The Houston Rockets have leaked word that point guard Jeremy Lin is available for trade, according to a recent column by the leading sportwriter for the Chicago Bulls website.
Sam Smith, who has been writing exclusively for the Bulls website since 2008, said in his column Monday that Rockets management, headed up by General Manager Daryl Morey, has “quietly been sending out signals around the NBA they’d trade Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin, both of whom have enhanced their value since being lured last summer as free agents and were in the grand plan of GM Daryl Morey possibility to be used — as seemingly all his players are — as targets to be able to upgrade.
“Imagine Houston with Harden [if it] is able to sign Howard. Then maybe they work a deal to move Lin to the Jazz, who need a point guard, for maybe someone like Al Jefferson. And Asik as one of the league’s leading rebounders would certainly net a perimeter shooting threat. It’s a potentially attractive package to present to Howard that the Lakers probably cannot match.”
Of course Smith has his own skewed perspective on Jeremy Lin’s value — or lack thereof — to the Rockets. He seems to be approaching prospects for a Lin trade from the perspective of building a more potent team around James Harden.
“But the Houston Rockets could be the real threat,” writes Smith. “They have a young star in James Harden and the possibilities of putting together a fearsome team.”
Smith seems to have little sense of Lin’s potential value not only as a player but as a marketing asset in a major Asian American market like Los Angeles, or the success Lin has already had playing for Mark D’Antoni who now coaches the Lakers.
Lin is currently playing for the Rockets on a $25.1-mil. 3-year contract. His contribution to the Rockets this season has ranged from the spectacular — including a 38-point game against the San Antonio Spurs — to the abysmal.
Some commentators have accused Lin in particular of having the unfortunate habit of playing down to the level of the competition. The Rockets have won games against top teams like the Thunder and the Knicks one week only to lose the next to teams like the New Orleans Hornets and the Sacramento Kings.
