The Brooklyn Nets have signed Houston Rockets restricted free agent Donatas Motiejunas to a four-year, $37 million offer sheet, according to Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. The last two years of the deal are non-guaranteed, per Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.
This deal will include “trigger dates” prior to free agency where the team must pick up his option, a perk which makes Houston matching the offer even more likely.
The Rockets will have three days to match the sum offered by the Nets if they hope to keep their dynamic 7-footer on the roster. The offer puts him in the realm of $9 million-plus per year, which is the most he's been offered thus far.
Houston had pulled its previous offer to Motiejunas after months of back-and-forth with the Lithuanian big man. The 26-year-old wanted more than the one-year deal for around $7 million ($8 million after incentives) that the team offered and he's yet to make his season debut.
Motiejunas has been a serviceable stretch four when healthy. In 71 games, including 62 starts during the 2014-15 season, he averaged 12 points on 50 percent shooting from the floor and 36.8 percent shooting from deep. But he's been far from healthy as he's played in just 214 of 328 possible games in his four-year NBA career.
Brooklyn could use a versatile big like him as a way to space the floor along with center Brook Lopez, who has emerged as a three-point threat this season. He would join a Nets' big man rotation that is shooting a combined 36.4 percent from beyond the arc.
Donatas Motiejunas appeared in just 37 games for the Rockets last season, averaging a mere 6.2 points on 28 percent shooting from deep.
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