Houston Rockets had a busy off season for sure, but the gains are not there to see – NBA Feature Part 2
Omer Asik was a restricted free agent with the Chicago Bulls and the Rockets had to wait till the moratorium lifted before they could officially sign him.
The Turkish player was a backup centre for the Bulls and although he did a good job within the role defined for him, he was not by any means a prolific centre.
In addition to that, the Bulls had a starting centre in Joakim Noah and they were never going to pay $25 million for a mere backup. The Rockets were criticized for probably paying a little too much for Asik. They had been looking
for a solid traditional centre player ever since Yao Ming took retirement from basketball, but Asik doesn’t seem to be that guy and the Rockets have paid a lot of money for him. If the seven-footer fails to deliver next season, the franchise can be in for
a shock.
The signing of Omer Asik however was just the beginning of an odd summer for the Rockets.
The club then tore apart the back court which they had built over the past few seasons, one that included Kyle Lowry and Goran Dragic.
Dragic had particularly impressed the previous season, averaging 11.7 points and 5.3 assists in 28 starts. But the Rockets first traded Lowry to the Toronto Raptors in return for forward Gary Forbes and an unspecified first round
draft pick. The move seemed logical as Lowry had publically demanded a trade after last season citing difference with head coach Kevin McHale.
At that time, it looked as if the Rockets had decided to stick with Dragic as the starting point guard and probably wanted to add some pieces in the front court. But the Rockets shocked everybody when they did not offer Dragic
a new contract, and allowed him to sign a deal with the Phoenix Suns.
Dragic was an unrestricted free agent and the Rockets informed him that they were unwilling to pay him in the range he was expecting, leading him to sign with the Suns. He had earlier played with the Suns as a back up to Steve
Nash, before being traded to Houston.
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