Obviously, there’s the Dwight Howard/Omer Asik issue in Houston. But perhaps rather than the stretch four for Asik, like New Orleans’ Ryan Anderson, as some have suggested, it seems perhaps more obvious the Rockets need a point guard. Asik to the Celtics — get him out of the conference — for Rajon Rondo, who is a free agent after next season? Despite a reasonably good start, it’s difficult to see the Celtics contending by 2015. They could easily lose Rondo for nothing and all Asik wants to do it start somewhere.
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http://www.nba.com/bulls/news/gasol-asik-and-turner-among-those-who-could-be-moved.htmlExcuse me for a moment while I throw up.
I think this does give some perspective though to how people around the league value certain players, in this case Asik and Rondo, but moreso the positions of C and PG.
Asik is a 7 foot, starting caliber center, which are incredibly hard to come by. Centers who far from dominate on the court, get 4 year 40+ mil contracts thrown their way on the regular (Hibbert before the contract, Mcgee, Jordan, Nene). Backup centers who show the potential to be a decent starting center even get contracts averaging greater than 8M per year thrown at them (asik, gortat, hawes).
Rondo is an impact point guard, which are incredibly easy to come by in the league. Point guards who have a noticeable impact on the game (Rondo, Conley, Jennings, Lawson, Lowry, Holliday) very regularly get smaller contracts than said centers because every year point guards get injured and their backups come from nowhere and burst onto the scene like legitimate starters (Collison in NO, Lowry in Houston, Beverly now, Lin in NYK, Bledsoe last year, Reggie Jackson, Nate Robinson every single year).
I'd never trade Rondo (a legitimate game changer) for Asik (a solid piece). But just the fact that a beat writer even mentioned this hammers home the point that these 2 positions need to be valued so vastly differently. Because of this, Asik isn't coming here for some package of Bass/Lee/Gerald Wallace/other spare change.