Kevin Durant trade grades for Rockets, Suns after blockbuster deal

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6 days ago

The post Kevin Durant trade grades for Rockets, Suns after blockbuster deal appeared first on ClutchPoints.
After weeks and weeks of discussions, the Kevin Durant trade is finally in the books. The Houston Rockets won the sweepstakes for the former league MVP, landing him in a blockbuster trade from the Phoenix Suns in exchange for a package centered around Jalen Green.
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The full details of the trade are as follows.
Rockets receive: Kevin Durant
Suns receive: Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, 2025 first-round pick (No. 10 overall), five second-round picks
With this deal, the Rockets hang onto a majority of the core that got them to the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference last season. However, it became apparent during their playoff loss to the Golden State Warriors that they needed another scorer to help them put up points when the game slows down in the playoffs, and Durant does exactly that.
On the Phoenix side, the Suns finally get to an outcome that seemed inevitable for the better part of the last year. Durant and the Suns seemed destined for a breakup throughout the disastrous season that was 2024-25 in Phoenix, and now they get to pivot to a younger core around Devin Booker and the No. 10 pick in the draft on Wednesday night.
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Who won the trade and how does each team look moving forward? Here's a dive into the ramifications for both teams.
Rockets take a big swing, become immediate contenders out West
The pros of this deal for the rockets are clear. Durant is exactly what this team needed and Houston now has one of the best healthy rotations in the Western Conference.
While Durant isn't the defender he once was during his Golden State days, he is not a liability on that end either. He should fit in with Houston's defensive identity and will add another long, rangy defender on the wing to Ime Udoka's defense. Losing Brooks hurts on the defensive end a little bit, but the Rockets should still be a very good unit on that end with great defenders like Amen Thompson, Fred VanVleet and Tari Eason in the rotation.
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Offensively, the Rockets now have someone that they can go to late in the clock or when the possession slows down to bail them out. That was the biggest glaring weakness for Houston in its seven-game loss to the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs, and Durant solves that immediately.
The Warriors were constantly able to bog the Rockets offense down, and their only answers were post-ups for Alperen Sengun and isolations for Jalen Green or VanVleet. Now, they have a bona fide star who they can throw the ball to in hopes for a bailout bucket.
Giving up the No. 10 pick in this draft does hurt a little bit, but the Rockets still have young players in Cam Whitmore and Reed Sheppard that they can put into the rotation in hopes that they become quality players.
Houston is making two bets with this move. First, they need Durant to be healthy, something that has been somewhat of a problem for him in recent years. Secondly, they need to get a contract extension nailed down with him before he enters the final year of his current deal in 2025-26.
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The Rockets were on Durant's final list of preferred landing spots, so there shouldn't be too much trouble getting a deal done. While there are real downsides here for Houston, this is a calculated risk that they had to take after last season, and it got to take it without giving up its entire chest of assets.
Grade: A-
Suns move off of Kevin Durant, go younger in return
Erik Williams-Imagn Images
Phoenix isn't getting docked any points for losing Durant here, as that has been an implied outcome for many months now. However, the return for Durant is what makes this puzzling.
Phoenix gets just one first-round pick in this deal, and while the No. 10 pick in this year's draft should net them a solid player, it isn't the kind of blue-chip asset that you would expect to be the centerpiece of a deal for a player of Durant's caliber.
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The Suns are also taking a bet on Jalen Green, who is extremely talented as a scorer and is still just 23 years old. However, the G League Ignite product has already been in the NBA for four seasons and is still extremely inconsistent, as evidenced by his playoff struggles against the Warriors.
Simply put, Green was a disaster for the Rockets of most of that series against Golden State, save for a 38-point explosion in Game 2. Outside of that game, he failed to score more than 12 points in a context, and it's fair to wonder whether those problems will persist in future series.
The fit of Green next to Devin Booker, and maybe Bradley Beal if he is still on the team, is also questionable. Are they big enough to play the two of them next to a point guard without sacrificing a ton defensively? Can Green take a leap as a playmaker and a ball-handler that, quite frankly, would be pretty surprising to see at this point? Adding an empty-calorie scorer who still has a ways to go to round out his game couldn't have been the vision for the Suns in this trade.
The five second-rounders are good assets for the Suns to have, and Brooks is a good veteran to have in the locker room with two years left on his deal. However, it feels like the Suns left a lot of meat on the bone here.
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The Rockets are stacked with assets. In addition to Sheppard, Whitmore, Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason, the Rockets also hold the Suns' unprotected 2027 first-round pick. While including someone like Amen Thompson in the trade was a bit of a stretch, how were none of those aforementioned assets included in the deal along with Green? The Suns' grade takes a hit here as a result of that failure.
Grade: D
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