Trade Asik to Cavs but not for Bynum, get a multi team trade going and try to get valuable assets out of it.
Asik can be traded only to teams that need him as the starting center. There are not many teams like that beyond the Cavs. I would prefer Varejao and a pick for Asik. Varejao and Waiters for Asik would also be better than Bynum and a pick for Asik. However, I can live with all those options and I think such trade would be helpful for both sides.
Bynum hasn't helped anyone the last 2 years but himself and his bank account. Do you actually trust this guy?
So trade I guy that averages career numbers of 5.4 ppg and 7 rpg a game for a top 7 pick (potentially higher) in one of the best drafts in a while? C'mon, the amount of people overvaluing Asik on this board is ridiculous.
I would wait until the deadline - the Nets might get it together between now and the deadline, and the pick would be crap.
Teams are not completely desperate right now. And Asik won't be traded until Morey is good and ready. A lot of teams would greatly improve if they could somehow get their hands on Asik. The Heat and the Thunder would become downright unbeatable if they could obtain him. Dallas would become dangerous. You have to trust Morey. Harden and Howard in 8 months. Nuff said.
Asik for Varejao makes more basketball sense, but the possibilities of Bynum and his valuable contract are pretty interesting.
You are right. I could see them waiving Bynum and trading picks to the Rockets for Asik. The Rockets have more than enough talent to compete without Asik. In addition the Rockets could get under the cap and Les could profit ~$11M. Perfect.
There's actually no value to waiving Bynum until at least the July deadline if we trade for him. As a pure salary filler/trade chip there's going to be teams that will trade something very nice simply due to the repeater tax issues. Imagine if you trade the Bynum contract to a team in the luxury tax... that one contract could easily clear $12M off their cap, and $30M+ in luxury taxes. That's very valuable to any number of teams. That's on top of Bynum's value potentially as a back up center. No, if the Rockets went after Bynum, they'll hold onto that contract like the precious trade chip that it is... even if they have to pay Bynum to rehab with the Vipers....
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the situation, but I thought the Dec 20 deadline occurred because players traded for after couldn't be traded again until the off season. With Bynum, that would mean exercising the option if you wanted to trade him again.
Not necessarily true. If the Rox trade for Bynum now (or by January 7th) it most likely would be with Bynum agreeing to a buyout of around $7 million that would allow the Rox to hold him until the trade deadline before making a decision to cut him. This would give them time to see if another trade manifests itself (say the Nets moving out KG and Pierce by buying out Pierce and trading KG for Bynum's contract). If no trade comes to fruition by the trade deadline then with the agreed to buyout of $7 million, the Rox could go ahead and release Bynum or they could decide to carry his contract and pay an extra $5 million until the end of the season to do so and control his non-guaranteed deal throughout 2014 free agency to use as a trade chip. But $5 million is a lot of money to pay for cap flexibility in 2014. This is not as valuable as having pure cap space, or the ability to create pure cap space for a maximum contract offer outright in 2014 in my opinion. That can only be done by moving both Asik and Lin. So, a trade of Asik and Lin (and others) simultaneously (probably to separate teams) that would yield back a contract like Bynum's (or Hedo's) plus draft picks could be more ideal. Because if we remove Asik from our 2014-15 cap, we'll have somewhere between $5-$10 million to work with in free agency (depending on salary cap/draft picks, etc.) whereas if we remove Asik and Lin from our 2014 cap we can easily create $20 million of cap space if necessary. Now why would it be important to have max cap space available in 2014? I shouldn't have to spell that out for you. It should be obvious. With that as the backdrop, you need to consider possible under the cap trade scenarios where we trade away more salary than we take back in. We could conceivably trade both Asik/Lin along with guys like DMo, Brewer, etc for Bynum and picks. Or we could conceivably configure a multiple team trade wherein a contract like Bynum or Hedo is sent to a team like Philly who cuts them in return for an asset from us (DMo). If this involved Philly, we would likely get Hawes back (or possibly turner, another expiring). Philly would take on the large partially guaranteed expiring deal and cut them along with DMo and others. We would be left with a big on an expiring deal, multiple picks, and then either a $8.374 TPE or pure cap space to sign a player, whichever we want to use. With pure cap space, we could possibly make a run at Llull after the Euro Final 4, or even McCalebb or possibly Bobby Brown, giving them a larger first year deal along with the buyout money to make it worth their while to come over here and then make the second year a non-guaranteed or small partially guaranteed deal so we could move them relatively easily if needed to reclaim cap space for a big 2014 signing. Keep an open mind about the contracts of Bynum and Hedo. While they indeed could be kept on the roster by whomever trades for them in the manner you described, they could be cut outright as well either by Jan 7th or by Feb 21st in an agreed to buyout of around $7 million.
Let's try to get waiters off of their hands. Would be a nice spark plug off the bench. Better than anything we've got now
Varejao for an injured attitude asik? i'd sign it. we need someone that can clean up, make high percentage shots, and relentless energy.
Rockets: Varejao and Waiters Cavs: Brewer, Smith, and Asik Works financially and it also gets us +4 wins from a PER perspective. Hollinger's Analysis: +4 Wins
