We saw what happened when Milwaukee and Brandon Jennings reached an impasse in contract negotiations. This seems to be happening with Minnesota and Nikola Pekovic. But c'mon, people, Houston is too well-managed to give that kind of money to a player like Pekovic, particularly since he'd be a backup. Minnesota and Pekovic's agent are doing their due diligence and exploring sign-and-trade possibilities. Daryl Morey will always look to hop in and exploit poorly managed teams whenever possible. If Houston gets involved, it is going to be a three-way deal involving either Omer Asik or Jeremy Lin, and Pekovic gets shipped to this third team. Whoever that is will be poorly managed and desperate for a C. Portland makes the most sense. I expect Portland to overpay for either Asik or a signed and traded Pekovic within the next several weeks.
I agree that paying a backup center 8 Million a year is a lot BUT let's also look at it this way WE HAVE OMER ASIK!! If we didn't have Omer people would be throwing his name in here as trade ideas for the guy they want the most to bolster our front line, damn the price!! Frankly, I hope we don't trade him and they make it work to where we get about 25 -28 minutes a night sometimes more depending on the matchups and we have Omer play his heart out while he is out there but he is never to fatigued on a back to back because he and Dwight are sharing the load each night. Do y'all not realize how powerful this team will be next year with 2 of the best centers well rested for every back-to-back?? It is going to be ON next year! I can't wait to watch the Rockets dominate the paint ALL 82 games next year!!
WTF Asik isn't just a backup center, he can also play PF with DH. Sure you lose a bit of offense but honestly with Lin/Bev, Harden, Howard and Parsons how much scoring do you need? Even if you miss the shot, DH and Asik can snatch up all the rebs and try again, on defense nobody on the opposing team will be able to score except on contested 3 pt shots because you have two shotblockers and roaming the paint. I don't think 8M is overpaying for 48 mins of paint protection, he's also insurance so DH can get some rest.
I hate the argument for Asik at the 4 but I don't think it can work. Firstly it's not offensive problems because he will either be on the base line looking for cheap buckets or setting screens off the ball or on the swing, so offensively I see no problems.. Defensively I see some problems arising.. With the 3 becoming more and more important to a team and the fact that the rockets dam right sucked at guarding the 3 last year, how crap do u want out close outs to be? When we play Miami who does that leave Omer on, maybe battier YIKES. All a team has to do is go small and Omer the 4 is pointless. I think to do this twin towers, do it for short bursts when the opposing teams match ups either have major size or the are bench scrubs and we want to own the boards.
I don't think Asik at the 4 would work either. Honestly, I do like the idea of getting Pek to have 48 minutes of great Center play, but it isn't worth the price Pek is asking for. Really, it isn't worth the price Asik is getting either. Trading Lin for Ilyasova or Asik for Anderson would be a smart move. Anderson is probably more likely due to the fact that MIL is sold on Knight at PG.. Assuming we trade for a PF or one of our own pans out, if Bev takes a leap this year and proves his worth as a starting PG, I'd trade Lin for more depth off the bench.. with a deep bench, we could make a SERIOUS run at the title.
I seriously doubt that Milwaukee is "sold" on Brandon Knight. That trade was all about getting something of value for a guy who Milwaukee didn't want to keep around (Brandon Jennings); the alternative was to let him go for nothing. I believe Milwaukee would still be interested in trading for Jeremy Lin.
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=k8qzgks Kings Get: Omer Asik & John Henson Bucks get: Demarcus Cousins & Jimmer Fredette (or Grevius Vasquez) Houston gets: Ekpe Udoh and Illyasova, 2nd round pick Kings get rid of Cousins for a solid center, and a new big man prospect in Henson. This works for the Kings is they don't want to deal with his impending extension and all the drama (or if they want to move on and rebuild, again). The Bucks get rid of some of their clutter, they can pair Demarcus Cousins with Larry Sanders for a nice defensive frontcourt (and have Pachula play the backup). Sanders can protect the rim and makeup for Cousins' mistakes. They also get a point guard in Vazquez (or Fredette), a position they're lacking. We get to take a flier on Udoh, maybe groom him to be Dwight's backup, and can play Illyasova at the 4. I'd also consider sending out of our own pfs to Sacramento, or possibly in a seperate deal.
Thanks! I actually made it with one of your suggestions (Pek to the Bucks). Originally, I was trying to work in Minnesota instead of Sacramento, but I think Cousins makes more sense than Pekovic.
Not even close to a guarantee the Rockets would offer Parsons the most money. In fact it is very unlikely. Parsons isn't getting the max from anyone (and certainly not from the Rockets) so it would be offer vs. offer and it is more likely another team would overpay for him.
True, but unless it's something astronomical, Morey will probably match it with something similar. We can go over the cap room to sign him, and so long as there's goodwill between his agent and the FO (and Parsons is happy here), Parsons' camp might give us an unofficial opportunity to match a deal from somewhere else.
No way. Valanciunas is one of the few positives that team has going for them. As of right now, he's there most valuable asset. He's very young, he's tall, he looks really good. You don't trade a (very) high potential prospect for a sure thing guy with a lower ceiling unless you're contending or he's about to leave. And the Raptors are not contending and they have JV under a (cheap) contract for a few years. We'd have to offer a very high lotto pick to entice them. And if we have one of those, I don't think we use it on a center. While Toronto would love to dump Fields, I believe they still have their amnesty (unless they used it on Kleiza? I'm not sure) and even if they don't, he's not that much of a burden that they'd get rid of Valanciunas for it.
Slight wrinkle. I realized Sacramento has a ton of power forwards, and they may not want another one in Henson. I also figured I'd try to clear our logjam as well. So I send one of our PFs and Henson to New Orleans, with Rivers going to Sacramento. I put it in Jones, but him and DMo are basically interchangable as far as salary's concerned. I figure New Orleans will be trying to get over the bump and into the playoffs. So (based on the assumptions one of DMO,Jones, or Henson becomes a landry-type bench guy), they take on a solid rotation player and/or a low risk prospect. They have a glut of guards, but surprisingly few competent big men (despite having Davis). Rivers has to be NO's odd man out. He was terrible last season, and they brought in Evans this season (and both Evans and Gordon are on big contracts). Rivers gets the chance to redeem himself playing backup shooting guard for McLenmore. I also considered sending Henson/Jones to Charlotte, Boston, Philly, Orlando, and Denver. With the 4th team sending a guard to the Kings.
Twin Towers can work, but not this style. At least one if not both need to be able to hit a 10-15 foot jumper, which neither of them can. They're also poor free throw shooters and would get destroyed by a stretch 4 So yeah,they're basically the same player, style wise, Howard just does it better. They can't coexist on the floor together and Asik is a legitimate starter.So it only makes sense to move him, especially while his value is high.
We get too thin at PG, backup C, and we just add salary @ PF. Would we use Zach enough to justify the salary? I'd rather wait until we get more value for Lin & Asik. Grizzlies get an interesting tweak and Pelicans front court gets deeper. Bucks just get Buckier than they are already.
Not really.. especially if Canaan pans out. AB still has some left (as we saw in the playoffs). He'd be a great backup to Bev. Look at Miami for example; they won back to back championships with a "meh" point guard. BTW even if we do keep Lin, I think Harden will get a good portion of the ball handling as well..
Fair enough. I had forgotten about Canaan. Not sure how much Camby can play, but that's the risk to make a sizable upgrade at PF this year.
