Am I The Only One Who Doesn't Want Howard If It Means Losing Asik

I do not think the difference between DHoward and Asik is that big. Just look at last nights game. Hack a Howard works at times but Asik just destroyed Hack-A-Turk in one night. Teams will think second about hacking Asik late in games now but Howard is and will always be an option.

Yes I know Howard is an amazing athlete but that hasn't transformed into wins for the Lakers. Asik is an equal rebounder, younger with much more upside. Look how much his pnr has improved. His jumpshot has improved his free throw shooting has improved. Why would anyone think that this young kid with little NBA experience won't improve. In two years he may be the better player. Even if he is not he will definitely close the gap so the advantage is negligible.

People talk about getting both CP3 and Howard but you have to gut the team to do it. If we trade everyone away that we can and release all the players not guaranteed we can sign CP3 but what would have left Parsons, Royce White and Harden pretty much.

To get CP3 and Howard, gone would be Garcia Delfino, Lin, Trob, TJones, DMo, Asik and AB. Maybe we could keep Greg smith and Beverly if we somehow find someone stupid enough to take Royce White. I may be off with my numbers but this is pretty close to the reality we are looking at for an Opportunity to get CP3 and Howard to play with Harden. Personally I just don't see the need to gut a team that has shown so much heart.

CP3 is a better upgrade than Howard but is he a good fit with Harden. He will definitely expect the ball almost all the time. Harden will have to become the specialist he was with OKC. I don't think either one wants to come here. Not at the cost of losing 30 mil. Even if they said they did in the past. I do not believe they will walk away from 30 mil. Especially CP3. But I could be wrong.

I just hope I am not. I would rather keep this team mostly intact. I think we are a stretch 4 and a years worth of experience away from competing with the elite teams. If we somehow win this series I see a path to the western conference championship. We can beat Memphis. Yeah we wouldn't be in this position if Westbrook hadn't gone down. But even if he hadn't we were better than anyone expected. Anyone.

Add Kevin Love to that mix and we clearly are a team no one will want to face. How do we get Love? With Kahn I thought it was possible. But Saunders is too smart to give him away. Still there are other options. We could sign a low post player like Al Jefferson and with Asik we become the toughest team down low in the league. We could deal with the Bucks who are for sale and may be willing to make a trade just for cap purposes. I really like IlYasova an 8 rebound 44% 3point shooting 4.

We could go after Josh smith and Korver upgrading Delfino and the PF spot. All of these leave most of our players intact. Okay we might have to release Delfino , Garcia and trade TRob with Royce white as a package deal for almost nothing. But still we would have most our team and we would upgrade our 3 point shooting and PF spots.

I know it's not the knockout move that people want but it might be better. We will be competing immediately and we won't have the boneheaded bad attitude risk of a DHoward and even CP3. What Miami did was based on Lebron. No one we can get is Lebron. In the end Asik is becoming my favorite player. I love big guys who just play hard. Asik will get better I am sure of it. I think he will improve just from over the summer. He went from a 3 point 5 rb center last year to a double double guy. And now he is playing in the most difficult stage and outperforming Ibaka and Perkins.

This year he has outplayed Gasol and Brook Lopez in games and frustrated the hell out of Duncan. He has challenged the best centers in this league and held his on and Asik will only get better, Plus he doesn't have the baggage that Howard has. I hope we don't make the mistake of letting him go. Big men are the hardest players in this league to acquire and we have a very good one that is helping us win now while Howard is sitting home watching.