Rockets have reached agreement with Omer Asik on a three-year, $25.1 million contract

[All Net]

I'm trying to be surprised, but Kendrick Perkins makes $8 million a year, DeAndre Jordan makes $10 million a year and Roy Hibbert was just offered $15 million a year.

And much like all of those examples...this is absolutely insane.

Really is getting crazy.

[jbot]

wow, houston must have a lot of faith in this dude. they want to get rid of scola and then pay all that $ to asik.

[Blue&Orange]

But the Bulls, won't have to pay that huge sum until Year 3. So maybe in that 3rd year they can dump him onto a team with cap space. But you'd have him for MLE money these next two years........worry about Year 3 later.

I'm telling ya, noone thought Magic would match for Gortat and they did. Same thing.

Exactly, Bulls will have him cheap for two years, he will keep improving, and by the third year, pretty sure there will be a couple of teams under the cap, more than willing to take him, and a couple more over the cap, willing to take his expiring contract.

Bulls should match and i will be surprised if they don't

[Peter Pang]

What should the Bulls do if Gibson is also offered a near 10m per year contact next summer.

They have no space for another 10m. But if they lose both Asik and Gibson. Noah (may or may not be injured) and Boozer (may or may not play like sh*t) are no where near the best big men in the league any more.

[Timmy D for MVP]

The contract is extremely back loaded right?

So they are paying him maybe 5-6 mil a year for his services the first 2 years or so. Then if it doesn't work out teams will be falling over themselves to get his expiring...

This is a pretty good move.

[All Net]

If Bulls are that high on asik, wouldn't shock me if they shop noah.

[brantonli]

How about Gasol for Lowry, Martin and White?

I never really wanted Gasol that badly, but to trade away White too? This deal is a pretty bad comparison to the Dragic, Martin Scola +1st, because back then Dragic was more of a throw-in and nobody knew he would turn out this good, and I'd gladly trade away Scola to free up some playing time for our mass collection of forwards.

[Tenchi Ryu]

What should the Bulls do if Gibson is also offered a near 10m per year contact next summer.

They have no space for another 10m. But if they lose both Asik and Gibson. Noah (may or may not be injured) and Boozer (may or may not play like sh*t) are no where near the best big men in the league any more.

Gibson won't be offered that much though. The reason Asik is getting it is cause he is a True bigman Center in a VERY limited big man league. So him being a decent center who is known as playing on arguably the best defensive team in the league automatically will see dollar signs his way compared to someone like Gibson, who although while great, isn't as hard to duplicate with another player in the league.

But as far as the choice between Asik and Gibson, since this is Asik and I personally don't feel he's worth that much, Rockets can have him. But Gibson on the other hand, when he starts requesting money, and if a team offers him like 6 million a year, I'd just have to bend over and take it, matching the price even though its steep. I really value Gibson, consider him part of the core now with Rose, Noah and Deng.

[spiegel]

Royce White aint going anywhere. After reading Hollinger take on this, i feel little better.

[Faptastrophe]

Could someone post Hollingers' (Insider) take on this when it's up?

In the current CBA, it's known as the Gilbert Arenas rule. In the next one, it might be known as the Daryl Morey rule, because the Houston Rockets GM just drove a Mack truck through every one of the provision's current loopholes in agreeing to a three-year, $24.3 million offer sheet with Chicago restricted free agent Omer Asik.

Let's set aside whether Asik is actually worth $24 million over three years for a moment -- we'll tackle that further down -- and just ponder the evil genius of the structuring of the contract and how it gives the Rockets a huge advantage in prying him from the Bulls.

Under the "Gilbert Arenas" provision of the league's collective bargaining agreement, a player like Asik -- a second-round draft pick coming off his second season -- can be offered only a maximum of the midlevel exception in free agency for the first two seasons, but can be offered any amount up the maximum in years after that.

Houston took advantage of this provision by limiting his offer to three years, rather than the maximum of four, and offering the maximum eligible salary in Year 3. It's so damaging because of how the league assigns the salary cap and luxury tax hits for the respective sides. In Houston's case, the amounts are averaged over the three seasons, requiring the Rockets to have a little over $8 million in cap room to consummate the deal.

No biggie for Houston; they happen to have exactly $8 million lying around if they renounce their rights to Marcus Camby, cut Shaun Livingston, Greg Smith, Courtney Fortson and Diamon Simpson, and either waive Jon Leuer or use the stretch provision on Jon Brockman. Houston could also get there by renouncing its rights to restricted free agent Courtney Lee, but that seems more unlikely.

And looking ahead, the Rockets are still in pristine shape going forward. An $8 million cap charge for Asik in 2013-14 and 2014-15 simply isn't going to hurt them.

But Chicago? Holy hell, this is going to hurt. The league calculates the cap charge differently for a team matching the offer sheet, using actual salaries instead of the average. So the Bulls get off easy in the short term; a $5 million cap charge for Asik this year and next should have been in their budget to start.

