The Houston Rockets have matched the Brooklyn Nets’ 4-year, 37 million offer sheet to restricted free agent Donatas Motiejunas, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports.
Houston has matched Brooklyn's offer sheet and retained Donatas Motiejunas, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 5, 2016
On Friday, the Lithuaninan big man signed a 4 year/$37 million dollar sheet, giving the Rockets until 11:59 PM eastern time Monday to decide whether to match the deal and keep Motiejunas, or let him walk and join the Nets. With just under six hours to spare Houston general manager Daryl Morey made the call to match and bring Motiejunas back, who’s spent his whole career in Houston, after he was drafted 20th overall by Minnesota in the 2011 NBA Draft.
Motiejunas has not played this season, last season in fourteen minutes per game, his lowest since his rookie year, Motiejunas averaged 6.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, and shot forty seven percent from the field.
This is the third restricted free agent that the Nets have missed out on since general manager Sean Marks took over as the Miami Heat and Portland Trail Blazers both matched the hefty offer sheets the Nets signed Tyler Johnson and Allen Crabbe to, respectively, this past summer.
If Motiejunas had signed, he likely would’ve been the franchise’s best power forward automatically, but, for now, it’ll be back to the drawing board for Marks and the Nets’ front office. Although disappointing, certainly, these moves continue to show the Nets’ forward-thinking and desire to make the team better at any available avenue.
Adrian Wojnarowski — The Vertical
Justis Doucet contributed to the reporting above.
