ESPN: Dwight Howard Reportedly Attracted to Omer Asik as a Front Court Partner?

On another note,

the ideal offense for Dwight is the pick and roll right down to the weakside post up. I can see it now. Pick near top of key, roll to rim, Harden either throws it up to him for the dunk or Harden takes it himself. Dwight rolls towards the right side of the rim so the rim comes into play as a shield also Harden can throw it over the rim if he wants to, etc. If the defense effectively collapses on them both, Harden throws it out to right corner, Dwight simply turns around on the right low block and Parsons immediately kicks it down to him. Cutters, shooters, etc.

 

yep, it plays to dwight's ego to think he can be the center of attention on offense if he has someone else to to do the dirty work. But it would be nice to have an option to be the biggest team on the floor. After Yao went down it seems like forever we were 'undersized'.

Two additional points:

If they were both on the floor at the same time, you could get some hellacious picks for Harden. Put the ball in his hands and let him work off both big men. You could wear Harden's defender out running him into walls and that is double good if that guy is also the other team's scoring option.

Maybe the three pointer wouldn't be as much of the offense as it was this year, but think of how the efficiency of shooting 3's is increased if you you have a better than 50/50 chance to rebound the inevitable misses. The idea of two big men rebounding and passing out to Lin Harden and Parsons slashing to the basket is intriguing. It helps those three do what they do best.

 

These reports are starting to sound faker and faker to me.

 

Solid points.

 

Yep, good ideas.

A double high pick at the top or a staggered screen will free Harden up to drive and kick out to a corner shooter if the defence collapses.

A variation would be having the two bigs up high to free up the middle for some back cuts or back screens to hit when the ball handler comes off the pick.

Quick move by Dwight in the low post could draw Asik's man from the weak side and allow Dwight to give a lot of drop off passes for Asik to finish.

 

I didn't want to start a thread for this...but assuming we do keep asik, and sign Howard.

I am not as wise with the cap/cba as I thought...but here are my thoughts.

I am wondering what it would take to sign Howard, and keep our current PF situation (young guys that will hopefully develop) and add a wing defender such as Tony Allen or Brewer.

Think about it...Cybrex himself said that Houston would wait to trade Asik after seeing them play together, and only moving him for the right deal. Id say the right deal is for a Kevin Love type player (a package of course). Now we have multiple reports that Howard wants to play with Asik.

So we are looking at:

Lin/bev
Harden
Parsons
Howard/Trob/Dmo/Tjones
Asik/howard/Smith

Of course something else will have to go in order for us to sign Howard. Whether SNT or outright. But we don't need to over pay a smith/milsap PF with that line up. We can rely on defense and hope one of our 3 high potential young PFs step up. I think one stepping up is a fairly safe bet.

Then using whatever money we have left to add one of these guys:

Deshawn Stevenson
Tony Allen
Corey Brewer

Stevenson is the only one we can hope to sign with the exception that we would have, which is the room MLE (which is around 2 million I believe)

Do you think it would be wiser to try and pull off a SNT for Allen or Brewer then say for a starting PF. I would imagine these guys will command near the full MLE on the open market. But then you would be looking at something like this:

Lin/Bev
Hardon/Brewer
Parsons/Brewer
Howard/ (whateer young PFs we have left)
Asik/Howard/Smith

then we could still use the Room MLE, and 2 veteran min exceptions to bring in vets wanting to win a title.

Say we sign Garcia with the Room, and a defensive mind PF to help mentor our young PFs and provide insurance. I think that would be a pretty solid team with great depth.

And if it doesnt work you can always move asik, youth, and draft picks for the big name that comes available at the deadline like a Kevin Love.

Our defense would be insane...
What do you guys think?

 

I did the first part for you. Just go through the steps and see if your scenario is feasible.

The cap has been estimated to be somewhere in the region of $58,455,000 (current) to $65,000,000. The latest opinion from capologist Larry Coon predicts the cap to be around $60mhttp://www.hoopsworld.com/nba-salary...rry-coon-52413

Let's work with a conservative salary cap estimate of $60 million.

Houston cap room after waiving Garcia, Delfino, Brooks and Anderson

01) Harden 13,668,750
02) Asik 8,374,646
03) Lin 8,374,646
04) Robinson 3,526,440
05) White 1,719,480
06) Jones 1,551,840
07) Montiejunas 1,422,720
08) Parsons 926,500
09) G.Smith 884,293
10) Beverley 788,872
11) Cap Hold 490,180
12) 2nd Rounder 0
*Honeycut 100,000

Total = 41,828,367
Cap room = 18,171,633
Need to free extra 2,341,545 to give Dwight the max.

