The Detroit Pistons made a surprising move of waiving star forward Josh Smith, who could become an unrestricted free agent once he clears waivers on Wednesday.

According to reports, the Houston Rockets emerged as frontrunners to land Smith, while several teams, including the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat are also planning to make a run at signing the 29-year-old forward.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported that the Rockets are favorites in the race to acquire Smith, who averaged 13.1 points to go along with 7.2 rebounds and 4.7 assists in 28 games for the Pistons this season.

The Rockets have been interested in getting Smith over the past two years. Sources said that Houston made an aggressive move to look for a sign-and-trade deal with Atlanta last year before Smith eventually agreed to sign a four-year, $56 million deal with the Pistons.

Smith is also intrigued by the possibility of moving to Houston, where he could compete for a title this season. The 11-year veteran is also a good friend of Rockets star center Dwight Howard, which makes most analysts believe that Smith will strongly consider joining Houston.

The Rockets also have the upper hand among playoff contenders. They can offer their biannual exception worth $2.007 million per year to Smith, while other interested teams can only offer a veteran's minimum worth $1.4 million per season.

Aside from the Rockets, their Western Conference rival, the Mavericks, are also being considered as a possible destination for Smith because of his close relationship with Rajon Rondo, who was recently acquired by Dallas in a blockbuster trade with the Boston Celtics.

Rondo, who said that he talks to Smith almost every day, believes that adding a player of Smith's caliber could make them a strong title contender this season.

"I think we can use an athletic big," Rondo said via ESPN. "They traded me for Brandan Wright. Besides Tyson [Chandler], our other bigs are perimeter shooters. Josh brings a lot to the game -- his intangibles, he can make plays, rebound, defend. He'd be a good fit anywhere, but especially here I think he'd be a good fit."

The Heat, on the other hand, are also making moves to convince Smith to move to Miami this season to take the role left by LeBron James, who decided to return to Cleveland in the offseason.

According to Marc Stein of ESPN, the Heat applied for a Disabled Player Exception for Josh McRobert's season-ending knee injury, which could give them $2.65 million of cap space to sign Smith.

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