Houston Rockets: Why Donatas Motiejunas Agreed In Principle

The Houston Rockets decided to do the what’s in the best interest of the team by completing its last not finalized deal.

What is that you may ask?

The Houston Rockets have officially deciding match an offer sheet for Donatas Motiejunas to which could be multi-year deal.

So what does that exactly entail?

Let’s review if I may please.

We’ll rewind all the way back to October when this mess all started with the Rockets offering D-Mo the minimum qualifying offer of $4.4 million.

This is how business works and the Rockets were waiting to see if they could low-ball D-Mo to come back to work for cheap.

That didn’t happen.

One month later, the Rockets upped the ante by offering him a multi-year deal with the first year being guaranteed for $7 million.

D-Mo didn’t sign.

And just one week ago, the Brooklyn Nets, who had been rumored to land him since early in the off season, signed him to an offer sheet.

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This time, the deal was worth up to $8.5 million — $5 million upfront — for the first season guaranteed with the remaining years just the opposite.

The total package?

A deal worth four years, $37 million.

There was a wrinkle just a few days ago in regard to the stipulations of the contact causing him not to show up for physical.

For a minute there, I had wondered if we’d ever see D-Mo in Rocket uniform ever again but it looks like all barriers have been cleared.

He’ll be suiting up in Rocket Red soon enough.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports was quick on the draw with the news:

After pulling offer sheet, Houston is signing Motiejunas to a four-year, $35M deal, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) December 9, 2016

According to Woj, the terms of the deal are similar to the offer sheet that he signed with the Nets.

The biggest stickler was that the Rockets only had to honor the base amount of the contract of $31 million without the incentives the Nets had embedded.

But the biggest changes to the deal are that he is now guaranteed $8.3 million for this season with the incentives placed back into contract, earning him up to the original $37 million he had agreed to.

The Rockets will also have the ability to be able to trade him earlier than what was originally listed in contract and they’ll have a team option at the end of each season beyond this one to the end of the deal.

This is certainly a win-win for both parties and at least we know D-Mo will be a Rocket, for now.

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As much as I ribbed B.J. Armstrong for drawing this process along, he’s looking good at the moment for successfully negotiating a higher wage for his client.

But knows what the future will bring?

I’d imagine Mike D’Antoni is thrilled to have him back into the fold once again as he had outlined the five reasons why he could fit in his system the other day.

It’s good to have D-Mo back and I certainly hope that he’s still the player that he once was or otherwise the chapter of his career with the Rockets may be a rocky one.

So here we go — go Rockets.

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