Houston Wins The Latest Kevin Durant Sweepstakes
The inevitable has happened. The Phoenix Suns have traded Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets, as first reported by Shams Charania. In return for the 36-year-old 15-time All-Star, Phoenix gets Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 pick in this year’s draft, and five future second-round picks.
The Rockets reportedly made Durant’s small list of preferred trade destinations, but the Suns were still able to wrangle a decent haul for the perennially disgruntled superstar. For his part, Durant learned he was being traded while on stage for a panel at Fanatics Fest in New York City.
The Rockets have taken a scrappy, young team that surpassed expectations by grabbing the West’s two-seed this season and will add a veteran superstar who, through all his faults, remains as potent a shooter as ever. Houston keeps its two best young talents in Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun, and replaces Jalen Green, an inconsistent player with a high ceiling but also a low floor, with Kevin Durant, who is consistently great but also consistently kinda crabby. Presumably the Rockets believe coach Ime Udoka’s his whole alpha dominance act, which feels ripped out of the worst podcast you’ve ever listened to, will keep his new star in check. It probably helps that the two have a prior relationship, going back to Udoka’s time as an assistant in Brooklyn and his assistant role with Team USA. Houston’s defense might take a step back without Brooks and with Durant, but they have reason to trust in their talent, spearheaded by Thompson, to maintain that same effectiveness and intensity.
For the Suns, the trade is an answer that only raises more questions. The biggest one: Is this the start of a teardown and rebuild? They’ve already announced their plan to partner Green in a backcourt with Devin Booker, which promises to be exciting one night and infuriating the next. They still have the albatross that is Bradley Beal and his contract, and now they have Dillon Brooks for an extra touch of chaos. Though the team does have a new front office, the trade reeks of owner Mat Ishbia’s affection for flashy names and star power over actual team cohesion and toughness.
The Suns do have lots of draft capital now, including the tenth pick in a two-, maybe three-player draft. They also have five second-rounders: one this year, two in 2026, one in 2030 from the Celtics, and one in 2032, according to ESPN. Maybe newly promoted GM Brian Gregory can make some magic out of them. Between this, the assortment of picks Memphis got from the Desmond Bane trade, and the stack of picks Brooklyn is now sitting on after shipping off Mikal Bridges, it looks like every young team is trying to build a Sam Presti-like empire. All the best to them, because while it’s hard to say for sure whether the Rockets got substantially better, absent a transformation from Green’s game, it’s already pretty clear that Phoenix did not.
