Daryl Morey had set himself a deadline of December 19th (that’s today) to move his disgruntled backup center. There was speculation that he had a deal he liked in place and was giving everyone else until today to top it.
Now it looks like that won’t happen.
Here’s Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:
After failing to find a suitable deal for center Omer Asik before a self-imposed Thursday deadline, the Houston Rockets backed away from trade discussions, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
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Asik has a $15 million salary-cap hit next season, and that, combined with rival teams’ unwillingness to package a quality power forward with an unrestricted first-round draft pick, pushed Morey away from making what he believed would be a bad deal now.
Boston had offered Houston a package of Brandon Bass, Courtney Lee and a restricted future first-round pick, but the sides never came to terms on an agreement. Philadelphia had remained in pursuit of Asik, but Morey found no deal there, either.
It remains to be seen how Asik will take this news, and what that will mean for the Rockets’ locker room.
A quality power forward and an unprotected pick seems like a bit of a steep price for Asik, considering Marcin Gortat only netted the Suns an expiring contract and a restricted first rounder.
PER isn’t the be-all end-all by any means, but Asik’s mark of 14.9 is basically league average. There’s extra value in a defensive-minded center, of course, but is there really enough to turn down that Celtics offer?
Of course, this might just be a ploy to get an even better offer. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time something like that has happened. We’ll keep you posted if anything else breaks.