Kevin Durant to Houston? 👀 ‘Suns need to do what’s best for their organization!’ – Perk | First Take

Kevin Durant to Houston? 👀 ‘Suns need to do what’s best for their organization!’ – Perk | First Take

Kevin Durant is going to end up in the Houston Rocket uniform. They have the pieces, Greeny. If I’m the Rockets, I’m going all in. Jabari Smith, Jaylen Green, Cam Whitmore, and some picks for Kevin Durant. And don’t come give me Kevin Durant don’t have it no more. The one thing Kevin Durant will do when he gets to Houston is respect Eay Udoka because we know they have a great relationship. You pair him alongside the Thompson twin with Shank Goon, Fred Van Vleet, the Rockets looking to make some noise. That was the one thing that they were missing in this series was a closer and Kevin Durant provides that. That was Perk earlier on Get Up. So, Swag Goo, let’s get right to it. Do you also like the idea of Houston going after KD? I do like the idea, Stephen A. Obviously, look, they want to be young. Houston wants to be young, but dude, last night they couldn’t shoot the basketball. And one thing we know about Kevin Durant, he can absolutely shoot it and and put points on the board on the perimeter. This team last night, a young team, I saw the Thompson twin. I think he’s ascending. Obviously, Stephen A, you made that statement about Green earlier. I think that’s a big reason why they could explore getting rid of Jaylen Green is because Thompson looked like he’s going to be what they want Jaylen Green to be throughout the rest of his career. But when you look at KD, KD is to me is always going to be a guy regardless of age that can get a shot and I put him in that same kind of vein as Durk, right? He’s going to be able to shoot it and expand the game because his because of his his phys physical build, because of his ability to shoot the basketball and create offense for other people because you got to make decisions when KD is on the floor. Last last night when you watched the Houston Rockets play against Golden State and Buddy Hill is going off. There is nobody that that could remotely come close to trying to close that gap offensively that Buddy Hill the show that he was putting on. Eaya is a defensive guy. He is a scheme guy. He wants to play physical and run people off the three-point line. It did not happen last night because nobody on the other end forced Golden State to play any type of defense beyond the perimeter. They packed the paint and forced them to try to be an offensive shooting team and they could not do it. KD would remedy all that. Wendy, okay, let’s agree that Houston needs offense. We all know this. Okay, no one’s disputing it. Now, let’s start. No, let’s move on. for a couple of reasons I’m not sure Kevin Durant fits. But first off, any Kevin Durant trade is going to have what I’m calling the K triangle. Okay, one, it’s got to be a place Kevin Durant wants to go. He is already on the record on Draymond Green’s podcast saying he wants to control the end of his career and he should. I get it. Two, it’s got to be a team that can send stuff to Phoenix that they want. Now, on this case, the Rockets might fit both one and two because he’s got connections in Houston. The Rockets have a bunch of the Sun’s stuff. And the third one, though, that’s where we could get interesting, whether it’s Houston or somewhere else. That’s what happens with KD’s contract. He has one year left on his deal for $55 million. I’m not going to assume what KD wants, but typically in a situation here, a player would want an extension. You’ve got to be very, very careful extending a player at high number at that age. Not cocky about Durant, just in a vacuum. And also with they’ve got to deal with Fred Van Vleet this summer. Alpar Shenun’s contract is coming on the books. They got to be careful in the modern NBA. You can’t have a giant contract that isn’t playing that way. You get yourself in big trouble. You get yourself into the sort of situation that the Phoenix Suns are in right now. When you have big contracts that are that are not good value. Well, so go ahead. Two things. Number one, you got a team option on Van Vleet on on Van Vleet situation. And you’re in a position to clear about 48 million in cab space if you’re Houston. You got to keep him. You you got to keep him. You got to keep him. I understand that. But I’m just talking about their options. And in the case of Kevin Durant, we keep forgetting that year and a half or so that he was out because of the Achilles tear. So the wear and tear on his body isn’t what people think. And that’s why I think you see the brothers still averaging 27 a game. But that’s it. I go ahead and finish your point, Wendy, and then you go ahead perk. Yeah. The other thing is what the Rockets have said. First off, I got to point out next Monday The Rockets have a 17% chance using the Suns pick of getting into the top four and a three, I think 3.8, call it 4% chance of winning the Cooper Flag sweep stakes. No conversations with the Rockets are happening before they see where they end up after that. If they get the top pick, they are taking Cooper Flag and moving on with their life. Okay. But if they get even if they stay put at nine that pick they’ve got this young guy Reed Shepard who didn’t get to play this year but is a very intriguing young prospect there’s a lot they can do but their general manager Rafel Stone is on the record as