Francisco Garcia declines player option with Rockets, becomes free agent

On the eve of free agency, the Rockets are scraping together every penny they can find to field as close to a max offer as possible. Today, that job just got easier. After declining Troy Daniels' option earlier today, the team officially got word from Francisco Garcia that he will decline his player option for 2014-15, forgoing over $1.3 million in salary and giving the Rockets over $800,000 in additional cap space.

It's unclear whether the Rockets plan on signing him to another deal after a disappointing season, but Garcia becomes an unrestricted free agent and is now free to sign anywhere. He's an adequate defender and a historically good shooter, but a very poor season in Houston after an excellent one put a dent in his value and raised questions about whether the 33 year old is past his prime. A number of teams will likely come calling, but whether they will offer a guaranteed deal is another question.

For the Rockets, the bottom line is that their free agency prospects just got marginally better. We'll see what happens when they go chasing in less than 24 hours.