Does Kevin Durant make the Houston Rockets a championship contender? | NBA Trade Reactions

Does Kevin Durant make the Houston Rockets a championship contender? | NBA Trade Reactions

kevin Durant is a member of the Houston Rockets
yep let’s see here do we have an exact deal i can I just do it off the top of my head it is Jaylen Green
yep
dylan Brooks number 10 and five second round picks you
got it
or Kevin Durant it’s a deal that look you and I have been saying this entire time that it’s just not a deal that’s going to bring back as much as people think yep it’s the reality it was never going to be a situation where Kevin Durant was going to get like this massive haul in a trade i think Phoenix might have expected that early on but this deal kind of says all that you need to know about what the offers were like Toronto you know I think this got reported over the weekend but I’ve been told like Toronto was very hesitant and I told you this last week at some point but like Toronto was very hesitant was my read to offer Yaka Purle in a deal uh Minnesota like I get the impression that they like weren’t all that interested in making a real offer unless he wanted to go play there and it seemed like Ev Durant was not wildly interested in going to play there based off of reporting from the Athletic everything like that so you take those two offers off of the table and you are left with the three teams that theoretically made offers now there are reports that Miami I’m confused by the reports that Miami like didn’t want to offer like any of Hakez Yovic and number 20 that’s wasn’t really what my read was but I got the impression that like it wasn’t a massive offer from Miami I think is the reality and then on the San Antonio side look like we recorded the San Antonio offseason preview i kind of was very strong in that that like San Antonio was not going to do this and I kind of made GAC edit some of it out just because I was worried that the market was going to come back so far that San Antonio might be able to like get in the mix on it a little bit more than what I expected but I don’t think San Antonio was ever all that interested in this one so that leaves Houston and I like I think this is a terrible deal for Phoenix i’m not going to lie to you but that’s because I’m lower on Jaylen Green than most people i mean Bryce what was your reaction when you saw this
i mean this is the exact deal we’ve talked about so it didn’t surprise me um
I think we talked about I I want to be just like completely transparent the deal that I talked about personally was something very similar to this it was Jaylen Green Doc Londale Aaron Holiday and then you wait until August to actually like do the do the deal where the number 10 pick would count toward salary matching
but same concept to be clear was Jaylen Green and number 10 that was my impression on what they were offering the whole way
like I I realize Dylan Brooks is like still a quality NBA role player and all of that and in Phoenix if they want to be win now which I guess they are because they have Devin Booker like he he’s an important ultimately to me it’s the the young piece Jaylen Green and the draft pick right and I guess five second round picks because I mean shoot five second round picks got you into the back end of the first round last year for OKC so that that’s not nothing um I don’t know that you can say those are first that they equate to a first round pick but they’re not nothing um so I wasn’t surprised by the value and while I agree that like for Phoenix I’m not excited about this return I also have a hard time judging Phoenix too much other than I think you could say like if if Yaka Purle was on the table in a Toronto deal that maybe they valued the wrong things valuing a young Jaylen Green that’s not on his rookie scale deal anymore and the number 10 pick like I think if you’re going to crush Phoenix I think that’s where people should crush Phoenix is they went for a young upside guy who’s not on a rookie scale deal and uh you know a number 10 pick as opposed to potentially if guys were on the table and I don’t know but guys that could have been on the table that were established vets that come in and and help you win I don’t know what level but help you win next year so may maybe they maybe this is right maybe you take a swing at 10 you take a swing at Jaylen Green and you go for the upside maybe that is the right play it’s just I’m with you i don’t love the swing on Jaylen Green and I hate the Jaylen Green Devin Booker fit together on top of it like I don’t love that either um
and for what it’s worth John Gambodaro uh who I think I’m going on the radio with tomorrow um he mentioned this idea that they are keeping Jaylen Green it seems like
so it’s not they’re not going to Okay yeah
and and to be clear like it seems very obvious that he is somewhat connected with Phoenix like in their front office like it feels like he’s you know got some real info there and insight there so I think they’re keeping Jaylen Green like my my immediate reaction was “Okay maybe they can try and flip Jaylen Green.”