saying he does not want to trade for a player that doesn’t fit the same age gap age range as their core. He doesn’t want a 30. Doesn’t matter it’s Kevin Durant or whomever. He doesn’t want an old guy 10 12 years older than their core players. That is outside what he has said before. Go ahead, Perk. I I don’t I don’t give a damn what Stone said, right? When you have an opportunity to go for it and make yourself a legit title contender, you do it. Along with Tory Een, we know one thing about teams when it comes down to Kevin Durant. You got to surround Kevin Durant with some dogs. Houston got a bunch of dogs. They’re very disrespectful in a good way. That’s why this series just went seven games because they hang their hats on physicality being pit bulls defensively. And now you can add a closer in Kevin Durant. Here’s another thing, Wendy. I don’t give a damn what Kevin Durant said on Draymond Green podcast. He don’t have the luxury to dictate and say how he wants his career to end, right? The Phoenix Suns don’t owe him don’t owe that to him. The Phoenix Suns need to do what’s best for their organization. Kevin Durant haven’t delivered a championship to the Phoenix Suns, so he can’t dictate that. He doesn’t have a no trade clause. The Phoenix Suns, if I’m looking at it, I’m doing what’s best for us. Now, I will have a conversation with KD, but I don’t think KD is mad if he ends up with the Houston Rockets under Ema Doka. That would be huge and they will be legit title contenders. Well, the bottom line is let’s call let’s let’s throw this out out there as a point of fact. If Houston had their brothers, they would prefer Devin Booker to Kevin Durant. But Phoenix ain’t giving Ishba ain’t giving that up. So, and you can’t trade Bradley Beal contract with his no trade closers. He doesn’t want to go anywhere. So, you have to you have to move Kevin Durant. And I totally agree with you, Big Perk. Kevin Durant is in no position to dictate where his future is going to end at this particular moment in time. Not when you going home in the first round or not even making the damn playoffs. It’s just that simple. That’s the way that it goes. So, we’ll see what happens. The Houston Rockets have five tradable first in the next seven years. Um, and obviously two unprotected first in 2077 and 2029 as well. So, they’ve got some assets to move. We’ll see what’s happening. Swagoo, go ahead. I’ll give you the last word on this before we switch subjects. Stephen, I I when Wendy was talking brought up a great point. This is about if Houston is playing the long game or they want to win right now, right? You get KD, you know, he not there for a long time, but you fix something on your team that needs an answer. if the potential of getting Cooper flag is going to infuse with that young group and they feel like this is going to be a long-term situation like it was with Tatum and Jaylen Brown and it took some it took a while for the Celtics to get over the hump, put the right team together to come to fruition and win championships and now be the team that we think of them as. What is Houston’s plan long-term or do they have the short-term view like you and Perk and I think they should as far if if they feel like they’re close to winning the championship. But I didn’t want that to fall on deaf ears what Wendy said because it could be an organizational philosophy on this fan base understanding that we’re positioning to become a championship team as opposed to going for it right now and then we go away after KD leaves. Now, I don’t know how much I’m not going to pretend to know how much one NBA championship does for an organization, how long that carries the fan base. It’s a little bit different in the NFL. You win one, you got about 5 10 years before you have to do it again because people are going to remember and relish that. But in the NBA, it seems like a more a fast cyclical thing where you want to get back to back to back and positioning themselves long term may be the answer for that, which in turn makes KD not the answer. Let me tell you why KD does have agency in this because he’s got one year left on his contract. If he doesn’t That’s why it’s a that’s why it’s a triangle. If he doesn’t have an understanding contractually with the team he’s going to, his value is less. If you’re trading KD for a possible rental, your payment to the Suns isn’t going to be as high. So, it is in the Suns best interest to work alongside KD. Now, this is philosophical. I don’t think that would be an issue with Houston. But Houston’s got a lot of young guys to pay. And if you know, if you’re already skeptical about his age and you’re already skeptical about extending him two more years, it might not be at this a good fit. And I’ll say something else. There could be a number of other star level players on the trade market this summer beyond KD that Houston could look for. So, I understand why everybody’s defaulting to it. I understand it makes sense, but there’s a lot of factors here that are going to be in play. said what I look like with the heat. I’m on fire on the

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Kendrick Perkins, Brian Windhorst and Marcus “Swagu” Spears discuss if the Houston Rockets should go after Kevin Durant.

0:00 Perk says Rockets should go all-in for KD
6:15 What’s best for the Phoenix Suns?
7:47 Houston’s long-term plan

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