Houston Rockets Reportedly Ready to Trade Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin

As the push for free agent center Dwight Howard intensifies, the Houston Rockets have reportedly put Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin on the trade block. Per CBS Sports: “Emboldened by their pursuit of free agent Dwight Howard, the Rockets have called several teams and made Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin available in potential trades, league sources said. […] 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. Rival teams say the Rockets are making Lin available, as well, though they’d have to get a starting point guard in return. As part of their cap-clearing maneuvers to land Howard, Houston waived Aaron Brooks and Carlos Delfino on Sunday. The Rockets are off the hook for Delfino’s $3 million salary, which was non-guaranteed. Teams believe the Rockets will move both Asik and Lin if they close the deal with Howard this week. Lin, whose acquisition last summer was heralded as a coup, was not invited to Houston’s pitch meeting with Howard, sources said.”