At least Lin knows where he's going to be for the next 3 months. With Brooks not there, Lin is a more essential part of the guard rotation. The question is what they can get out of Asik for the remainder of the year.
Thanks to the insiders for passing along the information they received. It made for a much more interesting discussion during the past 48 hours.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>You memmer when Bill Worrell used to say, "Here come the Rockets"....yeah, that was awesome! You memmer when...</p>— Doc Rocket (@Thedocrocket) <a href="https://twitter.com/Thedocrocket/statuses/436567568040476672">February 20, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> memmer = Denver...:grin: ....... ....... .......
Now I want King Drew to tell us about the leak that was supposed to come out last night/this morning.
I think he has showed a lot of resilience adapting to various roles to fill in gaps for this team this year. 'Mental midget' is hardly the term to describe Lin. Any player would be relieved to know what his/her future is. He has been dangled in a lot of different trade rumors which is an indication that the team finds him expendable. It is difficult to play under those circumstances and he has handled it well. Now, Houston has made it clear that he is not expendable for the remainder of the year, and they will in fact go into the playoffs with him as a key member of the rotation. That sort of thing tends to boost a player's confidence.
Asik grabbed double digit rebounds in decent minutes last night. I think he knows his role will be strictly to backup up Howard the rest of this year, and is fine with that. When on the court, I see him playing just as hard as ever, regardless of whatever else has happened so far this year. His minutes will range from 10 to 20 per game, depending on whether we have a big lead in the fourth or if Dwight is in foul trouble or not. The best thing about that is that we probably won't see anyone other than Howard or Asik playing center and have a full 48 minutes of elite defense and rebounding from the center position. Win/Win
I would think so. If we had been 4-4 during this time and in the 5th seed or lower, I bet another trade would have gone done. Or if there were still other major injuries.
Unless this thread is locked, it's going to get bumped every time Rondo has a good game, or Beverly and Lin have a poor game.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Ainge on Rondo: "Ultimately, for the last 8 years, we have just valued Rondo more than everybody else."</p>— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) <a href="https://twitter.com/BaxterHolmes/statuses/436613167775367168">February 20, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Asik can only get a lot better the more minutes he put on his feet. Did you see how winded he was yesterday coming up to shoot those FTs? I was worried that the refs would call a "violation" on him for the delay of game if there is such a thing.
