Kevin Durant traded to Rockets: Grades, response, Suns’ subsequent steps

It is not day by day the NBA world will get a Recreation 7 of the Finals and a future Corridor of Famer changing teams via blockbuster trade.

However simply hours earlier than the Oklahoma City Thunder and Phoenix Suns play for the 2025 title (8 p.m. ET, ABC), the Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets linked as much as ship Kevin Durant to Houston in a deal for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 total choose in Wednesday’s draft and 5 second-rounders.

Which franchise received the commerce? How will Durant match throughout the Rockets’ younger roster? Are the Suns going full rebuild? ESPN NBA insider Kevin Pelton grades the deal from each angle.

Houston Rockets: B+

There was an odd distinction over the past month as dialogue of Durant’s subsequent vacation spot heated up on the similar time the 2025 NBA playoffs had been reaching their conclusion. Youth and depth led the Pacers and Thunder to the NBA Finals, but groups had been competing to catch them by giving up a number of contributors to herald Durant, who will flip 37 across the begin of coaching camp.

Coming off ending second within the West with just one starter (guard Fred VanVleet) older than 28, the Rockets had been certainly greatest positioned to string the needle of surrounding Durant with sufficient expertise to contend for a championship — notably as the worth dropped to the purpose the place they did not have to incorporate any of their most prized younger gamers in return.

The seven-game sequence Houston misplaced to the veteran-laden Golden State Warriors within the opening spherical uncovered the Rockets’ want for extra half-court scoring punch. The Rockets ranked twenty second in factors per play on their first try to attain exterior of transition, per Cleaning the Glass, forward of solely the Orlando Magic amongst playoff groups.

In the course of the common season, Houston was in a position to compensate with frequent use of transition and by dominating the offensive glass. In accordance with Cleansing the Glass, no group averaged extra factors per missed shot on second possibilities. Each of these components are inclined to dry up within the playoffs, particularly late in shut video games. The Rockets went 0-3 in “clutch” video games in opposition to the Warriors, posting an unsightly 91 offensive ranking with the margin inside 5 factors within the final 5 minutes of these video games per NBA Advanced Stats.

Though Durant is not as singular a scorer as in his prime, when he posted a real capturing proportion (TS%) not less than 15% higher than league common 9 instances according to Basketball-Reference, he is nonetheless pretty much as good as nearly anybody creating his personal offense. Amongst gamers with a utilization price of 28% or larger in not less than 500 minutes final season, solely Denver Nuggets three-time MVP massive man Nikola Jokic surpassed Durant’s .642 TS%.

The distinction with Inexperienced particularly favors Durant. Additionally a No. 2 choose, Inexperienced had Houston’s highest utilization price final season with a below-average .544 TS%. (All-Star heart Alperen Sengun, who had the group’s second-highest utilization, wasn’t any higher at .545 however makes extra performs for others and has scored extra effectively previously. Inexperienced’s TS% was a profession excessive.)

All of the Rockets’ younger stars confronted a tricky adjustment to the playoffs, however none extra so than Inexperienced, who averaged 13.3 PPG on 37% capturing. His 38-point Recreation 2 was the one time Inexperienced surpassed 12 factors or shot higher than 40% within the sequence. Primarily, Golden State condensed all of the fears about Inexperienced’s weaknesses as a number one scorer into one, salient seven-game pattern.

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The numbers behind KD’s commerce to the Rockets

With Kevin Durant heading to Houston, try some key statistics and information from his time with the Suns.

The larger loss for Houston within the quick time period will certainly be Brooks, whose arrival was key to the Rockets’ speedy evolution from 60-plus losses in each 2021-22 and 2022-23 to 52 wins final season. Together with VanVleet and coach Ime Udoka, Brooks helped rework Houston’s defensive tradition. And as a lot because the Rockets utilized depth to complete atop a crowded pack of West contenders through the common season, they’re abruptly skinny on the perimeter.

Amen Thompson will undoubtedly be a key half to fixing no matter points this commerce creates. Thompson, who received my vote for Defensive Participant of the 12 months, surpassed Brooks as Houston’s perimeter stopper final season. (Having two elite defenders was definitely a luxurious, one which helped the Rockets defend each Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler within the opening spherical.)

As a result of Thompson can defend on the perimeter at 6-foot-7, swapping two wings for the 6-foot-11 Durant basically strikes him from the Rockets’ energy ahead to their capturing guard with out essentially altering the construction of Houston’s offense.

Will probably be attention-grabbing to see the place Udoka settles on a fifth starter alongside Durant, Sengun, Thompson and VanVleet. Jabari Smith Jr. may transfer again into the beginning 5 after Thompson changed him within the lineup midseason, which might give the Rockets a frontcourt stuffed with gamers listed at 6-foot-11. Alternatively, Houston’s most like-for-like substitute for Brooks can be sixth man Tari Eason.

