TRADE REACTION: How Kevin Durant fits with Rockets, Jalen Green & Brooks on Suns | Colin Cowherd NBA

TRADE REACTION: How Kevin Durant fits with Rockets, Jalen Green & Brooks on Suns | Colin Cowherd NBA

anyway call we did get a new piece of news this morning Um Kevin Durant is now Houston Rocket and in return the Phoenix Suns are getting Jaylen Green a young player with tons of potential but maddening uh downsides at this point Dylan Brooks who I actually think is a very good role player in the NBA
Yeah he is
The 10th pick in this upcoming draft and five second round picks What was like your first impression when you heard this My first impression the Suns were three and 17 when KD didn’t play this year They stunk It wasn’t him He still get a bucket If he’s a leader in Houston it doesn’t work If you need a bucket in Houston it works And I think I think today you have to look at the Rockets My take is um he’s going to give you about 65 games in the regular season If we get two healthy years then everybody’s going to watch Houston vive for the NBA championship and feel like they dominated the trade It is however a very good draft So Phoenix gets the number two 10 pick Well many people are theorizing there are 12 players in this draft the top 12 players who are allstar potential So if they stay at 10 or move up to six or eight they’re getting a potentially really good player probably with more than one year in college Um and and again I don’t think anybody will ever unlock Jaylen Green Like I think he’s the classic doesn’t have a defined game never probably will But we can’t deny that he can drop 30 in any given moment That he’s wildly talented I don’t like his game but I’m not going to deny that he’s you know long twitchy fast very good transition player He’s just and there are a lot of these guys in the NBA you know they come in and they’re talented and maybe either they don’t work on their game or they don’t get the right coaching or they just they probably have so much talent from sixth grade on that they never really there’s no catalyst for them to like really burrow down on a specialized you know not everybody is just driven as MJ right Like not I’m reading the Caitlyn Clark book I mean that girl’s be she is MJ She’s obsessed and it’s just like not everybody’s like that Some people are just talented and so but but between Amen Thompson and Shenon who’s beautiful touch Kevin Durant and a series of four or five very good young players and I think Adulko is a very good coach That’s a real team But I but I but I think it’s easy to look at Phoenix and just go well they got Green’s productive Dylan Brooks is a very good small forward defender can give you 17 a night You got the number 10 pick You got a bunch of second round picks which you can turn those into things Phoenix wanted a little bit of a reboot They got it But people on the internet are like “Oh Houston dominated If Katie got hurt in game 36 it wouldn’t feel like Houston dominated.” Right They’re not bringing him there to be a foundational piece They’re bringing him in to get a bucket like he will not be the leader of Shenon will still be the I think the centerpiece of the team Amen Thompson will be your best athlete in your defensive stopper He’s going to be a bucket guy So that’s why I think it works He’s still one of the top 23 26 best players in the league I would argue I mean I I was on on the plane when I I was flying in today I I started writing down numbers and I got to like 21 And I’m like he’s in that space And again Phoenix was terrible when he didn’t play So that’s my long- winded answer on I think Houston will look like they won the trade but Phoenix got assets too
I think that what happened in Phoenix is a sign that like yeah KD Steph LeBron these guys they’re not floor raisers anymore at their age They’re not going to turn a bad roster into a 50- win team the way that 27year-old Nicole Joic could like that That goes without saying I don’t I do think though that KD has been dramatically underrated because he’s been on such a poor roster
Yes
I put this together for you Colin This is three stats to show that Kevin Durant is still one of the very best players in the NBA
He was the best jump shooter in the world this year among 58 players in the NBA to take at least 500 jump shots KD was the only player in the league to make over half of them And he in second place was Shay who made 45% And if you waited it for threes his 1.22 22 points per shot was still number one in the NBA Number two he was the only player in the NBA last year to make at least 200 pull-up jump shots meaning off the dribble while making more than half of them And three he was far and away the best isolation player in the world last year out of the 10 players ran at least 250 ISOs His 1.16 points per possession including passes ranked number one in the league A full six points per 100 possessions ahead of Sheay who is in second place I think he is when it comes to refined offensive skill he is still one of the very best players in the league I I would put him in that 6 to 15 range depending on and we haven’t seen him play enough high leverage basketball lately to see where he really lands in there but I think he’s still in that range And if you ask me what the Rockets issue was this is a deep team with a load of big physical athletes If you ask me what their one weak weakness was it’s refined offensive skill And that’s what KD comes in to address We were just talking about this with Desmond Bane in the Orlando Magic the other day
Yeah When you take a bunch of big athletes that kind of struggle with spacing and you bring in a guy who like just run him off a screen and he’s automatically going to pull two defenders out 30 feet from the basket It unlocks a world of possibilities on the short roll Amen Thompson will be an amazing short roll player You know that thing that Draymond Green did for Steph where Steph would come off of Draymond and take two players and then Draymond would go right down the middle of the floor and and make the play that broke the defense down That is a thing that Amen Thompson has been unable to do in Houston because they just don’t generate many of those opportunities cuz none of their shooters are good enough KD will unlock that part of Amen Thompson’s game It is not a perfect roster I was writing down all the names on the roster today They’re a little light on ball handling but that sort of thing they can get You know what’s so funny Colin I remember when they the Suns signed Taius Jones last summer I was like why You already have this redundancy of all these dudes who can dribble and you’re just not athletic enough and you’re not good enough on defense Like you need athletes and dudes that can like like beat up people in these physical environments You know who could really use Tyus Jones Houston Like I I think they should call I think Kevin Durant should call up Taius tomorrow and be like “Hey dude come with me.”
