Donatas Motiejunas agrees to new deal with Houston Rockets
After a holdout and a back-and-forth with an offer sheet, Donatas Motiejunas is back with the Houston Rockets.
After a holdout into the regular season, an offer sheet that was matched and a seemingly inexplicable refusal to report, the Houston Rockets and forward Donatas Motiejunas have agreed to a new contract.
Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reported the core terms.
After pulling offer sheet, Houston is signing Motiejunas to a four-year, $35M deal, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 9, 2016
The Rockets extended Motiejunas a qualifying offer as an restricted free agent during the offseason, and negotiations on a longer deal never really gained traction after the qualifying offer expired on October 1.
November came and went, and last Friday the Brooklyn Nets came out of the woodwork and signed Motiejunas to a four-year, $37 million offer sheet.
The Rockets matched that offer sheet within the required 72 hours, but they only had to match the principle terms of it without any bonus clauses. The resulting $6 million difference led to Motiejunas not reporting for a physical with Houston, in a strategic move by agent B.J. Armstrong.
The NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement requires a team to wait one year to trade a player after matching an offer sheet, but the Rockets can now trade Motiejunas in three months without his consent. The new deal also only fully guarantees him his $8.3 million salary for this season, with a mid-July trigger date to guarantee the contract in each of the final three years.
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Motiejunas was almost traded by the Rockets at last February’s deadline, but his lingering back issue led to a failed physical from the Detroit Pistons and the deal was rescinded. Assuming he can pass a physical now, Motiejunas should start practicing and be able to play very soon.
Motiejunas was limited to 37 games last season after back surgery, and he averaged 6.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game.
But in 2014-15 with Houston, Motiejunas played 71 games (62 starts) and averaged career-highs in points (12.0), rebounds (5.9) and assists (1.8) per game. The seven-footer also made close to 37 percent of his three-pointers that season, and his overall skill set looks like a great fit for coach Mike D’Antoni’s system.
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The Rockets are off to a nice start this season, with a 15-7 record that has them fourth in the Western Conference entering Friday night’s action. A healthy Motiejunas is another viable frontcourt piece for D’Antoni to deploy, and Houston could be a very dangerous team come playoff time.