Five years after being drafted, Luis Scola has finally signed with an NBA team.

Scola, who was chosen by San Antonio in the 2002 draft but never played for the Spurs, was introduced as the newest member of the Houston Rockets on Tuesday.

The Spurs held his rights since 2002 while he continued to play for Tau Ceramica of the Euroleague. The Rockets obtained the draft rights to the Argentinian forward and acquired Jackie Butler in exchange for Vassilis Spanoulis in a trade last week with the Spurs. Houston also had to give up a second-round pick in the 2009 draft for Scola.

"Luis fills a position of need," Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said. "We thought he was the best guy out there and we worked really hard to get him here."

New coach Rick Adelman thinks Scola will help in the continued development of Yao Ming.

"I looked at a lot of tape on Luis and how he plays and I think he's going to be a great attribute to Yao," Adelman said. "He's very active."