Despite previously trying to trade him, the Houston Rockets might hold on to Omer Asik for this season and the next one. How much of this is actually true, and what might this actually mean for Jeremy Lin remains to be seen.
NBA GMs aren’t very reliable, so when Daryl Morey says the Houston Rockets aren’t trading Omer Asik and keeping him until the end of his contract, which means next season, it’s hard to take that as 100% true.
Morey spoke to Rockets’ season ticket holders before the weekend about the matter. Asik hasn’t played since December 2, with a mysterious thigh injury keeping him off the court. Some rumors suggest that he’s going to be back soon enough, with the Rockets giving up on the option of trading him this season.
We pushed to trade Omer in December. We felt we had to make a fair and aggressive effort to do that. Obviously, he’d prefer to be a starter. At this point, Omer is very likely going to be here until the end of his contract at the end of next season, not this season. The window to trade him was in December, and teams weren’t aggressive enough to get him, so we’re excited about him being a part of our future.
Is that it? Probably not. With a month until the trade deadline, this is probably Morey using his fish rod in the water to try and get one last big one to bite. The Rockets are getting nothing from Asik at the moment. He was orignially listed for a thigh injury, but since then his attempts to return and give the Rockets a backup center which they sorely need (Greg Smith is also out) have turned up empty: His knee keeps swelling, and the MRIs aren’t giving the Rockets anything to go on.
There’s a chance that there are quite a few interested parties in Asik, but they’re waiting for his injury status to clear up. Maybe the Rockets are playing in a little bit of mystery themselves, but right now the official word is that he’s not going anywhere. What about Lin?
His playing time and significance for the coaching staff is eroding, it’s clear to see. But with the return of Patrick Beverley not exactly helping the Rockets play better basketball, it’s still too soon to declare this as a lost cause, not to mention the fact that his contract is deterring quite a few teams from making a more serious move towards the point guard.