There’s reportedly a “level of mutual interest” between Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Durant could very well be moved this offseason, with Charania previously reporting that the Suns are “expected to engage in trade conversations” involving the 15-time All-Star. That news dropped after the Suns, who just went 36-46 and missed the playoffs, fired head coach Mike Budenholzer after one season.
“This marks the first action in a summer of change coming to the Suns. Phoenix is expected to engage in trade conversations involving Durant and will have discussions on the future of [Bradley Beal], according to sources,” Charania wrote.
“Multiple teams will seriously pursue Durant, who finished another stellar season, and the franchise is expected to work with Durant and his business partner and Boardroom CEO Rich Kleiman on the next landing spot for the future Hall of Famer.”
Simply put, the Suns need to start over. They had championship aspirations as evidenced by trading for Kevin Durant in February 2023 before adding Bradley Beal during the 2023 offseason via a deal with the Washington Wizards.
But the Durant-Beal-Devin Booker didn’t result in even one playoff win with the team getting swept out of the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves last year before falling three games short of the play-in tournament this season.
Durant has one more year on a four-year, $194.2 million contract. It probably behooves the Suns to move him now and start a rebuild at this juncture. And it makes perfect sense for KD to move on as well, given that he’s still incredibly productive (26.6 PPG) and very well capable of being a star player on a competitive team.
At 36 years old, it’s understandable if Durant isn’t interested in being on a losing team that could in theory tear it down, so this could be a scenario where it makes sense to move on from both sides’ points of view.
As for the Rockets, they make sense. Houston is a young and competitive team that’s enjoying an accelerated rebuild, vaulting from 11th place last year to the Western Conference’s second seed this year.
Of course, the Rockets could hypothetically launch a deep playoff run this year and want to run it back with their group next season. However, an early playoff exit, as Charania noted, could perhaps change minds and force the Rockets into thinking about how they can make big waves to improve the roster.
For now, Durant remains a Sun, and the Rockets are looking forward to a first-round playoff matchup against the No. 7 seed Golden State Warriors.
