Rockets keep Donatas Motiejunas after matching Nets’ offer sheet

Donatas Motiejunas is returning to the Houston Rockets.

The Rockets have opted to match the four-year, $37 million offer sheet Motiejunas signed with the Brooklyn Nets on Friday, which started the three-day clock for the Rockets to decide whether to keep the restricted free agent.

David Weiner put together an excellent breakdown of D-Mo’s contract based on what we know of the deal. The contract is flexible. The final two years of the deal are non-guaranteed. The Rockets could also bow out of the deal before next season if they choose to do so later this season (by March 1, 2017).

However, there are some inflexibilities. The Rockets can not deal Motiejunas before this year’s trade deadline given that is less than three months away. They also can not trade him without his consent until December of 2017. That could hinder the team’s summer flexibility a bit.

It will be interesting to see where Mike D’Antoni uses Motiejunas given that he has been getting good minutes from Nene, Sam Dekker and Montrezl Harrell, the three players that figure to lose some time in the rotation to make room for D-Mo. I expect him to be used at the four and as a smallball center.