[CBS Sports] Howard no lock for Lakers; interested in Rockets

Meh, whatever. Probably wasn't a possibility anyway, so whatever.

 

Not to mention, think of all the players Morey has had to let go or pass on because he limits himself to one year guaranteed deals to preserve flexibility.

Once you acquire that 2nd superstar, all of a sudden the pool of role players to surround them with becomes much larger.

 

Let's all remember that our coaching staff designed the offense of the 2012-2013 season based on what the personnel were capable of doing. The staff did not have a 20+, 10+, 2.5+ big in the paint to work around. If Howard comes to Houston, the offense will flow much differently.

Whether or not the Rockets would decide to keep Asik around is up in the air but his level of performance for his salary is a steal with his market value not being reached until year 3. Not to mention that he is still getting better and has an incredible work ethic. Because of this, I think that Asik and Howard could potentially coexist. Our post defense would be #1 in the league. Our post offense? Top 10 maybe.

Bring back 2 of the 4 bigs (Motiejunas, Smith, Jones and Robinson) to back up the 4 and 5, preferably the 2 who provide the most versatility in pairing with Howard or Asik while the other is sitting, and we've got a front court that teams dream of. I think the two that bring the most versatility and have the best work ethic are Motiejunas and Jones. Smith and Robinson are more defensive minded and may stagnate the offense despite Smith's high scoring percentage.

2013-2014 Roster

P.G. - Jeremy Lin / Patrick Beverley
S.G. - James Harden / Aaron Brooks (A little small but still effective)
S.F. - Chandler Parsons / Carlos Delfino (fingers crossed)
P.F. - Dwight Howard / Terrence Jones or Thomas Robinson
..C. - Omer Asik / Donatas Motiejunas or Greg Smith

 

I like the look of this. Clearly we'll have to look into shipping off Lin to make some space. If we get howard im sure it will draw interest into other really talented PGs out there and maybe we could sign a good PG. Thats the only thing im worried about is what we're going to do. Even though we dont need Lin and we need to get rid of him. If we have Howard,Smith and Harden, we're gonna need a experienced smart PG.

 

I was going to reply to oakdog that it was far different with Hakeem and OT, but you beat me to it. Howard is nothing like Olajuwon. He has no midrange game, he can't make freethrows, and Hakeem was excellent at the first, and good at the second, having seasons when he hit at a 78% rate. That's why the pair were so damn good together. Hakeem had no weaknesses after he learned to control his temper, and OT provided just what we needed from a 4... power, rebounding, terrific defense, and the best outlet passer in the game at the time, IMO. Heck, that practically describes Asik. He's an excellent outlet passer (not at OT's level, but very good, and getting better), an exceptional rebounder, a terrific defender, runs the floor very, very well for a truly huge 7 footer. Continuing the comparison, Asik's weaknesses that jump out at you compared to OT are his hands around the basket, being terrible at receiving the pass into the post for the easy bucket, which Thorpe was good at, and free throws. An obvious advantage Asik has over vintage OT is his size. He's much bigger. OT was tougher, but Omer is getting pretty darn tough himself. He proved that during the playoffs, IMO, when he stepped up his play and made Brooks look the fool for doing the "Hack Asik" nonsense.

Having said all that, I'd love having both Asik and Howard on the team. It cuts the minutes for both, and I think they'd be more effective because of it. When both were on the floor, our interior defense would be rediculously good. Either player instills fear into any perimeter player driving to the basket, more so with Howard, of course. We have excellent passers on the perimeter, who would have a field day passing to Howard for the easy duece, with Asik a secondary option, one who's offense did improve during the season, although it clearly has a very long way to go. I'd like having the option of Asik being the backup 5 and often sharing the court with Dwight. They'd both last longer in this league playing together. And if something comes up later, deal wise, Asik is very, very valuable as a trade chip. Why not take a chance and see how they work out? As for spacing, I think that can be figured out and don't see it as the problem some do. They'd only share the court part of the time, depending on matchups.

 

I think if this happens, Paul Pierce wouldn't mind signing with us for small price. I really hope we bring Francisco Garcia back. And keep Delfino because that guy is one of the reasons we did well this year. Man, I am so excited for the off season. But keep in mind if we get Howard and sign him a max like 90-100 million, Asik is gone and maybe Delfino too.

 

I hope we can retain james anderson... seems to be a very promising young talent...