But then in 2014-15, it jumps up to about $14.1 million. And it's not clear how the Bulls are supposed to handle that, especially given their aversion to the luxury tax and the fact they may be subject to the repeater penalty by then. Between Asik, Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah, they have $61.6 million committed and that's without paying Taj Gibson, retaining Luol Deng, or adding any free agent or draft picks.

They're almost certainly a tax team, in other words, and in fact they're likely to be deep into the tax, even if the league's tax level rises a few ducats by then. Which makes the effective cost of keeping Asik that season closer to $30 million than $15 million. And as much as I may admire his defense and rebounding, it's inconceivable that Asik is worth anywhere near $30 million.

Houston will hope Asik can improve on that prognosis by upping his offensive production to slightly less pathetic levels, with the tutelage of Kevin McHale, but even so his defense justifies the contract.

Are there ways around this? Yes, but the medicine is worse than the disease. If in 2014 the Bulls were to use the amnesty clause on Carlos Boozer, who would be on the final year of his deal, that would cut $15 million from their cap number (and likely from their luxury tax bill) that year, but they would still have to pay Boozer, which would still make Asik's effective cost $30 million -- except in that case, it's $30 million and a starting power forward.

Alternatively, Chicago could use the stretch provision on Asik prior to Year 3. That would cost them $5 million a year in 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17, possibly saving them from a luxury tax in all three seasons.

But doing so only would give them two years of Asik, while still paying the entirety of the deal, which means they'll have signed him to a two-year deal for $24 million. Which is about as bad as the effective cost of three years, $39 million that we're presenting as the alternative. (You can also count the tax hits in years 1 and 2, but they're the same in both alternatives so we'll ignore them for now.)

Basically, there's no easy way out for Chicago, which is why they're unlikely to match Houston's offer sheet. They still have Gibson, who is an absolute defensive beast and is extension-eligible this summer -- presumably on far better terms than Asik's deal. Meanwhile, Chicago can shorten its frontcourt rotation to three men -- Boozer, Noah and Gibson -- while using Luol Deng as a small-ball 4 in stretches.

Thus, in all likelihood, Houston is going to end up with Asik. I have to admire their cleverness in pulling this off, but I also have to shake my head that the CBA allowed this.

When they get around to the next one, maybe they'll realize that it's crap to count the tax and cap hit in the year it hits for the matching team, while allowing the offering team to only offer one year at the higher level. Houston drove a truck through this loophole, but in the future requiring four-year deals for Arenas contracts will at least require teams to offer a more genuine maximum deal. Doing so in this case would have made it a four-year, $39 million deal from the Rockets, required nearly $10 million in cap space (and requisite harder decisions from the Rockets), and likely pushed them to a different alternative.

So congratulations, Houston -- it looks like Chef Linguini is likely all yours.

On to the next question: Is he worth it?

That's a bit of an eye-of-the-beholder question. Asik's advanced stats support the subjective viewpoint that he's one of the five or 10 best defensive players in basketball, and defense in general tends to be wildly underrated in the free-agent market (although weirdly, not in the draft). He is also, objectively, a monstrous rebounder, with his 20.1 Rebound Rate ranking sixth in the NBA last season.

Asik is a terrible offensive player, however, with bad hands, poor touch and a proclivity for illegal screens. Advanced stats seem to indicate that he takes away almost as much with his offense as he does with his defense -- but that overall he's a plus, even compared to the league average.

And that, in the big picture, makes him a second-tier starting center. And you know how much those are worth? About $8 million a year. Houston should know; they just paid nearly the same amount to the departed Samuel Dalembert.

Houston will hope Asik can improve on that prognosis by upping his offensive production to slightly less pathetic levels, with the tutelage of Kevin McHale, but even so his defense justifies the contract.

It also helps that Houston gets somebody under lock and key before re-signing its own free agents. The cap holds for Lee and Goran Dragic are low enough that it behooves the Rockets to use the cap space first, and then rebuild their backcourt.

From there, Houston can go in any number of directions, depending on Dwight Howard's availability and the market for Kyle Lowry. But first they took care of the most urgent need  if the Bulls don't match, the Rockets will have a real starting center this year, and they won't be overpaying for him.

Thank you, bud.

[color=white]repped[/color]

[NumberSix]

I thought the new CBA was gonna prevent GMs from being stupid.

[Force]

I thought the new CBA was gonna prevent GMs from being stupid.

Read the post above yours. This move is actually borderline genius by Houston. The only stupid taking place, was somebody who mistakes genius for stupid.

[ILLsmak]

If he can start, thats' not a terrible contract.

I dunno though, never watched him much.

-Smak

[FrankTony]

lol @ the moronic fans calling the backloaded contract brilliant move by Morey.

The contract is like this because of the Arenas rule to actually protect the Bulls and allow them to match. Any team in the league would have to offer a contract like this if they wanted Asik. It's a RULE.

The contract still counts 8.3m/year for Houston if Chicago doesn't match.

The masterplan from Morey went from Howard to Asik + 7 PFs in the roster.

MOST OVERRATED GM IN THE NBA BY FAR