Report: Rockets Have Deals "Teed Up" For Asik And Lin

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/24594751/report-rockets-have-deals-lined-up-for-asik-lin



Report: Rockets have deals lined up for Omer Asik, Jeremy Lin
By Matt Moore | NBA writer
June 22, 2014 6:39 pm ET
 


USA Today reports the Rockets have "lined up" trades for Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin, but will execute them only if they can't land LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony in free agency.


Sam Amick        ✔ @sam_amick
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Addendum on Rox free agency front:I'm told they have moves teed up for necessary Asik/Lin trades but want to keep them if can't get LBJ/Melo
4:52 PM - 20 Jun 2014


Asik and Lin have cap hits of $8.34 million next season, and poison-pill contracts for $15 million in actual salary. The Rockets unsuccessfully tried to trade Asik twice during the season, even setting an early season deadline to get a deal done to no avail.

So the idea of them having deals they can do whenever seems a little off. But the intention of such a smoke screen isn't immediately clear. Meanwhile, regardless of whether they are able to sign Anthony or James, they need to move one of the other, just to be able to make a little bit of room to find some sort of improvement.



bob
MY NOTE:  This doesn't smell quite right.  If they don't trade Asik by the trade deadline he is likely gone, so what would keeping him until then benefit?  You disrupt chemistry, you bring in a new player (or players) that will struggle to integrate by playoff time which would already be done if they do the deal in time for pre-season camp...It made sense this time last year because they were trying an experiment with Asik and Howard together, but they have an opinion about how that works (or doesn't) by now.  Lin is a nice player, but not even close to $15M nice.  So, why wouldn't Morey at least move Lin, if not Asik and his $15M contract, regardless of what Carmelo or LBJ do?  There is just SO much smoke-and-mirrors going on, so much posturing.  Wow.

The curtain will be pulled back some in 3 days.  It will get pulled back further in 8 days (Jul 1st and the free agent signing period begins) and will become closer to crystal in 19 days (June 12th is, I believe, when the $10.3M TPE expires).  Things are going to get very, very frenetic over the next 3 weeks.  A lot is going to get crammed in during this period. If you think there was a lot of rumors flying around this past month I don't think we've seen anything yet.

And, because we are in transition and have cap space and expiring contract and a nice, fat TPE, the Boston Celtics are going to be neck deep in it all.



.

Sounds as though Houston is setting up their tee shots the way I used to do—with a lot of hope and bravado.  I wonder if the ball will come caroming back off a tree for them as it did for me.

Sam

sam wrote:Sounds as though Houston is setting up their tee shots the way I used to do—with a lot of hope and bravado.  I wonder if the ball will come caroming back off a tree for them as it did for me.

Sam

sam,


You mean like the way it did last year when Morey teed up Asik, put a price and deadline on him and got no takers? Hopefully he's smarter than that this year.



bob



.

No way is Melo giving up $34 million over five years to sign with the Rockets instead of the Knicks. Would you?

Bob, something like that.  One can only posture so much without winding up as a pretzel.

Sam

sam wrote:Sounds as though Houston is setting up their tee shots the way I used to do—with a lot of hope and bravado.  I wonder if the ball will come caroming back off a tree for them as it did for me.

Sam

Sam at least your shots come back towards you.................with my slice, it is........ well .................as James Tiberius Kirk said "to boldly go where no man has gone before."

NASA needed to send my golf ball to Mars..............cause if there is water there, my ball will find it. And I would not have charged $100,000,000 Million for them send it there.

Really sick of all the speculation and rumors and in just a couple days at least some of them will be put to bed but new ones will no doubt pop up.

beat

worcester wrote:No way is Melo giving up $34 million over five years to sign with the Rockets instead of the Knicks. Would you?

Depends. He's had his chances to make money on two less than stellar teams. The Knicks are in a lousy situation and not likely to get better anytime soon. He probably has 3-4 good years left (I think he's 30 now). It's not like he'll be working for minimum wage if he signs elsewhere, but going to a team like the Rockets that is set up to be an immediate contender with Howard, Harden, etc. is a better bet than resigning with the NYK and being part of their rebuild. I read yesterday that they are so over the cap that even if Melo walks away, they're still over. They also have no picks. Things won't get better there soon. If he values winning over money at this point in his career, I think he does move.

Now THAT is what I call being over the cap.  He'd have to love New York City to stay.

By the way, Baron, if you haven't been officially welcomed to the board, consider this a big welcome!

Sam

Thanks Sam. I was trying to find the article I read to post the link, but I can't find it. I thought it was by Sports Illustrated.

-V

Baron, the real bottom line is the Knicks can offer him more money to resign - $34MM more - than anyone else. I don't think he'll walk away from that. But what do I know?

Here's the article I was thinking of... http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/84296/should-the-knicks-trade-carmelo-anthony

The relevant paragraphs say "If the Knicks don’t move Anthony before the deadline, they risk losing him this offseason for nothing. And even if Carmelo leaves, they would still likely be over the projected salary cap of $62.9M in 2014-15.... If both Stoudemire and Bargnani remain on the roster, the Knicks payroll would be over the projected salary cap line of $62.9M even without Carmelo (who could be re-signed to a max deal despite being over the cap since they hold his Bird rights). "

Edited: I checked the date on that and it's an older article, but I saw it quoted in a newer one I can't find now. I don't recall them making any major roster changes that would impact their cap situation.

-V

Worcester,

Absolutely, that is a lot of money, and he'd have to give that serious thought. However, at this phase of his career, he's already made more money than he could ever need, and I think another team could offer him upwards of $90m for 4 years. Not exactly pocket change. If winning a championship or two someplace else has more value to him, he might move.

For that matter, a sign and trade could also happen. If he absolutely isn't coming back to NY, I'm sure the Knicks would rather get something for him than just let him walk away. In that instance, Melo could get the max deal money from NY and play someplace else.

-V

The Knicks can still do a sign and trade don't forget.

Melo can get his money and still end up on another team

for instance the Celtics could offer Green (9.4M) Bass (6.9M) and Bogans non-guaranteed deal (5.2M).

totals $21.5M in salary's going back to NY for Melo's max deal.

I am not sating that Boston SHOULD do this...just that there are options for Melo to get his max money and still move to a new team.

Hi,
I believe 'Melo wants out of NYK. He got out of Denver that was going nowhere. Now he understands that NYK has no future for the next 2-3 years and his time's running out.
I think he watched PP-KG-RA, he watched 'Bron-DWade-Bosh and thought "why not me, I'm also a super-star"
As for 'Melo coming to Boston - doubt it very much. But addition of Asik and Lin would be nice.

AK

Beat, I guess it's understandable that people revel in conjecturing about the draft possibilities, learning the details of the probable draftees, handicapping the finances of trades without having to risk their own funds, and even playing amateur psychologist in attributing certain motives to agents, players, and owners.  It probably has similar appeal to fantasy basketball.

You and I have probably seen too many drafts to get really excited about it.  It didn't help me to discover that even Red picked losers on exactly 50% of his drafts; and, in cases where he did pick losers, he passed up a future all-star in 83% of the cases.  That's certainly my definition of crap shoot.  Give me a tried-and-true trade almost every time.

Sam

Sam