Shawn Windsor

Detroit Free Press

Donatas Motiejunas isn’t happy with the Detroit Pistons. Stan Van Gundy doesn’t blame him.

The big man was all set to play for the Pistons last week until a trade fell through because Van Gundy, their president of basketball operations and coach, decided Motiejunas carried too much risk.

The Houston Rockets forward said he was fine and that the team physical was arbitrary. He said the Pistons’ decision to call off the trade — Houston was to get a conditional No. 1 pick in return — hurt his market value.

“Look, I feel bad for him, because I understand his points, in terms of his value and everything else,” Van Gundy said Wednesday. “(But) we felt we had to make the decision we made.”

The 25-year-old, 7-foot forward had been struggling with back problems this season. Still, the Pistons thought enough of him to make a three-team trade with the Rockets and the 76ers — Philadelphia was to get Joel Anthony. But after team doctors examined Motiejunas, Van Gundy nixed the deal.

“I just got ‘screwed,’ ” Motiejunas said, according an interview with a Lithuanian reporter translated on Reddit. “The injury was a pretense to call off the trade. They changed their minds. Now I will be talking to my agent and lawyers to clarify what to do next ... The medical examination I ‘failed’ was a joke.”

Van Gundy said the team went through a “very thorough process. We made the decision we made for the reasons we thought it was too much risk.”

But he was also sympathetic to Motiejunas.

“It’s a really tough profession for players,” he said. “People, I think, focus on the money they make, and obviously that’s great. But how many of us have jobs that on 48 hours’ notice, you’ve got to move your family anywhere they tell you to go and you got absolutely no say in it? He has the right to have whatever reaction he wants to have. I’m not resentful of that at all. I don’t take that personally. He was in a tough situation.”

Note: Rookie small forward Stanley Johnson, who has missed the last three games with a shoulder injury, didn’t practice Tuesday and will not play tonight in San Antonio, Van Gundy said.

Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor. Download our Pistons Xtra app on iTunes or Android!

Tonight: Spurs

Matchup: Pistons (31-29) at San Antonio (50-9).

Tip-off: 8, AT&T Center.

TV/radio: FSD; WMGC-FM (105.1).

Line: Spurs by 10 1/2.