Tuesday night word surfaced of a "mystery team" involved in talks for Houston center Omer Asik who is being auctioned off to the highest bidder. There were no indications of who that might be. RealGM.com reports that the team is the Portland Trail Blazers, or at least that the Blazers are indeed interested and involved in trade talks for Asik.
The Blazers' name has come up in reports before, based mostly on the idea that they would be interested in an upgrade over Robin Lopez defensively. The Blazers feature the league's best offense but have been middle-of-the-pack-to-bad defensively. They are currently 21st in points per possession allowed.
But still, why would the Blazers want to disrupt their team chemistry at 22-4 with the league's best record? Would gaining Asik defensively really be that big of an upgrade over Lopez considering Lopez can do things like "catch" and "put the ball in the little orange circle thingie?" Seems like an awfully big risk for a team that has so much going for it.
Additionally, the Blazers do not own their 2014 pick due to a previous trade (lottery protected), which means they lack what is considered to be the central asset Houston GM Daryl Morey wants back in a deal.
It would make sense that the Blazers wanted to keep the talks quiet, however, as to not disrupt the awesome run Portland has been on over the past month and a half of the season.
