Houston is such a bad defensive team that I now question how expendable Asik is for them. And if Celts do this, who takes Green's place? This trade seems to rely on drafting Parker.
That's so wack that they're bad defensively. Harden is the only seriously bad defender, Beverly and Howard are elite, and Parsons and Jones are average/above average defenders. Asik is elite as well.
Maybe we can blame it on Lin.
There problem is that their two best defenders, Howard and Asik, play the same position and rarely can be on the floor at the same time (because offensively, they both suck as PF).
While they are both elite defensive centers, Howard is the better offensive player and so he's going to get the lions' share of minutes. Howard has always been a player who plays a lot of minutes. He consistently plays 36-40 mpg. That doesn't leave a lot of minutes for Asik to get on the floor.
Thus Asik is an extreme luxury to have on the bench. His defensive talent goes to waste on the bench.
Morey really should have dealt him before the trading deadline to strengthen another part of their roster where they could get value and minutes from on the floor instead of sitting on the bench.
Even if he didn't get a starter back for Asik, if he had gotten just two significant upgrades for his bench, he could get 30-40 combined minutes of improved play out of a couple of players off the bench instead of just the 12-18 mpg he's typically getting from Asik. The rest of their bench is pretty bad.