Houston wants Jeff Green


Yesterday the rumor came out that the Celtics could be a potential trade partner for the Houston Rockets and their talented center Omer Asik. Following up on that report, today Bleacher Report/Turner Sports' reporter Zared Zwerling mentions that the Rockets really like Jeff Green.  It has been mentioned that the Rockets could have interest in Brandon Bass, but I'm hesitant to believe that. Bass played with Howard before in Orlando and they didn't work well together. Howard performs best with a tall small forward playing the 4. Rashard Lewis used to fill that role. Jeff Green could conceivably as well.

I'm not 100% sure if I buy that the Rockets "really like" Green. Their GM Daryl Morey is a big analytical stats guy and Green has never really been impressive to that group.  Personally I'm a big Asik fan. It' will be a lot easier to replace a player like Jeff Green than it would be to find a rebounding, rim protecter like Asik. Obviously Green is the flashier player and a strange thing has happened over the years. After a couple of years of fans lamenting the Perkins/Green trade (Many good reasons mind you), now all of a sudden Uncle Jeff has become a fan favorite in Boston.

Fans would hate a Jeff Green/Omer Asik trade, but it would help the Celtics moving forward. Asik and Sully would make a very quality big man duo. When you're rebuilding that's a great start. Regarding fans worrying that Asik is too good and the Celtics would win too many games and fall out of the high lottery with him, well first off it's not looking like we'll get a high lottery pick anyway. Secondly, you can't not make a trade that helps us in the future because it also helps us now. There are other players that can be moved to assure a better lottery pick. Or just playing Gerald Wallace 40 minutes a game at SF should do it. Temporarily the loss of Green would hurt our offense. This could result in more losses.

The question has to be who helps the Celtics more in the future Green or Asik? I'd go with Asik. But fear not Uncle Jeff fans, rumored trades don't happen more than they do. With that said, we've seen Ainge trade 'Toine (twice), Perkins, KG, and Pierce. I'm sure he wouldn't hesitate to trade anyone on the roster if it brought us closer to Banner 18.



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