Yeah I think I think Phoenix I wish Phoenix would have gotten actually a size I think Phoenix needs size and I think Houston needs a ball handler And the our takeaway when we watched Golden State beat Houston we were like “God they’re so bad in a half court offense If you stop Shenon it’s over right?” Like it’s just And so you and I talked about this He was a perfect fit there I thought he worked in New York because of Jaylen Brunson’s you know uh has the ball a lot in his hands I thought he he would work with that offense Um whereas Cat can kind of I always felt like Cat and Brunson were playing you know your turn my turn your turn my turn KD’s kind of like I’ll sit in the I did it with Russ Westbrook I’ll sit in the corner get it to me eventually So I think he fits really really well Um and I think they have the coach I I think again it’s so hard to judge Houston because so much of their roster is young I like feel like everybody’s in the fourth inning
Like I I mean Amen Thompson could take a big leap I mean Shenun’s the only one where I look at him and I think “Oh that,” again I use this word a lot but that’s a defined and refined offensive game He’s got European touch Like he has a game A lot of their players I feel like they’re just in early innings I don’t know what they are So Amen Thompson’s obviously defensively defined He’s so strong and athletic and aggressive but KD gives them refinement This is a second offensive player I know exactly what I’m getting And that’s that goes back to a little Oklahoma City The one of the reasons Indiana gave OKC problems Saiakam has an offensive halfcourt game Hallebertton does TJ McConnell does Like that’s three guy Even Obi Toppen when he hits threes you’re like he’s athletic and hit threes They had guys that they Rick Carlile knew okay this is what this player does With Houston’s like a younger OKC I’m just not sure what everybody is Like I just need more guys that I go into a game and go “Yeah I’m going to get 24th tonight from KD and I can drop two or three plays for him.” So Houston to me is early innings They could end up being they could end up looking if you told me next year a team explodes in the West and ends up winning by 7.8 points I would guess Houston because they have so many players that are just going to springboard to another level here in the next 50 to 100 basketball games Sorry to interrupt this great video but please remember to like and subscribe Thank you Now back to the video Oh
no I totally agree I think they have massive upside I think they could very easily be the second best team in the West and the biggest threat to the Thunder next year I think that’s absolutely on the table They match up well with OKC too because they have all the big physical size
The ball handling will be the weakness as we saw with Indiana Even Oklahoma City struggled because of their lack of depth in ball handling against Indiana’s ball pressure But the the youth the the the the thing that you’re talking about in terms of the wide range of outcomes is super interesting because as I was breaking down their depth chart today I’m looking at it and I’m like okay Fred Van Vleet legit point guard you know Shangon center KD’s your four Amen Thompson I think defensively functions as either a two or a three So that that could be either but then it’s like Jabari Smith Jr is kind of a four He plays basically the same position as KD I don’t think he moves his feet well enough to be a three Cam Whitmore could be one of those guys Reed Shepard could be one of those guys but like who knows And and here’s the other thing too Colin Houston gave up one first round draft pick in this deal They still have a boatload of first round draft picks at their disposal So they’re high they’re like a high likelihood for like a we bring this team into camp we watch them for 20 games and we go “Oh here are the two things we’re missing.” That’s exactly right
Let’s go get what we need to get like they are they’re extremely well equipped heading into this next season
That’s where Houston won the trade They didn’t have to give up another first round pick That that’s where they won the trade It’s not just KD because my guess is because of their depth they won’t play KD more than like 60 to 65 games They want him for the postseason There’s no reason to play him 75 80 games Uh because they also know if you’re in the West Jason you know you’re going to be in long series So there’s no I mean you know you’re going to be in six game series in the west It’s not like the east where you kind of feel like if Hallebertton comes back next year they’re just certain you’re going to win a lot of series really quickly You’re going to have long series in the west No reason to have you know I want KD going into the playoffs you know off about a two games and nine days stretch healthy and ready to go And I think you have to think about that as a GM with an older player in the West If you have a Steph or a KD all these series are long series
