Rockets Sign Joey Dorsey

FRIDAY, 8:44pm: The signing is official, the Rockets have announced (hat tip to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle).

6:23pm: The deal is for the minimum salary, and it’s fully guaranteed, Feigen writes in his full story

11:50am: The deal is guaranteed, according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, though it remains unclear if its fully so or just partially guaranteed (Twitter link).

11:28am: Agent Giorgios Dimitropoulos confirms the deal to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia (Twitter link).

TUESDAY, 11:14am: Center Joey Dorsey is returning to the NBA after agreeing to a two-year, $2MM deal with the Rockets, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The 30-year-old has been out of the NBA since the 2010/11 season after playing a total of 61 NBA games over three years with the Rockets, Kings and Raptors. He spent this past season playing for FC Barcelona Regal in Spain, a Euroleague Final Four team, as Wojnarowski points out. The minimum salary would provide $1,963,584 over two seasons for Dorsey, so it would appear that the Rockets are using the minimum-salary exception. It’s not clear how much guaranteed money is involved.

Dorsey started just 10 games and averaged 5.2 points and 5.4 rebounds in 15.4 minutes per game for Barcelona this past season. He played with Olympiacos in Greece the season before, so his teammate the past two years has been Kostas Papanikolaou, with whom the Rockets have reportedly been engaged in advanced discussions about a deal. Houston’s agreement with Dorsey wouldn’t necessarily preclude a deal for Papanikolaou, particularly if Dorsey is only getting the minimum salary.

The Rockets were set to be without a legitimate backup center in the wake of their agreement to send Omer Asik to the Pelicans, though it remains to be seen whether Dorsey is capable of assuming a role in the team’s rotation. He’s nonetheless familiar to the Houston front office, which originally acquired him on draft night in 2008 after the Blazers drafted him 33rd overall.