NBA: Bulls center Asik agrees to offer sheet with the Rockets

The Houston Rockets have long been looking for an inside presence, and they think they may have found one in Chicago Bulls back-up Omer Asik, with the two sides verbally agreeing to a $25.1 million offer sheet, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported. Asik is set to submit the offer sheet on July 11 (July 12, PHL time), which is when players can formally sign new deals. The Bulls will then have three days to decide whether or not to match the offer, as Asik is currently a restricted free-agent. The back-loaded deal has the first two years set at roughly $5 million, with the third year inflating to around $15 million, a tactic designed to scare the Bulls away from matching, as it would put them way above the luxury tax line. Chicago is already due to pay roughly $45 million in the 2014-15 season to just three players: Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah, and Derick Rose. On paper, Asik's numbers aren't quite impressive. In 13.1 minutes during the 2011-12 regular season, he averaged 2.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in 13.1 minutes, but advanced statistics show he is one of the best defensive centers in the league, making him a perfect fit for a team that just drafted three young scoring threats in the 2012 Draft. Houston recently dealt away their only remaining true center on their roster, Samuel Dalembert, and are badly in need of a player to fill in that void.  Chicago may not opt to match however, and possibly opting instead to bring in Real Madrid power forward Nikola Mirotic, a FIBA Europe Under-20 MVP whose draft rights they acquired last year in a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves. - AMD, GMA News