The deal was done, the contract signed. It was too late to haggle when Adrian Griffin found out just how much the Rockets thought of him.

Griffin had signed Thursday to help fill the Rockets' expected opening at small forward and was sitting in the passenger seat of Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson's Jeep when Dawson described the qualities that led him to Griffin.

"He's a very versatile player," Dawson said. "He plays the two and three (shooting guard and small forward). He's very solid. Low turnovers. Does everything well. He'll make everyone better. He's one of those players coaches love to have. He's good in the locker room, good on the court, good off the court. A quality person."

Asked if Griffin was blushing, Dawson joked, "He thinks I'm talking about someone else."

But by then, Dawson had signed Griffin, a free agent after two seasons with the Mavericks, to a two-year contract worth, according to sources with knowledge of the deal, roughly $1.5 million, the minimum for a player heading into his fifth NBA season.

In addition to Dawson's long list, Griffin could help make James Posey expendable.

Facing today's 5 p.m. deadline to match the offer to keep Posey, the Rockets' starting small forward last season, or lose him to the Memphis Grizzlies, Griffin could serve as a similarly defensive-minded small forward who can also work in at shooting guard.

Dawson said he would not announce a decision on matching the four-year, $24 million offer sheet until today. But the Rockets signed shooting guard/small forward Eric Piatkowski less than a week after Posey, a restricted free agent, signed his offer sheet. The addition of Griffin to Piatkowski, and forwards Glen Rice and Bostjan Nachbar would seem to make it even more likely the Rockets will let Posey go, especially at that price, with the Rockets' payroll next season expected to trigger a luxury tax.