Strange case of Donatas Motiejunas and the Rockets
— -- Donatas Motiejunas and the Houston Rockets are at an impasse. After the Rockets matched the Brooklyn Nets' rare in-season offer sheet to the restricted free agent, Motiejunas has opted not to report for the physical necessary to complete his signing.
Why are Motiejunas and his agent, former NBA player B.J. Armstrong, so unhappy with Houston's matching the contract? And how might the situation play out?
NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) FAQ author Larry Coon and Insider's Kevin Pelton help provide answers to your questions.
How'd we get here?
Pelton: As ESPN's Calvin Watkins reported, the contention between Motiejunas and the Rockets stems from $6 million in bonuses that were part of Brooklyn's offer but don't have to be matched by Houston because they're not part of the "principal terms" of the offer sheet. Why does the CBA make this distinction?
Coon: There's always been a tug-of-war between players wanting more freedom of movement and teams wanting stability and the ability to retain star talent. Restricted free agency is part of the compromise between those two competing positions.
As with everything else, the devil's in the details. The first problem you come to is with incentives. A bottom-dwelling team might try to sign a restricted free agent with an incentive that pays the player extra money if the team wins 50 games. That team's not winning 50 games this season, so what does it care?
But the matching team cares -- if it wins 50 games, it'll have to give the player the money. So the league levels the playing field by making the player's old team match just the principal terms of the contract. The principal terms include things like years, salaries, guarantees, etc., but they don't include incentive compensation unless they are based on league honors (such as making the All-Star team) or are classified as "likely" bonuses for both teams.
Here's where we get into trouble with D-Mo. The Nets included incentives in their offer that weren't considered likely for both teams. This meant that Houston wasn't responsible for matching those terms. D-Mo's contract with the Rockets is effectively smaller than what in theory should have been the same contract he signed with Brooklyn. I can see why he's upset, but them's the rules.
Pelton: I can see why he's upset too, but I guess I don't understand quite how we got in this position. Armstrong and the Nets knew the rules going in, so why would they include incentives that made the contract more lucrative for Brooklyn than Houston? Isn't that the opposite of what you'd want to do in an offer sheet you're hoping won't be matched?
Maybe there's some facet of this that I'm not considering, but I can't help but think that Armstrong blew it. He negotiated an offer sheet that that screams "match me," but pays D-Mo less if it's matched.
What's next?
Pelton: OK, so now that Motiejunas has decided not to report for his physical, what are Houston's options?
Coon: If a player doesn't report for a physical under this situation, the matching team still holds all the cards. It can simply wait the player out -- he can't play for anyone else in the meantime, including the team that signed him to the offer sheet. Or, it can withdraw its match. If this happens, the player goes back to being a restricted free agent, except he can no longer sign with the team that signed him to the offer sheet.
In that case, it would mean some other team would have to pony up an offer if Motiejunas is going to play this year. I don't think that's very likely -- only a couple teams have enough cap room to sign him, and they all know that an offer has to be bigger than Brooklyn's to have any chance of getting past the Rockets.
D-Mo would have until March 1 to sign an offer sheet with another team, or until the end of the regular season to sign with the Rockets. If he doesn't sign, Houston can simply give him another qualifying offer next summer, and he's right back in the same boat as a restricted free agent.
It's important to note that the rules are written the way they are in order to protect the spirit and intent of restricted free agency. It's a system that was agreed to by the league and the union, and the rules are spelled out the way they are to protect the system. A player can't decide on his own that he doesn't like the terms and conditions that the players collectively agreed to.
Pelton: All right, so now that you've outlined the Rockets' options, what would you do if you were in Daryl Morey's shoes?
Coon: I have mixed feelings on this one. First of all, these are the rules to which the players agreed, and they protect the spirit and intent of that agreement. We can't let players and agents decide that the rules don't apply to them when they don't like the outcome. So from that perspective, I'm for Morey saying, "Ball's in your court, D-Mo."
On the other hand, Morey is trying to win games, so if there's a reasonable compromise that gets Motiejunas on the team, maybe they seek one out. Principles and results are in conflict on this one.
Pelton: Withdrawing the match doesn't seem to make much sense for Houston right now. Now that we know the Rockets owe Motiejunas a maximum of $31 million over the next four years, this looks like a team-friendly contract, so if he decides to report for his physical that's great for Houston. In the meantime, the Rockets seem to be getting along just fine without Motiejunas. So unless they suffer severe injuries in the frontcourt, I don't see him gaining much leverage.
The only way I see Houston losing this standoff is if Motiejunas decides to report in late February, in which case he'd be credited with a full season played but the Rockets wouldn't get the benefit of his services for nearly a full season. That would be particularly problematic because Houston has to decide by that same March 1 date whether to waive Motiejunas before his 2017-18 salary becomes guaranteed.
How will this actually play out?
Pelton: Given Morey's love of arbitrary, self-imposed deadlines, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Rockets set a deadline between now and February 1 for Motiejunas to report lest they pull their match. That would give them some time to negotiate a revised deal that pushes back his 2017-18 guarantee date but also protect them from the worst-case scenario of Motiejunas showing up to accept their offer in late February.
Coon: Salesmanship 101 says you need to create a sense of urgency, and that urgency just doesn't exist right now.
In the meantime, I think Morey might even be happy with the situation just the way it is. The team is playing well right now without D-Mo, so there's no rush to get him in uniform. Having him waiting in the wings as insurance in case Clint Capela goes down isn't the worst thing for the Rockets.
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