Yes, a division rival. As if the NBA's division structure actually matters/has mattered sicne the last round of expansion.
While the Lin TPE counts towards the determination of available cap room unless waived, it does NOT count against the luxury tax or apron determinations except to the extent it is actually USED to acquire players during the season.
I got it ,but how do you expect to beat that team now? Asik is the perfect center to shut down Dwight, and TJ against Anthony Davis ...don't make me laugh, and they got guys who can score on the perimeter like Gordon,Holliday and Evans..We could easily be the worst team in the division unless Morey makes a killer trade
You know what I mean,we are gonna have to potentially compete with them to come out of the West right??You just completed their team by giving them Asik, now Davis has an elite big to help him down low, they also got really good offensive perimeter players in Holliday, Gordon,Ryan Anderson and Evans, they are just as good or better then us. especially with our inept coach.
If the Rockets are trying to compete with the Pelicans for a playoff spot, then they've already failed. We're not looking to build an 8th seed, but rather a contender. For that path, a backup center for one year who doesn't want to play here is not nearly as useful as a draft pick. Also, trading to the East is difficult because the draft pick is either likely to be low, due to East sucking and even .500 will be playoff caliber, or impossible to obtain because said team is tanking. Morey maximized the value of return for the Rockets because we're not good enough to think about how much better a team we play for 4 games would be. Whether we now go 2-2 against the Pelicans instead of 3-1 is unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Neither is facing Pelicans in the playoffs instead of, say, Memphis or Dallas or some other pretty good team.
I totally agree, except that we didn't need to see his statline to know we got pennies on the dollar for him. I suppose most people don't want to acknowledge it. Morey lost a lot of value by keeping Asik around when he traded for Howard, and then paid again in talent in exchange for flexibility. If he was willing to take salary back, we'd have a lot more to show for it than a mid-first-rounder. The upside is that we got Asik for basically nothing in the first place. Yeah, that's BS. That Ariza came in a deal with Asik is a technicality of the optimization of trading. If not for Asik, Ariza would have come anyway. And, if not for Ariza, Asik would have gone anyway. The actual compensation for Asik was the Pelicans' pick, that's it. Bima is right giving kudos to Morey for the machinations that got us a bit of extra value out of all the traffic. But saying Asik netted Ariza is BS (and a bit of metaphysical double-counting if people also want to put a feather in his cap for replacing Parsons with Ariza at the same time).
I think you are overlooking just how critical rolling the Ariza signing into the Asik trade was. IIRC, the Lin trade timeline would have made it very difficult to roll it into the Lin trade with the Lakers. So, if not for the Asik trade, the Rockets would have had to use CAP ROOM to sign Ariza and would not have been able to do/keep the following: Acquire Jason Terry and two second rounders (since HOU may have had to waive Gee and Hopson to sign Ariza outright) Sign Kostas Papanikolaou (using the MLE) Give Nick Johnson a third year on his deal (using the MLE) Retain the $8.4M Lin TPE Retain the $2.1M Bi-Annual Exception For these reasons, I *very much* count Ariza as an asset acquired in the Asik trade. (And, FWIW, I do not "double-count" Ariza as a "transactional credit" against the loss of Parsons. The Parsons loss stands on its own, to be compared only against the cap flexibility available to the Rockets next summer and beyond.)
We now have Ariza, the first round pick, Terry, and two 2nd round picks because we made the Asik trade. You cannot minimize what Morey did with what he had to deal with. That is a hell of a trade and he still has tons of flexibility to make something else happen. Do you want a 3rd star or not? Well, do you? If not, then fine. Take some salary back and pat yourself on the back for making a great trade by netting real live bodies. Sometimes, I think some on this board do not have a brain cell working.
Asik is back to doing what he does best. one of the top defensive starting centers in the NBA who will go back to averaging a double double.
