Morey: "McHale will experiment with Asik at C and Dwight at PF"

I agree that Daryl Morey would like to position himself to acquire a "third star," either via trade or through free agency.

However, I don't think that the team that may feel it has to trade away its star is going to be interested in trading for either Jeremy Lin or Omer Asik. Neither player is young enough to have perceived "upside" and each makes nearly $15 mil (!) in 2014-15, and then each player becomes an unrestricted free agent.

A team forced to trade away a star is going to want what these teams always want: a boatload of draft picks and players on rookie contracts with "upside."

Houston is actually in a position to acquire a bunch of draft picks without significantly weakening their chances of winning a ton of games this season Take a look:

Trade #1: Jeremy Lin to Milwaukee for a Bucks first round pick and Luke Ridnour (expiring contract)

Trade #2: Omer Asik to Portland for a Blazers first round pick and Robin Lopez (a good backup C and an expiring contract)

Trade #3: Donatas Motiejunas to somebody for a lottery-protected first round pick

Trade #4: Greg Smith to somebody for a projected high (31-40 or so overall) second round pick

Houston would have a boatload of draft picks that could be packaged with things like Terrence Jones and Isaiah Canaan and the expiring contracts of Ridnour and Lopez. Highly unlikely that any team could top that offer. This is exactly the sort of package used to acquire James Harden.

Note that, even if the February trade deadline comes and goes, Houston enters the offseason armed with all of these picks and an insane amount of cap space. Would Lebron consider signing with Houston? Sure! Would Kevin Love? Sure! Would Carmelo Anthony? Sure!

Also note that after making these four trades Houston still has a formidable roster:

Starting lineup

Patrick Beverly
James Harden
Chandler Parsons
Terrence Jones
Dwight Howard

Other rotation guys (this bench is better than you think, in my opinion)

Isaiah Canaan
Francisco Garcia
Robin Lopez
Omri Casspi

End of the bench

Marcus Camby
Aaron Brooks
Ronnie Brewer
Luke Ridnour

Stashed in the d-league

Robert Covington
B.J. Young

Cuts

Reggie Williams
Jordan Henriquez

I don't think Morey makes these moves but I bet he's tempted to. Anyway, that's how you position yourself to acquire another superstar.

Also consider that Morey could simply sign a Lebron or a Love or a Carmelo outright and keep all of these picks to himself. Crazy to think about! This would be a very bold plan but I honestly do not think that it's hyperbolic to suggest that a team with Lebron, Howard, Harden, Parsons, Beverly, Canaan (who will be a good ballplayer), the players drafted with all of these draft picks, and the latest bargain basement/undervalued veteran free agent additions would be (again, I honestly do not think I'm about to make a hyperbolic statement here) the best team in the history of the NBA.

 

No, because Howard struggled physically most of last season coming back from back surgery.

The previous poster said the Rockets aren't desperate to do anything with Asik, but I think they are desperate to KEEP him.

You can say what you want about the PF position, but if Asik is gone and then Howard has recurring back injury issues, that leaves the team without a quality center, which is a much worse problem. (The PF position isn't so terrible anyway provided Donatas drops 15-20 pounds. I anticipate Jones will be the starter.)

Besides that,

I think Howard is going to be a bust because:

1. They don't need his offense.

2. He doesn't fit the style they play best offensively.

3. Asik does everything else better (besides offense) and is, perhaps more importantly, willing to play that role.

4. He has yet to prove so far since his back surgery that he is not damaged goods.

The Rockets wouldn't have been a good team last year without Asik's defense and Howard is like the Harden of centers. He will not give full effort on the defensive end in order to save energy for scoring. That is why I don't think Howard is a good fit with this team because Lin can be really weak with his individual defense, so that is potentially a bad team defensively compared to last season.

I don't like this idea of playing Asik & Howard together because that is just acquiescing to Howard's spoiled personality. I'm sure it is his idea so he can have the role which he wants: score a lot of points & allot the dirty work responsibilities to Asik as Howard is unwilling to do the little things it takes to win. That is getting off on the wrong foot joining the Rockets as far as letting him dictate stuff like this, the way he has continuously done with his prior teams (or tried to at least).

I see the center position is going to be a tandem or platoon situation between Howard & Asik, almost identical to the point guard position last season with Lin and Beverley, and the Rockets are going to look really silly paying somebody $20+ million to have basically a complimentary role, but that is only way they will be a great team.

If they try to have him live up to his contract, they are going to be really bad.

 

did i read that right? did you just say asik does eveything better than dwight besides Offense? that is crossing a dangerous line


Firstly explain to me how Asik's athleticism is greater than dwight's.
Secondly you say Dwight doesn't fit our Offense, Allright lets just assume for arguments sake we run the EXACT same offense. can you please explain how Dwight doesn't excel n a PnR orientated offence.
i dont even want to begin with the fact that you said we dont need his offense, i will if you respond but i figure that you will hide away as soon as the whole of CF's calls you out

 

you have only two more years of low price in CP25 and Beverley. By the time you got those trade done, you will need to pay CP25 and Beverley or lose them. With another max player, it would be hard to keep the current team, and lost all the flexibility. Just could not see three max players in a team at the same time no matter how you manipulate it.

 

We don't need his offense because last season the Rockets were the highest scoring team in the NBA (at times that is, they finished #2, 0.1 ppg behind Denver).

As far as the pick and roll, it gives the weak side defense free shots at the player getting the pass to hack him before he can dunk it. So unless it is a lob, the defense always chooses to send Howard to the line every time where he is a poor free throw shooter. Hard fouls like those are also what keeps injuring his shoulders and for those reasons, he doesn't like the pick and roll play.

My evaluation of Dwight vs. Asik athletically is based totally on last season. I wouldn't say the same thing if we are talking about 2+ years ago.

This is not just my opinion. The majority of expert NBA observers (gms, scouts, coaches) said the same thing. Dwight was clearly not recovered from his back surgery. He was not moving well on the Lakers & was little resemblance athletically to the player he was when he was dominating the league.

Meanwhile, Asik got into the top condition of his career before the start of last season.

 

The entire point of flexibilty is so you can upgrade talent. Who needs flexibility when you have 3 stars on the team and Chandler Parsons is the 4th option?

 

this!

 

Most of you are saying Asik is an important key to championship, (obviously next to Harden and Dwight) but you are all forgetting that he will be paid 8 mil this season and next season he is gonna make 14,which is more than what Al Jefferson is making,so it only makes sense to move him, especially while his value is high.

So I say it again trade Omer for Ryan Anderson, straight up. benefits both teams. Rockets get their floor stretching startin PF who will give dwight miles of space in the paint.