The upstart Houston Rockets made an enormous offseason splash by buying and selling for former Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant.
Houston, we have now KD.
Per Shams Charania of ESPN, the Houston Rockets have acquired Kevin Durant from the Phoenix Suns in trade for Dillon Brooks, Jalen Inexperienced, the tenth general decide on this week’s NBA Draft, and 5 future second-round decisions.
Durant, who turns 37 in September, now joins an upstart Houston group recent off a breakout season. Houston would be the fifth cease of his NBA profession, which started in Seattle/Oklahoma Metropolis and has additionally featured stints in Golden State, Brooklyn, and Phoenix.
Although Durant’s high-profile collaboration with Bradley Beal and Devin Booker didn’t generate any lasting success, he put up stable numbers and stayed wholesome within the desert, averaging 26.9 factors, 6.3 rebounds, and 4.7 assists in 137 appearances during the last two years. He’ll now be part of a Houston group that positioned second on the Western Convention playoff bracket after a 52-win marketing campaign that broke a four-year playoff drought.
The Rockets fell to the Golden State Warriors in spherical one of many Western playoffs however Durant joins a potential-packed core that also options Alperen Sengun, Reed Sheppard, Jabari Smith Jr., and Amen Thompson. The group is overseen by third-year boss Ime Udoka, who earned Coach of the 12 months consideration for his efforts with final season’s group.
Within the deal, Houston says goodbye to Brooks and Inexperienced, who helped the franchise get again on monitor amidst the departure of James Harden.
After arriving because the second general select of G League Ignite in 2021, Inexperienced averaged 20.1 factors in Rockets uniform whereas Brooks lived as much as his sterling defensive repute after a 2023 sign-and-trade with Memphis. The Suns, recent off a disappointing 36-46 marketing campaign, are choosing up the items as they tear down from the disastrous Durant gambit and are welcoming of their fourth head coach during the last 4 seasons (Jordan Ott taking up for Monty Williams/Frank Vogel/Mike Budenholzer).
Sarcastically sufficient, the 2025 first-round decide that the Suns get again was initially their very own: it was despatched to the Brooklyn Nets for Durant on the 2023 commerce deadline earlier than Brooklyn despatched it to Houston in a draft day deal final summer season.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
