NBA Rumors: Breaking Down Latest Trade Trade Buzz Across the Association
Welcome to the point in the NBA season where all the training camp rhetoric gets thrown out the window. The happy-go-lucky quotes from every team's camp have been replaced by the harsh realities of the season, in which coaches make unpopular decisions, general managers begin to enter the 12 stages of panic and everyone in the New York City boroughs develops a healthy drinking problem.
Yes, you guessed right. It's time for the trade winds to start gusting throughout the Association.
Truth be told, we've already seen the first panic trade of 2013. The Washington Wizards' acquisition of Marcin Gortat has quickly turned sour, as he's been perhaps the league's worst interior defender thus far, and Phoenix has somehow compiled a better early-season record. While the Wiz may dodge a bullet for 2014 if they miss the playoffs, that deal is quickly looking like a misguided push from a front office and coaching staff desperate to keep their jobs.
Don't worry, purveyors of NBA schadenfreude. If this season continues the way it's going, the Wizards will be far from the last team to make you giddy with their stupidity. James Dolan seems on the cusp of setting the detonator any minute, and there are a number of solid players already hearing their names bandied about.
With that in mind, let's take a look around the league and check in with all the latest rumors.
Omer Asik Wants Out in Houston?
This could be seen from a mile away from the moment Dwight Howard signed with the Rockets. In fact, this indeed was a rumor from the second Howard took his talents to Houston.
Asik had no interest in playing second fiddle to another big after breaking out as a starter in 2012-13, so he understandably balked at moving back to the bench, where he spent his time in Chicago behind Joakim Noah.
The Rockets moved quickly to mend fences, saying all the right things about Asik's effect and even installing him as a starter in the preseason. Pushed as a revisiting of Houston's "Twin Towers" concept from the 1980s, most expected he Asik-Howard combo to take the league by storm defensively, even if their offensive numbers would likely lack.
However, it worked out more miserably than anyone expected. The Rockets average just 87.3 points per 100 possessions in the minutes Howard and Asik share the floor this season, a rate of historical putridity. They also didn't have all that much fun working together on defense, either, as Houston was worse with them together than they were with either player alone.
Give Kevin McHale credit for quickly realizing the error in judgement and moving Terrence Jones into Asik's spot in the starting lineup. Only it seems Asik, again, has no interest in even giving his new secondary role a shot.
Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle reported last week that Asik's representation and general manager Daryl Morey met, at which point, the Turkish center's trade request was firmly delivered.
In wake of Asik's request, it seems that the Rockets have also developed a hard-line stance of their own: "you don't want to play for us, you don't play at all."
Asik has logged just four minutes since his request became public, and he hasn't played in either of the last two games. Donatas Motiejunas and Greg Smith have taken over his minutes as a backup big behind Howard.
It seems only like a matter of time before the two sides part. The only question is whether Morey will have enough leverage in negotiations to make a fair deal feasible. Morey does not typically negotiate from points of weakness, and the Asik situation has gotten so toxic that opposing general managers are salivating at a chance to beat the Rockets boss at his own game.
Opposing GMs can even take a crystal-clear look at Houston's roster and discern Morey's demands: either a high draft pick in 2014 or a stretch-4 who can defend. Numerous people have pointed out a match between Houston and New Orleans, where the Rockets could flip Asik into Ryan Anderson.
But, with Asik making Morey's life as difficult as possible, what incentive is there for a team like New Orleans to give up a player on Anderson's level? This situation is bound for an end, but Asik's transparency with his unhappiness might force Houston to keep him longer than anyone wants.
Iman Shumpert Bound to be the Scapegoat in New York?
That stench you smell is the desperation escaping Madison Square Garden, coating the Big Apple with a caramelized sense of doom as to what will come next. Sitting at 3-6 and just one game out of last place in the Eastern Conference, the Knicks are a shell of the team that had the city dreaming of NBA Finals contention a year ago.
The three-happy, whirring ball movement and feel good times of last year's offense are dead. The Knicks are still shooting beyond the arc at a higher frequency than any other team, but they are knocking down just 33.6 percent of their attempts and have often regressed into the iso-heavy, slowed-down ball that killed them last season.
Oh, and they might have the worst interior defense in the league. Tyson Chandler is expected to miss at least the next month with a fractured right fibula, and suffice it to say, Andrea Bargnani (#BANKNANI) isn't doing the trick.
As a team he expected to compete for a championship implodes, owner James Dolan has understandably grown unhappy. And in his infinite wisdom, he seems to think trading Iman Shumpert carves the path to a return to contention.
Frank Isola of The New York Daily News noted that the Knicks unsuccessfully tried engaging the Nuggets in a Shumpert-for-Kenneth Faried swap.
While that deal has about zero chance of getting done, it seems increasingly likely that Shumpert will be playing elsewhere before season's end. Isola even floated the idea of the Knicks and Sacramento Kings being a match in a deal for power forward Jason Thompson.
The NBA is drunk if that happens. But considering New York's alternative scenario—a package that includes Shumpert and Amar'e Stoudemire for Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo—perhaps everyone actually is drunk.
Shumpert is a good player. Far better than Thompson but not anywhere near good enough to work as a cornerstone in a Rondo deal. I'm not sure what the end result will be for the Knicks, yet it's pretty apparent the buildup to whatever comes will provide ample theatre.
Desperation Also Creeping in for Pistons?
Joe Dumars may have done a better job in the free agency lottery than when he backed a Brinks truck up for Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon, but the Josh Smith era hasn't exactly got off to a swimming start, either.
The Pistons are 3-6 following their 114-99 loss to the Lakers on Sunday, and the glaring roster issues that many speculated about in the preseason have reared their heads in even uglier ways than expected.
Detroit is shooting a league-low 27.2 percent from beyond the three-point arc. Only four teams have taken fewer of the juicy corner variety and only three have worse assist percentages.
Oh, and the Pistons have been a complete mess defensively. Opposing teams are averaging 107.4 points per 100 possessions, which bests the Clippers for the worst mark in the league.
That was the unexpected byproduct. Most assumed that Detroit would rank near the bottom of the league in offensive efficiency while Maurice Cheeks sorted out his big rotation. But very few in league circles saw teams scoring this easily on a front line that includes Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe and Smith—three guys whose size alone should have made them formidable.
That sound you hear is Dumars scrambling to save what could be his last chance to create a winner. According to Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio, the Pistons general manager plans on doing just that by trying to flip the expiring contracts of Rodney Stuckey and Villanueva into an actual, like, usable basketball player.
Villanueva has essentially been a ghost the past three seasons, but he can still knock down an open three and give bench depth to a needy team. Stuckey is averaging 26 minutes per game and is still a usable bench scorer, but he eats up almost as much space as a big man on the floor because teams don't respect his jumper. On a team full of players whose jumpers aren't respected, Stuckey is the most expendable.
It'll be interesting to see whether Dumars can find any takers. Expiring contracts at the combined level of Stuckey and Villanueva ($17.08 million) used to be these massive bargaining chips that could be turned into usable players from non-contending teams. But the league has been less willing to accept "only expirings" under the new collective bargaining agreement, instead insisting that draft-pick sweeteners be added to any pot.
The Pistons' only answer might be to add a lottery-protected first-rounder. Then again, looking at this roster, what's the point? (Other than saving Dumars' job, of course.) Detroit may or may not make the playoffs, but it's not like this roster is talented enough to actually win a playoff series.
A general manager under the gun is the most dangerous thing in the NBA. We just saw in Washington. If ownership isn't more cognizant of what's going on, Dumars may wind up doing the same thing to the Pistons.
All stats via NBA.com unless otherwise noted.
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