If they get a couple more ball handlers like that’s the thing like if they get a Taius Jones if they get you know one other guy of that ilk then they will be able to rest Katie Not just for the regular season but even in the postseason like we saw Houston give themselves a really good chance to win games even without high level offensive skill because they just go here’s Tar Een and and Amen Thompson and we’re picking up full court and you’re turning the ball over now and it’s a mess like they are able like they are able to prevent the redundancy that Phoenix had where you have bunch of guys who do the same thing on Houston What KD does is so specialized for them that they kind of have an identity separate separate from him So they will be able to win games without him They will be able to carry the load so that he can come in and lift them over the top I I think it’s a I think it’s a fantastic on paper basketball It’ll be ugly sometimes Katie’s gonna have some nights where maybe the statistical performance isn’t there because it’s ugly They can’t space the floor as well for him but they will in turn do the same thing to the other team So what to buy Kevin that margin for error Before we get out of here tonight Colin I I did I did want to run this by you because I’ve seen a lot of victory lapping criticism You know let’s just say the Phoenix Suns have been the butt of the joke today right
Because they took Male Bridges and Cam Johnson and uh Chris Paul and they turned him into basically uh Bradley Beal and Dylan Brooks and uh Jaylen Green and one first round pick I get that it looks bad
Here was where this is where my brain went this morning They they made it to the finals a year where because of COVID everyone was hurt and we had a Trey Young Hawks team in the conference finals a Paul George Clippers team with an injured Kawawaii in the conference finals and that Suns team And by the way they ran into Giannis and Giannis beat them four straight times for the title So they weren’t good enough Then the next year they kind of have a great regular season and Luca like embarrasses them like embarrasses them for the world to see in the second round They weren’t good enough So they made an aggressive trade They went and got Kevin Durant Every one of us would have done the same thing at that point in time It was Kevin Durant And we had just seen him be so amazing for Brooklyn in those couple of uh previous playoff runs Even the Chris Paul thing Now I would argue they should have used Chris Paul’s salary as a vehicle with which to bring in more size and athleticism but like you’re like Chris Paul for Bradley Beal Like I mean come on right You could talk yourself into it Again it wasn’t perfect There were mistakes There are certain things I would have done differently but now we’re on the other side of this and it’s like self-awareness We’re not good enough We just missed the playoffs in the Western Conference Like KD misses a few games and we completely fall apart Like I understand it looks bad when you zoom out but to me what happened to Phoenix is just what happens when you get aggressive and it doesn’t work And the fact of the matter is is there’s risk
Well yeah the Bradley Beal deal And I can’t criticize it because for years I mean I must have been on the air for 5 years saying “I really like Bradley Beal He’s playing with John Wall You’re never going to flourish with John Wall You you got to get in into you know a more mature group of veteran players.” And then it’s just like over the course of a year or two he got really old really fast and really banged up and he just he just withered down So I was a Bradley Beal fan for years I I didn’t understand why he was so loyal to Washington which was poorly run and poorly owned So I can’t I can’t criticize him And I’m I always tend to be a big fan of being aggressive I like what Orlando just did to get baneed So yeah I can’t bang it Again I if they hit on the number 10 pick they’ve got enough second round picks They got enough pieces to I think you just have to take more big swings I think with Bradley Beal I wonder if you just don’t buy out the contract Like I mean that’s how bad of a deal it was So you know I think if they were in the east you’d you’d have a better vibe or more optimism I just think I look at San Antonio and I look I still think Denver is going to be really good I think they just you know I I just look at the West the better GMs better rosters deeper teams I mean God we we’ve almost forgotten about what they’re building in San Antonio Holy crap do they have a lot of talent They’re in the second inning So I just think Phoenix relative to the conference you know they just feel like a have not And they probably are but I I mean I know Matt Ishbia and Justin Ishb I know Justin actually I I met him when I moved to Chicago He’s part of the White Socks I think ownership group now And Matt got really aggressive And I think one of the things I’ve learned over