Houston Rockets Make Jeremy Lin, Omer Asik Available in Trade
By Josh Sanchez
The Houston Rockets recently traded former top 5 pick Thomas Robinson to the Portland Trail Blazers, but they don’t appear to be done making moves anytime soon. According to the most recent report, the Rockets have made Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik available via trade in an effort to clear up even more cap space in an effort to make a serious run at the top free agent target Dwight Howard.
According to CBS Sports, the Rockets are very confident that they will be able to land Howard and the report even states a possible destination for Asik and Lin.
"The Rockets are oozing with confidence that they will lure Howard from the Lakers, and are making contingency plans to construct the team around him.“They already have him, if you talk to them,” one league source said.If the Rockets land Howard, Asik would become expendable. One potential destination that rival executives have identified is Philadelphia, where former Rockets executive Sam Hinkie is the Sixers’ new general manager.Hinkie was part of the Houston front office that scored both Asik and Lin with backloaded offer sheets as restricted free agents last summer. If the Knicks (Lin) and Bulls (Asik) had chosen to match the respective offer sheets, they would’ve had to structure their deals with $15 million “balloon” payments in the third year. But the Rockets only needed to account for the average of the three-year, $25.1 million deals — $8.375 million per year, a manageable number for a starting center and point guard, respectively."
Houston will be the first team to have a meeting with Howard during free agency, so they can have the first crack at convincing him to come to town.
NBA free agency officially kicks off just after midnight Eastern Time and we are going to be in for a wild ride. Be sure to stick with FanSided.com throughout the free agency period as we keep you up to date with the latest news and rumors.