gives us noel

 

I am doubtful that Smith agrees to $12.5M, but $15M is rather close to the max that he can be offered. I don't think he'd be that sad about it.

And everyone keeps saying Smith will only take a max -- it is as if everyone only read the first article/interview w/ Smith and never the second. Yes, he said he wants max, but in a subsequent interview, he said if he doesn't consider himself a max player, then why would anyone else? And that of course he'd expect to negotiate down from max, depending on the circumstances.

Reading his own comments, I can easily see Smith agree to a less than max deal based on what else is being offered by that team (i.e., play w/ Howard on a young contending team).

 

I'm struggling to think anything Hickson does better than Josh Smith for more than a few minutes at a time.

 

My point was, why even move Lin? Or was the point of your whole trade just to make sure we somehow got rid of Lin?

 

No one else worth wanting.

 

If we can trade Asik and some other assets for that 1st rounder the Pelicans are going to send the Sixers, that would be cool.

 

Shot selection.

edit: oh, and not take up 15 million dollars worth of cap space.

On the court, Smith is definitely the better player.
I hope the report that Dwight does not want him is true, that way if we get him we know it is because Morey thought he would be the right player to add to the team and not Dwight. I am really hoping Dwight ends up a Rocket, but I definitely don't want him okaying GM when we have Morey in that role.

 

I wasn't. My original deal gave him max money. However, I can certainly see him taking something like $3M less to go to Houston with Howard, Harden, and Parsons.