Rafael Stone: Negotiations were limited in Rockets-Suns trade talks for Kevin Durant

USA Today

a day ago

'It wasn't one of those three weeks of negotiations, at least not from my perspective,' Rockets GM Rafael Stone told Matt Thomas of SportsTalk 790.
In a conversation with Matt Thomas, radio play-by-play voice of the Rockets and host of The Matt Thomas Show with Ross on flagship radio station SportsTalk 790, general manager Rafael Stone explained the negotiations — or lack thereof — that went into his recent trade talks with the Phoenix Suns.
On June 22, the sides agreed in principle to a deal involving Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, and draft equity going from Houston to Phoenix in exchange for All-Star forward Kevin Durant. Earlier in the month, it was widely reported that the Suns wanted to get a Durant trade done prior to the 2025 NBA draft, and the Rockets were one of his preferred destinations — which helped with leverage.
With the deal now finalized, Stone was able to explain how it all came to be. When asked if it was an intense negotiating window, Stone said:
Very early on, we decided the deal had to look a certain way. We articulated that. Then, I don't want to say we were done, but to a certain degree... that's kind of where we were.
If that ended up being something they (the Suns) wanted to pursue, then great. And if not, then we understood. So, there wasn't a ton of back and forth. I don't know what it was like on their end, but from ours... making money work in the NBA is hard. There were very limited ways to do it.
Once we figured that piece of it out, I think we knew from a value position we were giving what we thought was a lot. I think they did great in the trade. I think we gave them a tremendous amount of value. That was it from our perspective, and they had to canvass the market, and do whatever they had to do on their end to get comfortable. Eventually, they did, and then the deal happened.
But it wasn't one of those three weeks of negotiations, at least not from my perspective.
Stone's comments largely mesh with reports from mid-June that Houston had a 'firm offer' for Durant, which the Suns initially weren't thrilled with. But as time passed and the draft neared, they canvassed the market and seemingly got more comfortable, as Stone alluded to.
As explained by Rockets Wire in early June, there were very limited financial pathways for Houston to send out sufficient salary for a Durant trade to be permissible under the league's Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Durant will make $54.7 million next season, so Houston needed to send out something in that ballpark to get a deal done.
Beyond Green ($33.3 million) and Brooks ($22.1 million), other options making salaries of greater than $10 million — i.e. enough to help move the financial needle in a large trade — included Jabari Smith Jr. and Reed Sheppard. But Smith recently agreed to a contract extension with the Rockets, and Stone made it clear in his conversation with SportsTalk 790 that Houston prioritized keeping Sheppard.
'He's absurdly talented,' Stone said of the second-year guard out of Kentucky. 'His name was being bandied about (in trade hypotheticals) not because of us, but because other teams wanted him. We were not very interested. We definitely want to play this out and give Reed a chance to develop.'
In comments a day earlier, Stone said he saw some overlap in the on-ball roles of Green and Durant, who both operate as perimeter-based scorers. The fit of the 21-year-old Sheppard, as the backup behind Fred VanVleet at point guard, would seem to be cleaner — at least in the short-term.
So, at least for the 2025-26 season, the Rockets are all systems go with their current roster. Time will tell as to its staying power beyond that, with the blockbuster Durant trade serving as a reminder of how much can change in a relatively short period of time.
More: As Rockets evaluated trade, Rafael Stone saw 'overlap' between Kevin Durant, Jalen Green