Dwight Howard and Chandler Parsons support Omer Asik, but are confused

Omer Asik has requested a trade from the Houston Rockets. He signed a deal to be the starting center for the Rockets after making his name as a back up in Chicago. Well, the Rockets added Dwight Howard during the off-season, which meant that Asik wasn’t going to get his wish. Now, his teammates have issued support for their frustrated teammate, via the Houston Chronicle:

"“Totally, I understand where he is coming from — his frustration, sharing the floor,” [Dwight] Howard said. “I understand it’s tough for him. The only thing I can do is be his friend off the floor and help him anyway I can. I understand its a tough situation for him, but we are all family and we have to learn to fight through frustrations.”“It would be a frustrating thing,” [Chandler] Parsons said. “He had a great year last year and to bring in someone over him has to be a little frustrating. It is part of the business and you have to be a professional about it and come to work every day. He is on the Rockets so he has to act like that and come to play and come to win.“Yeah, he has been fine with me. I stay out of it. Obviously he is frustrated right now, but as his teammate I just try to be encouraging and making sure his head is in the right place because we are going to need him throughout the season. Greg Smith goes down, Marcus Camby has surgery so he is going to play at lot of minutes so I don’t know what he is so upset about. He has to come out here, perform and be a professional about it.”“Totally, I understand where he is coming from — his frustration, sharing the floor,” [Dwight] Howard said. “I understand it’s tough for him. The only thing I can do is be his friend off the floor and help him anyway I can. I understand its a tough situation for him, but we are all family and we have to learn to fight through frustrations.”“It would be a frustrating thing,” [Chandler] Parsons said. “He had a great year last year and to bring in someone over him has to be a little frustrating. It is part of the business and you have to be a professional about it and come to work every day. He is on the Rockets so he has to act like that and come to play and come to win.“Yeah, he has been fine with me. I stay out of it. Obviously he is frustrated right now, but as his teammate I just try to be encouraging and making sure his head is in the right place because we are going to need him throughout the season. Greg Smith goes down, Marcus Camby has surgery so he is going to play at lot of minutes so I don’t know what he is so upset about. He has to come out here, perform and be a professional about it.”"

This isn’t a backup guard or wing player that can come in as a variety of roles, Asik is a center, and a center only. Dwight Howard will play close to 40 minutes a night, which means there is less than 10 minutes a game for Asik out there. They have tried to make it work with Howard and Asik together, but that is a disaster. Greg Smith is injured for the Rockets, so they will need Asik now more than before.

GM Daryl Morey is in a weird spot. They need a power forward more than they need Asik, so they need to make it seem like they aren’t desperate to move him to get some value back. We will keep you up to date on this situation.