*Honeycut has been waived but has a partial guarantee for 2013/14.

 

First I was too tired to respond last night, but I think you are a good poster. Don't listen to others that tell you not to post as much. As long as what you are saying is relevant (which it usually is). It would be nice to contribute to the site seeing as you do use it so much, and obviously enjoy it.

I think the best bet is moving white. I think if we shipped him to Charlotte and gave them up to 2.1 million ( what we have left...then 3 mil renews after draft?) to take him off our hands that they would do it. I believe Bima said that they can waive him then spread his cap figure over 3 seasons? Since next year would be a team option it would be his last guaranteed year.

Assuming the cap went up to even 61 million, that would be all we would need to do. Other options would be trading a combo of Jones/Dmo/Trob and maybe our future pick for a high pick in this lottery.

But if we can just get Howard with losing a little as possible..we would still be able to sign and trade for a brewer or something by offering a trade exception and maybe another future pick. We have our 1st and 2nd rounder the next 2 years plus 2 2nd round picks from New York to work with.

 

OK. Let's assume Charlotte bites on White (you are right about the $3m money renewing) and we clear enough cap room to sign Dwight outright.

Brewer's salary was $3,243,000 last year. We would be just under the cap so we would have the Room Exception at $2,652,000. Would Brewer take that to have a significant role on a challenger? I think he might just bite so your plan would work.

Tony Allen's salary was $3,300,000 but his value is pretty high so I don't think he'll bite.

Deshawn Stevenson has a non-guaranteed for 2 years at $2,240,450 so we could use the Room Exception too. Did Atlanta waive him?

But if we use the Room exception on Brewer, then we cannot use it on others like Garcia or Delfino. Only the veterans minimum which is around $1.5m for them so its unlikely they would come back.

 

I was saying to sign and trade for brewer or allen not use an exception.

Many have stated trade asik for SNT with Milsap or smith. I am proposing keeping Asik as cybrex speculated and Howard wants. Let our young bigs develope and instead sign and trade for an athletic wing player. (which we will need if we seriously hope to contend)

So instead of trading asik and trob for Josh Smith after we get howard in a sign and trade.

Work a sign and trade for Allen or Brewer where we give up future picks. We have plenty to work with the next two years...especially with the NYK 2nd rounders in addition to our own picks.

 

I am not sure what it would cost, but I imagine both allen and brewer will want the full MLE amount around 5 mil. Both had great years defensively, and have earned a raise.

 

FWIW, I don't think a draft night trade with the Bobcats to dump White's salary plus cash for [nothing] would be feasible.

Charlotte has minimal remaining cap room. Even if you throw in Jeff Adrien (the Bobcats' sole non-guaranteed contract for next season), you still come up a bit shy of matching White's salary. The Bobcats would have to throw in Jeff Taylor ($788,872 next season) to make the numbers work for the Rockets (which obviously adds to the Rockets' salary commitments and, thus, reduces their cap room); and I think the Bobcats like Taylor enough not to want to lose him in a small salary dump trade.

If the Rockets are going to "dump" White plus cash on another team on draft night (so that they don't have to dip into next season's $3.2 million Maximum Annual Cash Limit), it will either be with a team that still has enough open cap room (Cleveland, Phoenix or Sacramento) or a team with a non-guaranteed contract to offer in exchange (like Atlanta, with Deshawn Stevenson's non-guaranteed contract).

Sorry to interject. Carry on.

 

Deshawn Stevens and CJ Miles...at least 1 (and possibly both) of these guys may be a Rocket on draft night.

 

then its obvious we send him to our d-league affiliate the Sacramento Kings! haha

 

If anything.. Other teams have a stretch 4. We could always put parsons at the 4 and rest one of the bigs.

He'd be perfect here. Too bad he's probably stayin in LA

 

What if Asik clearly outplays Howard, and then you have a situation on your hands with howard on the bench

 

I've seen you post this multiple times. The salary cap is not $58.455 million, it is $58.044 million.

 

"In 2012-13 the salary cap was guaranteed to be at least $58.044 million if the calculation produced a lower amount."​

So it did produce a lower amount for this season? Which only happens if:

"Each year the sides meet to try to agree on an amount. If they cannot agree before the end of the July Moratorium, they instead use:

The set amount for national broadcast rights (which is determined in advance), plus
The BRI for the previous season (other than national broadcast rights), increased by 4.5%."​

AFAIK it's not July yet and these figures can change still, can't it?

 

Funny.

 

Motiejunas laughs...