Well it depends on the type of injury Dwight has. If Dwight get a hamstring tweak or something that require 2-3 months of rest and rehab, we will lose the season if Dwight goes down with an injury. OTH, if we had Asik we can still win games at a good clip and still be contenders when Dwight returns. That's not the only reason though, Asik provides elite paint protection which is why I want him on the squad even as a backup. 48 mins of elite paint protection is a luxury no other team can have, and it's also something that was proven to give the Miami Heat a hard time. Maybe Asik at 7M is a fantasy, but I would argue that even at 10M Asik is still valuable to finish the 48 mins of elite paint D we need, provide Dwight insurance and give some mins at the 4 spot when we can try the twin towers look. There's worse things to spend money on.
Edited. Sorry for being mocking. Games are 48 minutes long. Rocket players in general suck at defense and rebounding. In the 16 mpg that Howard sits, the Rockets are going to suck hard. As harden was used by Oklahoma to keep the offense alive while, Asik would be used to keep the defense alive. Adding a better offensive starting PF isn't going to help the Rockets score that many more points than they already do. Having Asik as a backup center will save a ton of points. Basketball is a team game. Asik doesn't have to be a superstar to have a skill that is needed for teams that aren't the celtics.
Adding good PF with some range would improve efficiency for everyone else and make the Rockets much harder to defend, especially in the playoffs, where inefficiencies get exploited. A good backup for a superstar is nice, but in the end it has limited value, unless he is able to play multiple positions and get the "6th man" type of minutes. Howard will play 40+ minutes in playoff games that aren't blow outs. He might be in foul trouble once in a while, in which case a great backup is awesome. And the backup is nice during the regular season. There's value. It's just a much more luxury item, compared to upgrading the core.
Now that I think about it, trading Asik, filler, and pick for Horford may be our best option. Someone brought up the arguement that we wouldn't be contenders if Dwight got hurt. Horford can play center, he's just a natural PF. So if we kept Terrence Jones or D-Mo and acquired Horford, we could still stay consistent because Horford can play the 5.
I don't think Howard can play 40+ mpg in a playoff run any more. Rockets play small a lot so even in playoffs the starting PF will only be playing twice the minutes of Asik unless that player is a star. Also when the scoring gets tight for the Rockets, they are not going to be able to weather a 13 mpg period that their defense is not tight. I don't see the non-star PFs as an upgrade over Garcia/Parsons who will be playing lots of minutes in the playoffs at the 4. I think at some point either Aldridge, Love, or another all-star PF will become available that would actually upgrade the core by more than what the core would lose by trading Asik. At that point, I really hope the Rockets still have Asik as a tradeable asset. If one doesn't become available, Aldridge and Love are available when Asik becomes a free agent.
heres a question for CF'ers and there was no way i was going to make a thread of this because i didnt want a 1star review. We saw this offseason Doc rivers get traded to the clips for draft considerations in the coming drafts. so heres my question What would Morey's value be on the open Market if we could trade him? would someone like Cuban give us a tiring dirk and hope Morey can rebuild dallas or would a powerhouse like lakers kick kupcheks anti-stat a** out of La La for the king of analytics or would it be a 1st rounder on a contending team? its a cool question and i wanna here some responses, so answer it
You would be crazy to trade away Asik. Have the best backup Center in the League and have the ability to put up an "Anti-Lebron" wall when clutch time comes.
Hey....it could happen. If Morey puts on the Scarecrow mask and farts that villain's hallucinogen into Danny Ferry's face....THEN asks for Horford....it could happen. Otherwise, I don't see it; Horford is their one All Star, and on a "reasonable" contract at that.
It would take Asik, Parsons, + picks and maybe one of Jones or d mo for the rockets to get Harford... no way that happens IMO
agreed, a lot of work went into developing him into getting some points down low when he originally was bought in for d only. would be a shame to let another team reap benefits and good big men are hard to find.
If I were the owner of an NBA team, I'd hand Daryl Morey a blank check. If I were the owner of a MLB team, I'd hand Andrew Friedman a blank check. Guru GMs are easily the most undervalued individuals working in pro sports. If I were Mark Cuban, I would absolutely offer Dirk for Morey and whatever Houston wants to trade me. Look for GM salaries to go up significantly in the NBA over the next few years. I expect Morey to become the highest paid GM in pro sports within the next few years.
Milwaukee used up all of its remaining cap space ($7.5 mil) to stupidly acquire the washed up Caron Butler today. What this means: 1) Milwaukee can no longer simply absorb the majority of Jeremy Lin's contract, and 2) Milwaukee thinks Butler is a good player. Do we think Milwaukee plans on playing Butler and Ersan Ilyasova together? I don't. Do we think that Milwaukee doesn't intend to give John Henson as many minutes as possible? I don't. All signs point to an Ilyasova-for-Lin (plus extras) trade, in my opinion. Could happen soon.
Ilyasova also can play the PF position. He's not your prototypical PF(nor your prototype SF), but he's perfectly capable of playing the position for them for the time being. I do foresee them starting Sanders/Ilyasova/ & Butler in the front court to start the season. Brandon Knight really does look to be their guy they want to groom for the future, and are stacked with backups like Ridinour who can help make up the areas that he is currently lacking in his game. I don't think that Jeremy Lin to the Bucks was something that has ever been rumored publicly to have been discussed between GM's. I think its only a Clutchfans rumor. As the potential suitors seem to further dwindle down, and the lack of great PG's on the market continue to look sparse, I think its safe to say that Lin & Houston are married to each other for the foreseeable future unless the market changes drastically in the first half of the season, and a team out there desperately needs a starting PG.
Yep, I agree. They hired a new creative offensive coach (Larry Drew) who likes great spacing and 3s, and I can easily see them starting 4 shooters. Offensively, Ilyasova is their only legit pick and pop PF, and he should do a lot of what Horford used to do in Atlanta last year. Ilyasova's role should be as important as last year, if not grow.
