The Rockets will probably not get fair value trading Asik because he is just that valuable to this franchise. Howard gets hurt and is out two months? No problem, the Rockets cruise to a 53+ win season. Starters playing poorly during a game? Insert Asik, Casspi, Garcia, AB and Lin. Instant competitive new look but still running the exact same offense as the first team like the Spurs subs do. Playing IND or MEM and TJones cannot handle the opponents beef? Plug Asik in there to bring the wood to West or Randolf. Asik is still the third best player on the roster. Trading him will create holes in the above strategy. The Rockets need a ton back in that trade to even approach being whole afterwards. Another piece of very good news is that now that Lin is all grown up he becomes a more than adequate insurance policy in case Harden misses significant time. Lin is of course less talented than Harden (not a knock on Lin since Harden is the best SG in the league) but they share the same offensive skill sets. Most importantly Lin, like Harden, can manufacture a drive or a 3 point shot against most shooting guards in the NBA. And Lin is shooting the three and finishing at an incredible rate this season.
JTR, Love your posts, but this is 100% delusional if you think he is the 3rd best player on the roster. He is a nice defensive center, a guy that works well with people who can penetrate and create their own shot. He is a valuable starting caliber center, but he is only 1/2 a floor player, he is beyond putrid on offense and you are playing 4 on 5 with him in the game on that end of the floor. He is a nice complimentary piece, nothing more. DD
DD We will have to agree to disagree. Asik was the second most important Rocket player last season. He had a xRAPM in the top 20 of the NBA. He averaged a double double last season. His on/off was +6(?) last season. Anyway guy I appreciate your point of view. Best. jtr
Really everyone is complementary after Harden. Even Howard. I would say Asik is the 3rd most valuable player on this team on the court. Simply because it is so difficult to find 7-footers who can do what he does at such an elite level. He's a top 10 center Dada. We just seen it again last night. Dwight in foul trouble. Asik comes in and we don't miss a single beat. He doesn't take away touches from our perimeter guys. He allows them to do their thing while he simply eats up the whole defensive middle. I still think he's gonna be traded. I'm just hoping we get as much value as possible to add another elite player either with his trade or with the assets we acquire from trading him.
Asik was arguably the 3rd best player on the team behind Harden and Parsons last season. Now with Howard and the emergence of Jones, Asik is not quite as valuable to the team as he was before. You said it is like playing 4 on 5 when Asik is on the floor but didnt stop the rockets from being a top 3 offense in the league. Asik is a defensive and rebounding machine. Not many Centers can you give you that type of production.
Nice take. You came strong with salient information. But unfortunately, IMHO, Asik will be traded. But I do hope that the Rockets finish the season with Asik still on the roster. I just cannot imagine any reasonable trade this season that brings back a better chance at a ring. But as always, I could be wrong.
aelliott, Do you know what Asik's cap hold would be for his free agent period? 150% of 8.3 million or 150% of 15 million? I'm assuming it's against the 8.3 million but I can't find anywhere in Larry Coon's faq that will verify it one way or the other.
I too would assume that it is against his $8.3 salary cap number but I don't know that for a fact. If you really want to know email Larry Coon (his email is in the FAQ). He usually responds in a couple of days.
Not completely accurate. You don't start paying a tax until you get over the luxury tax level, which is well above the salary cap level. There are plenty of teams who might be able to take Asik's cap hit without running over the luxury tax, especially given the fact that only 8m counts against the cap. Personally, I would keep Asik until someone pays a LOT for him. He is a much better than average center, gives us the best center rotation in the league, by a large margin, and his expiring contract next year would draw a lot of interest around the Feb. 2015 trade deadline. There is no reason to take a bag of chips for Asik, we should sit on him until a GREAT offer comes along.
That's true in most cases, but becomes a problem if you over value your own player because he puts up very good numbers in your system. Asik is a "system center" like Tebow was a "system quarterback" in college. Tebow has a certain "it" as a football player, but he needs a offense that is tailored to his running and limited passing skills. During a recent interview on TrueHoopTV Morey talked about TT and examples of combos that worked. One pair was DJ and Blake Griffin. Both are extremely athletic and mobile. Asik is neither so Morey is in fact delusional about Asik's ability. Asik needs to play with a pnr guard(or in our case two top ten pnr guards) otherwise he is just a one way defensive center. If you watched Eurobasket this summer you saw Asik trying to set high picks for guards who had no interest in driving to the basket. He was basically a fish out of water. Asik also has poor hands, limited range, limited mobility and isn't extremely athletic. So how many teams have a need for a starting defensive center with limited offensive skills? Probably only teams with a good pnr guard and/or an agile scoring PF would even consider Asik. However most teams would want Asik as a backup center because 10 to 15 minute with a one way player wouldn't be too bad. The only problem is that Asik wants to be a starter and is making too much money for a backup. I personally think Asik stays all season if we're top 4 in the west.
not even the 4th or 5th most valuable to this team. Harden, Howard, Lin, Jones, all play more important roles for this team right now. Maybe Asik is tied with Parsons for 5th most valuable... but I would still give the nod to Parsons. Asik is in the running with Brooks as 6th most important Rocket at this moment.
Are you high? For a true 7-footer, Asik is very athletic and quite mobile. There are some areas of his game which are suspect, like his ability to finish around the rim, but for his size and bulk, he's pretty damned athletic.
Most important to this Rockets team and most important to another team in the NBA that would trade for him is a totally different term. Contract aside, Asik is more valuable for an average NBA team than Brooks, T-Jones, Beverly, Lin and even Parsons.
This league is chock full of competent, scoring pgs that can effectively operate w an Asik. The league has never known so many good/great/elite pgs at the same time. Value is about scarcity and Asik is scarce and valuable.
