NBA Rumors: Houston Rockets Make Smart Play to Steal Marc Gasol from Grizzlies

The Houston Rockets are close to signing Marc Gasol to a max-contract, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski’s Twitter feed.

Rockets’ GM Daryl Morey is willing to work with the Memphis Grizzlies, Gasol’s current team that holds his restricted free agent rights, on a sign-and-trade and have reportedly extended a 4-year, $55 million offer sheet to the Spanish center.

Memphis has three days to match this offer or they will lose their big man.

This is a huge play for Houston, who recently got screwed by the league office when commissioner David Stern vetoed their three-way trade with the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Hornets that would have landed Marc’s brother, Pau on the Rockets' roster.

Pau is one of the best power forward/center combo big men in the game right now, but Marc is a very serviceable big and could be an integral part of a championship team.

It certainly isn’t a bad consolation prize, and they aren’t trading away Kevin Martin, Goran Dragic, Luis Scola or a first round pick to acquire him, either.

They are simply using cap room, which is something they are flush with right now, to sign their center of the future.

Memphis would be crazy not to match the offer, especially after their incredible playoff run last season that saw them knock the No. 1-seeded San Antonio Spurs out and give the Oklahoma City Thunder all they could handle in the second round before faltering in seven games.

Gasol was a huge part of that playoff success and it’s a big reason he’s about to get paid a lot of money. Memphis can’t afford to lose him, as they’ll have little productivity other than Zach Randolph at the PF and C positions.

It seems they realize that and are going to match, but may not be willing to pay him that much.

A sign and trade would at least net them someone like Scola from Houston to come in and help defend and rebound with Randolph scoring.

Keep it tuned to Bleacher Report over the next three days to see if Memphis matches or not and if Houston can work out a sign-and-trade if the Grizzlies do decide to pay Marc Gasol.