Houston Rockets: Omer Asik’s Presence Will Be Missed
The Houston Rockets’ bench has been a pretty hot subject this off season, and rightfully so; after Houston traded away backup point guard Jeremy Lin and backup center Omer Asik, the bench got significantly weaker. As the offseason has rolled on, the Rockets have yet to add any dynamic pieces to a bench that is largely devoid of impact players. Re-signing Francisco Garcia and trading for Jason Terry is not what this team needs off the bench. And even if the Rockets did get a dynamic offensive player to carry the bench unit, they will still be missing something very, very important: defense.
What Omer Asik brought to the team wasn’t an offensive presence, as he is a player who simply cannot put the ball in the basket. Put-backs and layups were the extent of his offense. However, Asik was a legitimate defensive and rebounding presence to the team that really needed it when Dwight Howard was on the bench. Without him on the team, the bench loses its defensive anchor. It’s bad enough that nobody on the bench has proven to be able to take the reigns of an offense (this will remain to be seen with some of the younger players), but to lose the player who anchored the unit and not have a viable replacement at center is definitely a big blow.
General manager Daryl Morey needs to be more aggressive in his pursuit of bench players, as the Rockets have been pretty content with what they have. Since signing Trevor Ariza, the Rockets haven’t really done much to improve the team. They have added players who are over-the-hill, or very unproven players. Asik will be tough to replace this late in the market. Barring a trade, this team will have trouble stopping other teams when Howard isn’t out there. Asik and Howard were both very good as defensive anchors last season. In fact, Omer Asik was a lot like Howard last year, defensively. Let’s compare:
Omer Asik:
| Season | G | MP | PER | TS% | ORB% | DRB% | TRB% | AST% | STL% | BLK% | TOV% | USG% | ORtg | DRtg | OWS | DWS | WS | WS/48 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-14 | 48 | 968 | 14.0 | .570 | 12.3 | 30.1 | 21.7 | 3.8 | 0.7 | 2.8 | 19.4 | 13.8 | 109 | 103 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.4 | .121 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/4/2014.
Dwight Howard:
| Season | G | MP | PER | TS% | ORB% | DRB% | TRB% | AST% | STL% | BLK% | TOV% | USG% | ORtg | DRtg | OWS | DWS | WS | WS/48 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-14 ★ | 71 | 2396 | 21.3 | .600 | 11.4 | 27.9 | 20.1 | 9.3 | 1.2 | 4.0 | 17.5 | 24.0 | 109 | 101 | 4.0 | 4.1 | 8.0 | .161 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/4/2014.
Offensively, Howard obviously outclasses Asik. While Omer Asik’s True Shooting percentage (TS%) of 57 percent is similar to Howard’s 60 percent, it doesn’t mean he was as good as Howard. Most of Asik’s offense comes via put-backs and layups; it’s certainly no surprise that Omer Asik’s Player Efficiency Rating comes in at a below average 14.0, to Howard’s 21.3. When you couple that with their respective Usage percentages (USG%), it becomes clear that Asik simply can’t create his own offense.
What is intriguing is that Omer Asik and Howard had very similar Defensive Ratings (DRtg) and rebound percentages. Asik was actually a better rebounder than Howard was, having a Total Rebound Percentage (TRB%) of 21.7%; over one whole percent higher than Howard, who is considered one of the best rebounders in the NBA. If Asik had gotten more playing time, his Win Shares would be a lot closer to Howard’s; I don’t put that much stock into that disparity, in this case.
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Howard was still a better defensive player, thanks to that higher block percentage (BLK%) and lower Defensive Rating, but the fact that Omer Asik ranked as favorably as he did against one of the NBA’s best defensive players (and winner of three Defensive Player of the Year awards) really tells the story of how good Asik was on the defensive end.
All of that being said, Omer Asik definitely wasn’t a great player; his offense left a lot to be desired, as he was a lot like James Harden, only defensively; he was a one way, defense-only player. He couldn’t be trusted with the ball from anywhere other than under the basket, and similar to Howard, he couldn’t make his free throws at a high enough percentage. His offense isn’t what the Rockets will miss, as his offensive production can be replaced easily enough; it’s the rebounding and defense that will hurt the Rockets next year.
Omer Asik’s mere presence will be missed a lot more than some people would like to believe. Trading Asik to the New Orleans Pelicans for a first round pick last month wasn’t a major deal; the team still had time to go out and get some defense elsewhere. It’s because they haven’t gotten anybody noteworthy is why they will likely miss Omer Asik more than they realize. And even though he was a bit of a head case last year due to Howard starting over him, he was still a valuable piece of Houston’s potential championship puzzle.