Selling a type of gamers to the beginning 5 does put extra strain on latest first-round picks Reed Sheppard and Cam Whitmore to step ahead. Sheppard, the No. 3 total choose, performed simply 654 minutes as a rookie, whereas Whitmore was on the fringes of Udoka’s rotation when everybody was wholesome. Whitmore has been productive when he is gotten alternatives and Sheppard was my top-rated prospect in last year’s draft, so the Rockets’ entrance workplace is justified in believing each gamers are able to contributing extra.

Including Durant, and presumably signing him to an extension past 2025-26, will power tough monetary selections for Houston. Having signed heart Steven Adams to a three-year, $39 million extension, the Rockets are already pushing the luxurious tax this season. In the event that they fill out their roster with gamers making the minimal, they’re about $33 million under the projected luxury-tax line earlier than addressing VanVleet. Houston holds a $44.9 million group possibility for the veteran level guard however may decline it in favor of a long-term deal that pays him much less in 2025-26.

Paying a small quantity of luxurious tax this season would not have an effect on the Rockets a lot, however delaying the clock on the repeater tax may have enormous ramifications down the street. Houston will get way more costly as soon as Thompson’s rookie contract expires in 2027. The Rockets are certainly penciling in a max deal for Thompson, whereas Eason and Smith are eligible for rookie extensions now. In the meantime, Durant’s wage may improve on an extension as he heads into his late 30s.

These are issues for one more day. Houston has moved on to the following section of a powerful roster construct with out giving up any of the group’s most dear draft picks. The Rockets retained Phoenix’s unprotected 2027 first-round choose, plus the chance to get the 2 better of picks from the Suns, Brooklyn Nets and Dallas Mavericks in 2029. In addition they have a swap with the Nets in 2027 that places strain on Brooklyn’s rebuild to speed up.

Primarily based on their mixture of younger expertise and the shortage of a go-to scorer, Houston was at all times one of the best match as Durant’s subsequent group. Now we’ll see whether or not he can carry the Rockets to their first playoff sequence win since former Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder teammate James Harden was starring in Houston.

Phoenix Suns: B

This Durant commerce is definitely the start of a roster makeover relatively than the completion of it. Phoenix received again a pair of wings, exacerbating the imbalance of a roster whose 5 highest-paid gamers (Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, Inexperienced, Brooks and Grayson Allen) may all be referred to as pure capturing guards.

Pending these future strikes, this Durant commerce appears pragmatic for the Suns, who by no means stood an opportunity of recouping the worth they gave as much as get him from the Nets on the 2023 commerce deadline. Durant is greater than two years older now and a 12 months away from free company, which means Phoenix had far much less management of negotiations. And after the group’s relationship with Durant frayed when the Suns mentioned buying and selling him in February, bringing him again wasn’t a practical menace.

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What Kevin Durant commerce means for Rockets, Suns

Tim Bontemps breaks down what the Rockets and Suns are gaining from the Kevin Durant commerce.

The worst-case situation for Phoenix was buying and selling Durant for veterans who match higher alongside Beal and Booker in a misguided try to win now. Once more, let’s not rule out that occuring down the road, however for now the Suns received what might be one of the best 2025 draft choose to alter palms and the 23-year-old Inexperienced.

I by no means appreciated the three-year extension the Rockets gave Inexperienced, which each pays him like an above-average starter ($33.3 million in 2025-26) when he is not presently one and permits him to turn into an unrestricted free agent at age 25 in 2027 if he does get away. (That extension did serve its goal for Houston, as structuring this deal as a sign-and-trade involving Inexperienced as a restricted free agent would virtually definitely have been unattainable.)

Nonetheless, it is definitely attainable Inexperienced can faucet into his upside if he sticks round. He is by no means performed alongside a creator as proficient as Booker, and Inexperienced may get extra alternatives as a “second-side man” when the ball swings over to him after defenses have loaded as much as cease Booker.

Brooks would instantly turn into the Suns’ greatest perimeter defender, and it is amusing to see him lastly land in Phoenix six-plus years after the miscommunication over which “Brooks” the Suns were getting in a deal involving Trevor Ariza, lengthy since retired. If Phoenix goes to chop payroll to keep away from exceeding the second apron and having one other first-round choose frozen from trades, nonetheless, Brooks is a probable candidate given his worth all through the league.

In 5 years, the No. 10 choose will possible matter most to the Suns. They have not picked that top since 2020, once they jumped from the lottery to the NBA Finals after taking Jalen Smith No. 10, two picks forward of Tyrese Haliburton. Phoenix, which has just one first-round choose on a rookie contract on the roster (Ryan Dunn), now holds a pair of first-rounders subsequent Thursday.

Buying Durant was clearly a failure for the Suns, who ended up profitable solely a single playoff sequence throughout his three seasons on the roster and nonetheless owe their 2027 and 2029 first-round picks to that commerce. Phoenix did not have practically sufficient leverage to get these picks again from the Rockets.

That selection, plus the next Beal commerce that additional restricted the Suns’ flexibility and others that misplaced management of their first-rounders via 2031, is previously. All they will do now’s attempt to preserve making higher choices that incrementally brighten a dark future outlook.