The Houston Rockets higher hope ahead Kevin Durant is the final piece they should win their third championship.
The Rockets are buying and selling guard Jalen Inexperienced, ahead Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 decide within the 2025 NBA Draft and 5 second-round picks to the Phoenix Suns for Durant, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Durant — a former Texas Longhorns star — might be joyful to be returning to the Lone Star State. However can he ship Texas-sized outcomes for the Rockets?
Durant, 36, averaged 26.6 factors per recreation in 62 regular-season video games this season, the sixth most within the league. The 2-time Finals MVP, nevertheless, hasn’t carried a group to a championship since profitable his second title with the Golden State Warriors in the course of the 2017-18 season.
When Durant was with the Brooklyn Nets, they by no means made the Japanese Convention Finals.
The Nets dealt Durant to the Suns in February 2023. The group by no means reached the Western Convention Finals throughout Durant’s time in Phoenix. This season, the Suns went 36-46 and missed the playoffs.
Buying and selling a promising participant in Inexperienced, 23, may very well be dangerous for the Rockets. In the course of the common season, he led Houston in scoring, averaging 21 PPG on 42.3 % capturing from the sphere in 82 video games.
The Rockets might’ve used their first-rounder to construct round Inexperienced. In Tankathon’s newest mock draft, the Suns take Maryland heart Derik Queen — who logged 16.5 PPG in 36 video games in the course of the 2024-25 season— with decide No. 10.
Not like Durant, Inexperienced could by no means grow to be a playoff performer. His scoring common dipped to 13.3 PPG in seven postseason video games, which is one key motive the Golden State Warriors eradicated the Rockets in seven video games within the first spherical of the Western Convention.
Maybe Durant will recapture his playoff magic in Houston, but when he would not, the Rockets could marvel in the event that they gave up an excessive amount of for him.