the course of my life Jason I it’s I made a lot of mistakes but it’s hard to master two things Like Michael Jordan tried baseball right Randy Moss tried basketball It It’s really hard And I think sometimes when aggressive owners come in and they think “Hey you know because the sun’s like don’t have the biggest scouting department and the owner comes in and thinks I want stars.” What you’re really saying is I’m moving into a completely different world and I’m smarter than Sam Prey right Like even Sam Prey the James Harden deal early he didn’t get enough Like it’s it’s I mean I look at GMs in football and basketball who I like and they make big mistakes Shabbaz Napier the draft pick for Pat Riley and the Heat Like great people make mistakes Nobody on the internet you know the trolls don’t want to ever admit it but I think they came in and the owner was a little hot and a little aggressive and this is a hard sport to master even the best people just you know you’re you’re drafting 19 and 20 year olds And I think you know I’m not going to bang on the Suns cuz when they made the moves I was like I kind of like it And then a year later I’m like man was I wrong So I I can’t be I can’t stand on any pious mountain today because I like their moves I thought Bradley be Bradley Beal’s been a disaster There’s nothing else you can say It’s just been a disaster Yeah it didn’t work And that happens sometimes Like I mean like the most recent example I can think of is the Raptors Like I remember when the Raptors traded for Kawawaii we were everyone was like “Why would you do that He’s going to go to Los Angeles He’s telling everybody he’s going to Los Angeles His family’s out there He wants to be out there That’s where he’s going This is a rental.” And it was by the way if you if you like remove the championship from the equation it’s like he went there and then he left and he went to LA and the Raptors tanked Like the Raptors fell apart after that Like that’s what happened But they won the title But even if you zoom in on the series it’s like 33 in Philly and Kawhai hits like a leaning jump shot while falling out of bounds that hits every part of the rim and then falls in Like that was the gap That was the gap between the gamble being a success and being a failure And so ultimately I feel like we’re just playing the results when we say that And like yeah you know I look at it It’s like you you you draft you traded for KD There was one team who gave the 2023 Nuggets trouble one team the Phoenix Suns
Yeah
the Phoenix Suns were the team that pushed them to 2-2 in the series and it looked like everything was hanging in the balance And so like for whatever it’s worth it wasn’t enough but yeah my take was less like huh look at the Suns they butchered everything And like they acknowledged to themselves that they weren’t good enough to win the title They made an aggressive move for one of the 12 greatest players of all time when he was still playing really well and it didn’t work out you know and that’s just how it goes sometimes But Colin it was great to see you today Thanks so much for coming on the show This has been a really fun season Shout out to the NBA for giving us our our first good NBA final in a very long time and our best domestic draft coming up in forever This is a great domestic draft So that’s that’s we’ve talked about this I think with NIL I think you’re going to have more players staying in college The drafts are going to get more domestic We’re also poaching the best European players with the NIL money I I I think draft picks over the next 10 years are going to fortify teams much more quickly than they have for the previous 20 where it’s 18 year olds who are just not ready to play So I I this will be a really fun draft to watch There’s some really special players
Yeah I’m super excited The extended NBA finals have put us right up against it Guys I have Sam Vini coming on the show tomorrow He does an incredible draft guide We’ll be doing a full NBA draft preview Uh the the actual draft is on Wednesday It’s literally right around the corner so everything’s right here Uh Colin it was great to see Thanks so much for giving us your time For all of you guys who are on the YouTube stream we’re headed over to Playback to take some callers So that’s playback.tv/hoopsite I’ll see you guys there Everyone else thanks so much for supporting us this season It’s been an incredibly successful season I I can’t say enough uh about the way you guys have supported us in the show over the course of this year And we will see you guys tomorrow morning [Music]

Colin Cowherd and Jason Timpf react to the Oklahoma City Thunder winning the NBA Finals over the Indiana Pacers. Then they give their takes on Kevin Durant getting traded from the Phoenix Suns to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, and multiple NBA Draft picks. Are the Rockets a legit NBA championship contender next season?

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