 

I expect, at the end of the day, DHoHo will get it sorted out in LaLaLand. What 'keeps me up at nite' is seeing him land up I-45 less than 5 miserable hours north.

 

I just hope Dwight meshes in better then he did with the Lakers. On paper it looks very nice. Harden & Howard pick and roll should be pretty effective. We must countiue to add shooters.

 

How come no one is raising the possibility that talk of Houston as a serious option is just being used by Dwight's camp to put pressure on the Lakers to make changes Dwight wants? (like maybe getting rid of D'Antoni)

It wouldn't be the first time we've been used this way by a potential free agent. What's different about this situation?

 

my idea
Sign howard
Trade asik to Charlotte for peanuts(hornets at 40 million cap wise)
sigh milsap(8-10 million)
use mid level on garcia

win championship

 

It makes little sense to ship off Lin, if Smith wants to come here with Dwight, Ferry would undoubtedly take a deal with Asik as the base, we'd probably need to sweeten the pot with something like Motie and a draft pick of some description

He might even be willing to take Royce White for a cpl reasons, 1 being that Atlanta will probably be struggling to meet the 90% minimum next year, 2nd he might be willing to take a flier just to see if the lower travel impact of the EC helps, and whats the worst that could happen? $1.7m of cash we'd probably give them is used?

Atlanta's plans are very much, if they don't get a FA, they're going to go young rebuild, he could in turn flip Asik for more picks/young players, in essence by letting us keep a cpl players and ease the salary cap, he could take home a young prospect or two and a bunch of draft picks, win win for both sides.

 

Because he has no need to leverage, he can get what he wants anyway.

 

I for one an realistic on how the free agency game works, and realize that its just as likely that Howard and his business mgmt are just using Houston's "capspace" as a negotiation tactic to get the Lakers to-

A. Definitely not cut corners on offering him the max(probably going to short change in offer, but just in case)
B. Convince Lakers front office to pursue moves that Dwight wants to see happen
C. Convince Lakers FO to hire another coach
D. Convince Lakers FO to NOT make a move like amnestying Pau Gasol just for financial savings to help them compete next year.


However its still up to Morey & Co. to stay driven to set themselves up for a nice pitch on July 1st. No Ipad's necessary this time. The only people that need to show up at Dwights door on July 1st are James Harden & his running mates Chandler, Jeremy, etc.

As for the whole Asik & Howard playing together debate. My personal thought is the Rockets brass will keep to their word that Asik & Howard could work together in many ways EVEN if they think Asik would either get moved to the bench or traded after Howard is signed.

Its important that they keep public confidence that Asik is their man for now, and not shoot down his confidence right off the bat that he's expendable to them. I do think McHale would try to incorporate sets where you MIGHT be able to play the two of them together, but lets face it... In the past every "Twin-Towers" combo that played together at the same had one big man who could at the very least operate from the high post. I just dont see Asik and Howard working well together on the court at the same time.

However, I do see them working well together on the roster & rotation... With Asik coming off the bench that is. With the Rockets wanting to play fast and furious, what better way to really excel at this style than to have two top 10 centers on your roster able to run every other center they play off the court with fresh legs only logging 25 minutes a night each. Also there is the injury risks that are lessened with fewer minutes. Either way, Asik and Howard could not only work well together on the same roster, they could excel..... just not on the court at the same time.

 

Hack-a-Turk and Hack-a-Dwight all day

 

Why not the possibility of Howard pressuring Lakers to trade him, to get SOMETHING back instead of Howard just walking, and thus he'd help the Rockets stay under the cap with his bird rights?

 

I agree with everyone saying we can't play Dwight and Asik together. Asik is afraid of the ball. He's seriously hindering our offensive capabilities.

 

I think it is great you are trying to be realistic about Howard's free agency vis a vis him coming to Houston, but I also think it is completely unrealistic to think Howard would come to Houston to average 25 minutes a game, or that either Howard or Asik would take such a smaller role without reacting in such a way to hurt team chemistry.

Asik would be happy averaging ~30 minutes per game, and Howard could play center the other 18 minutes. Howard would still need to share the court for about 20 minutes per game with Asik. But to think they could not play together is strange to me, since Asik and Smith played well together, and Smith does not have any abilities Howard does not.

 

Asik just doesn't seem to like getting the ball in the post. Looks like he's more comfortable with someone else taking the shot, bricking it, and grabbing the offensive board.

Dwight on the other hand can do both, score in the paint and hit the offensive glass. That's playin' like Indiana Pacers ball right there.