The Houston Rockets are coming into the trade deadline at an interesting moment and they have one of the best trading chips in Omer Asik and one option for the team could be to move him to the Atlanta Hawks for Paul Millsap or Al Horford, as they have shown interest in him before and need to pull something off at the deadline date to try and make a move in the eastern conference.
The trade deadline always gets the media going crazy with trade proposals and possible deals and this is one that could satisfy both sides, as Millsap and Horford both fit into what the Rockets do better than Asik. The Rockets reportedly have said that they are thinking of keeping Asik for the remainder of his contract, which runs through next season and gets a bit pricey, but that could just be a distraction as the deadline gets closer. According to ESPN.com, Asik is one of the most likely players to get traded, as the Rockets have not been able to finds a way to use him and Dwight Howard together effectively.
Asik reportedly asked for a trade over the summer and again later in the season when his starting job was yanked and then he was injured and out of the news for a while. Asik had a fantastic season last year and he averaged double digits in points and rebounds with 10 points and 11 boards per game and he also started all 82 games, something he had been hoping to do since his days in Chicago. James Harden was in Houston and things were going great, but then the team signed Dwight Howard and while that clearly was a great move, it marginalized Asik.
The team claimed that they would find a way to use Howard and Asik together and giving credit to Kevin McHale and Daryl Morey, they tried that out, but they did not like the results. Instead, Asik had his role yanked and he started playing barely any minutes and naturally his stats took a huge hit and that got him disgruntled once again. Asik asked for a trade reportedly and the team started talking with the Boston Celtics and that looked like a deal that could get done.
The Celtics and Rockets were close, but both sides wanted first round picks in the deal and that was not going to happen and reportedly Brandon Bass was involved in the move, but it never went down. After that Morey said that Asik likely would stay, but now that the deadline gets closer that could change if the right deal comes along. The Rockets feel that they can make a championship run this season and having a player waste away on the bench is not a way to do that.
Asik and the Hawks could be a nice fit and they were mentioned by Pro Basketball Talk as a team that could deal for him and adding Millsap would give the Rockets a decent low post scorer that doesn't play center to take away from Howard. Asik and Millsap's contracts don't exactly work with the Rockets star getting $15 million and Millsap just under $10 million, but the fits on both sides are so much better and the Rockets have some future draft picks they can rely on. Either way, the trade deadline should get interesting for these teams.
