The Omer Asik trade speculation really just ratcheted up a notch.
CBS Sports is reporting that the Jeremey Lin has been thrown into the mix, and that the Houston Rockets are interested in moving him along with Asik.
Multiple league executives said the Rockets also are open to packaging Jeremy Lin with Asik, but that scenario appears unlikely as well. As one executive said of Lin, “I’m not sure there are many, if any, takers for him right now.”
Rockets GM Daryl Morey scored a coup in 2012 by landing Asik from the Bulls and Lin from the Knicks as restricted free agents with creatively structured deals in which the actual payments to the players balloon to $15 million in the third year of the contracts in 2014-15. As the Rockets embarked on their ultimately successful free-agent pursuit of Howard this past summer, they quietly made both Asik and Lin available in trade scenarios that never came to fruition.
It still seems that the Celtics and Sixers are the most logical place for Asik to land.