by Kevin Durant was traded to the Houston Rockets, reported ESPN’s Shams Charania on Sunday and dropped a number of large break news just before the NBA is crowned a champion later in the evening.
The Phoenix Suns get a package of picks and players back and settle on the deal from Houston as the apparent best of what they were probably offered by the other preferred destinations of Durant, including Minnesota, Miami, New York and San Antonio, who is reportedly number 1 on his list.
Instead, the former League MVP lands in another city in Texas, in what his third team will be in the past five years. Let’s break how Houston and Phoenix did it in this deal.
Start five: Projected missiles Starting Line -Up Na KD Deal
Details of the deal
Get rockets: Kevin Durant
Get suns: Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, no. 10 pick in 2025, 5 second round picks
Rockets Grade:
The rockets were able to add one of the most important scorers in competition history without giving up one of their two best building blocks in Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson. That is a victory.
Although Jalen Green was their leading scorer at 21 points per match, it came to his typical low shooting efficiency of 42 percent. The 36-year-old Durant exceeded his production far at 26.6 points at 52 percent and 43 percent of three.
The loss of Dillon Brooks will a little harm the perimeter defense of Houston, but it was necessary to make the money work and that is a loss that you would like to accept a player like Durant to a team that had one of the best defenses but offensive in the middle of the road (and downright poorly in the play -offs). Not to mention Brooks’s departure will help to set up a place in the rotation for the first round Pick Reed Sheppard from last year.
The age and availability of Durant in the future are a small concern, but you cannot accuse the rockets for a swing like this after emerging as the number 2 seed in the West last season.
Figure: A-
Solar figure:
The Suns were apparently fascinated by the leverage of Durant to choose his destination, so that they were limited to around five teams in which they could negotiate, so you have to assume that this was the best package they could get. Given the Cirumstans, it is not terrible.
The no. 10 choice in this year’s design should help them land a young player with a real advantage of continuing to build a team around Devin Booker, and Jalen Green still has a lot on his head as a career 20-point scorer who is only 23 years old.
Yet you cannot claim that they have become better by losing durant, which was never a reality. Adding two perimeter players does not feel like a team that already has Booker and Bradley Beal – unless they intend to move Beal (which will not be easy). Especially when none of those perimeter players is a point guard. It is nice to have the durant things behind them, but given what they gave up to get him (Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, four picks in the first round), this was an important step backwards.
Figure: C-
