Rockets Sign Omer Asik

2:48pm: The Rockets have officially added Asik, the team announced in a press release.

11:58am: The Bulls have officially declined to match Asik's offer sheet with the Rockets, tweets Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com. As a result, Houston will land Asik for three years and $25.1MM. Like Jeremy Lin's contract was, Asik's cap hit will be spread evenly across the three years, rather than being severely backloaded.

JULY 24TH, 11:27am: The Bulls will officially announce later today that they won't be matching Asik's offer sheet, says K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.

JULY 22ND, 1:45pm: The Bulls are expected to pass on Omer Asik's offer sheet, making him a member of the Rockets as of midnight Eastern time on Tuesday, tweets the Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Feigen. 

10:10am: Asik's offer sheet is expected to be delivered to the Bulls today in Las Vegas, but the Rockets will ask for a Tuesday deadline since attempts at delivery were made on Saturday, reports K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune (via Twitter).

JULY 20TH, 7:35pm: Asik has signed the offer sheet, but it has not yet been delivered to the Bulls, so the time period Chicago has to match has not yet begun, according to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. The report says the Bulls will have 48 hours from the time they have the offer sheet in their hands, but I believe they'll have three days.

5:39pm: Ken Berger of CBSSports.com notes, via Twitter, that the terms of Asik's offer sheet are the same as the Rockets gave Jeremy Lin: $5MM in the first year, $5.2MM in the second, and $14.9MM in the third.

3:52pm: Mark Berman of FOX 26 Houston reports (via Twitter) that the Rockets will finally formally submit Asik's offer sheet today. The Bulls will have three days to match it.

JULY 2ND, 11:34pm: The third year of Asik's deal can be as high as $14.898MM, tweets Larry Coon of ESPN.com. A one-time bump was built into the max salaries for 2012/13, but the salary cap itself will almost certainly be the same.

6:38pm: The Rockets and Omer Asik have reached agreement on a three-year, $25.1MM deal, a league source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter).  As a restricted free agent, the Bulls will have three days to match the offer sheet after it's signed on July 11th.

The offer appears to be significantly backloaded as the third and final year approaches $15MM, tweets K.C Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.  Johnson notes (via Twitter) that Derrick Rose will earn $17.8MM and Carlos Boozer will make $16.8MM in that same 2014/15 season.  The size of the offer coupled with the major payday at the end could make it a tough pill to swallow for Chicago.

The center picked up a good deal of interest from other clubs this summer, including the Pacers and Trail Blazers.  A couple of weeks ago, Bulls GM Gar Forman publicly stated that he intended to keep the defensive specialist in Chicago.

—–

View Comments (24)