That's actually a pretty useful explanation. But, I think we're talking two different things. Transactionally, I hear you. But, in a compensatory view it looks like your heaping on a lot of value from the transaction onto the asset (or people will take it that way). That it helped with timing and kept us above the salary cap are situational benefits of the transaction that are independent of the compensation we got for Asik himself. These are not things that other teams gave up so they could have Asik. And, there's nothing to say we could not have stayed above the cap and kept at least several of these benefits by some other means that would have allowed us to take back actual players for Asik. So, it still seems unfair to me to give credit for these benefits to Asik the asset, which is why I'd call it optimization instead. Pelicans got him on a bargain. Meanwhile the Rockets (imo, because its hard to say what the alternative really was) lost value by waiting until after Howard signed to trade him. I was here, saying the sooner we trade Asik, the better. I think everyone bringing up how Asik was sulking on the bench is completely missing the point. You feel offended by how he behaved and would take a loss just to be rid of him. I think Asik was an asset Morey pulled off a great heist to acquire, and then he destroyed much of his value by then signing Howard (not to say he shouldn't have done it, because of course he should have). When you're talking about the team's 'balance sheet' you don't assign blame to assets for their own volition. Assets have values that rise and fall, and its on the accountant to manage it the best he can. It's alright. We're still net positive, I think, on the whole Asik deal. And, maybe when you consider all the risks, maybe we did as well as can be expected. I suspect though we left something on the table. That's all.
They will beat them the same way they did last year and that is with Harden kicking their ass. They still have nobody to hold him. If you don't have somebody that is going to check Harden you are going to be in trouble during the regular season against the Rockets.
I respect your points and, for the most part, agree with you but I don't think we left anything valuable on the table. Asik's an elite defender and that's sort of rare in the NBA but he was going to be due $15 million this year and would be a free agent after it. Boston wasn't going to take Asik back for anything more than a Brandon Bass. We might not know his true market value but no one was really bowling Morey over with offers when he put Asik on a poster and told the entire league that he's available for trade. Should Morey have kept it close to vest? Maybe but there were red flags on Asik (the $15 million due this year, the impending free agency) even before Morey deemed him tradeable.
I think in this case, and the case for a lot of Morey moves, you need to look at the net gains to see the total value in a specific transaction.
in theory that sounds good, but i rather see how things pan out this season... pelicans r gona b dark horse playoff contenders IMO
Great thread. Would roll eyes again. Bottom line, he didn't want to be here, and we got what we could for him, and did it in a way that kept us flexible enough to make other moves that improved our team and allowed us to retain that flexibility to as large an extent as possible. He's going to do well there, get over it, be happy for him, and be glad it all went as well as it did. Otherwise you're basically complaining that we got Dwight, which makes you look foolish since he did elbow Kobe last night.
I don't understand why you need to use hindsight to definitively judge a trade that needed to be made under different circumstances and conditions and for which hindsight, by definition, cannot be factored in. Sure, every trade is eventually judged using hindsight; but that doesn't change what a team can (or even should) get in exchange for a player at the time a trade is made. Had Morey somehow arranged to trade Asik for the #1, #2 and #3 picks in the 2014 NBA Draft (with the Rockets selecting Wiggins, Parker and Embiid), but then all three guys got hit by a bus (G-d forbid), hindsight would determine that the trade did not work out well for the Rockets. But the TRADE itself would have been amazing. Given the circumstances surrounding the Rockets' situation AS OF JUNE 25, 2014, the resulting net gain the Rockets got for Asik was pretty darn good. This is coming from a HUGE Omer Asik fan, mind you.
There is nothing wrong with "double counting" Ariza as an offset to losing Parsons. That is what the cap is all about!! Sure, in the strict trade, Ariza comes from Asik. But once we have Ariza, we no longer need a starter at the 3, and so paying Parsons is insanity for sound cap management. Better to let him walk. Asik was a waste with us. A starter who was playing 10 minutes off the bench. Not worth it.