Yeah yeah sure in some way shape or form
but you know I don’t know i I don’t think Gambo would go like as strong as he did saying they’re keeping Jaylen Green like even say that like Phoenix like had him put out put that out there right like say he is just like going full you know put out what the team wants you to put out right and I I don’t get that impression like fully from him but whatever right i don’t think you can play it as strongly as he did unless they are planning to keep him is my read
sam this roster is effing hilarious it’s a It’s a wild roster right now bradley Bill shooting guard devin Booker shooting guard jaylen Green shooting guard grayson Allen shooting guard like those are four five best players
royce O’Neal realistically is like the size of a shooting guard like he’s not a big dude right he’s like 6’4 probably um it’s amazing
cody Martin theoretically is still on this team
kind of a two guard right like it just and I re listen I realize it’s June 22nd the roster is going to change i get it i just it’s I’m not trying to judge it right now it’s just kind of funny and then again we’ll see what they do at 10 right because like I don’t know if we want to do this and then we can do the rocket side but like this has like Jeremiah Fears or Jagger Demon written all over it to me
no not to me honestly that’s interesting okay what did you think
i thought big
okay so like that but do you think they’re going to get common at 10 um it’s not impossible but I would be surprised if he got to 10 and honestly to 10 my read is like there’s a
there are teams trying to come up for him at that point if he gets to 10
so I guess that’s why I didn’t go big is cuz I assumed common would be off the board and then I wondered if they would go like Sorber or like are they queen you go you go big 10p baby you go Derek Queen i mean if they’re going to do they’re just going to take J take Jace at 10 then
that’s very funny um I’m guessing they’re gonna This is a guess don’t report this this is do not aggregate this for the love of God this is like half joking i’m guessing given that Jace was not invited to the green room that they would try to bump up from 29 to like 22 or wherever to try and get Jace so interesting yeah big made sense i just didn’t know i didn’t think Common would fall there um I just thought point guard because while there’s a bunch of guards on the team for sure and maybe point guard doesn’t make sense like as much as Booker is going to play with the ball in his hands and Jaylen Green is going to want to play with the ball in his hands maybe you don’t even mess with an actual point guard look like Casper is here is another name that makes a ton of sense to me
i’m not saying that they can’t go point guard i I’m going to have Derek Queen in the mock tomorrow the live mock at the Athletic goes up tomorrow at the ath uh again if you want all this info everything I have it’s going to go to the athletic uh first and foremost outside of what I’m going to talk about here tonight but my read on all of this is that they’re they’re going to make some choices like they’re they’re going to try and bring some guys in late this week and try and figure it all out right like there’s there’s no there’s nobody that they’re locked in on I don’t think and we will have a predictive live mock on the Game Theory YouTube Tuesday evening night um
I think that’s right hopefully right that’s our plan
yeah i’m trying to decide if I think we should do it tomorrow to give it a little bit more leeway
sure
but we’ll see we We’ll talk about that it’ll either be tomorrow or Tuesday i know that um okay so the Phoenix side so should we talk about just like why we’re not high on Jaylen Green
sure so a the fit is terrible here jaylen really got a lot of opportunity to play with the ball in his hands in Houston and get a chance to like really showcase over the last four years what he might be capable of and there are undeniably flashes
mhm
right there there are undeniably moments where he will look quite good in game two of the NBA playoffs he went for 38 points four rebounds six assists shot 13 of 25 here’s the other problem game one seven points game two nine points game or uh game three I’m sorry nine points game four eight points game five 11 points game six 12 points game seven eight points uh was truly a catastrophe in that series and it’s not surprising he doesn’t make quick decisions he doesn’t finish well around the rim i think the people that like Jaylen Green think of him as this guy who’s like a super athlete who finishes around the rim at a super high level it just has never borne itself out in the numbers uh he makes these spectacular finishes that make you want to buy into the potential but the real issue here like the finishing at the rim is almost like a microcosm of his game as a whole to me the flashes make you want to buy in
but the game by-game consistency is just wholly lacking is the reality he took strides this year defensively i do want to give him credit for that he is a player that can create like he can get to his shot but he’s not a good enough shooter to like be able to actualize it in any way shape or form and like make it useful i mean look true shooting percentage compared to league average over his four years in the NBA his rookie year is actually the best year was only 3% below league average that year second year 7% below league average third year 7% below league average this year 6% below league average i I just I don’t think he’s a good enough shooter at the end of the day to live off of the shot diet that he has to yeah i mean and this will be really interesting because with the way the Rockets roster was constructed I feel like he like he he kind of played as the number one option and I guess that made sense and I would understand why he would think that and why they would play when he goes to Phoenix there’s no doubt who the number one option is and it’s not Jaylen Green and so I I am interested now to see playing off of Devin Booker what that looks like and can he find his rhythm can he find his flow can he maybe find easier shot attempts and again this is why I don’t love this fit because whenever I think of Devin Booker my first thought isn’t like hey create great looks for other people i’m not saying he’s an awful passer i’m just saying like I don’t think like primary creator in that way i think Booker of like hey he’s going to go he can create his own look so I’m interested to see how those two play off of each other and along with Jaylen Green now being like you are definitely the number two option there’s no doubt about it you know night in and night out and I don’t know may maybe that fits maybe he does figure it out and find some efficiency with his shot diet in that way but I’m a little bit concerned that this is the best fit for him to be successful
yeah no I I agree like no easy shots here for Jaylen Green like it’s unless they get a point guard right maybe they will take a point guard at some point or find one whatever but like no nobody’s generating easy looks for him here it’s basically going to be the same I think
so I I don’t like the fit i don’t love this type of player in general um there there is real athletic upside if you can tap into it and he he’s going to have to become I think basically like an elite elite mid-range shooter and three-point shooter to be cuz you know here here’s the route right the route is Zack Lavine
sure
right like
Yep
that’s the player that he can theoretically turn into let’s go with but I would just tell you [Music] Zack Lavine 1% above league average in terms of true shooting percentage his second year 4% above league average his third year had the bad year with the injury in Chicago in his fourth year uh coming back from the injury but 3% above league average 1% above league average 11% above league average by the time he was in his seventh year how Zach made the leap was he became like a truly truly like elite shooter that’s where it’s going to have to come for Jaylen Green and it’s a very narrow pathway that worries me if it doesn’t happen he’s probably not all that valuable of player and he’s making $33 million already and like all of that with Zack Lavine and there’s people who question him on a winning basketball in a winning scenario and his contribution to winning at the highest level um I know you and I are a little higher on Lavine and I think you know a lot of his discourse comes from the contract but even with the contract I think there’s still people that question that i was I was looking at Booker’s numbers like maybe I’m just not giving him enough credit for his ability to create for teammates like the last couple years he’s averaged a ton of assists and so maybe maybe there maybe he will do a decent job if he has to being the obviously the focal point now with KD gone and maybe he will do some setting up for Green to get him some easy looks
devin can really pass but when he focuses on that I don’t think that you get the best out of him
sure and I almost think that like if you’re Phoenix your entire pathway to success now is to get the best out of Deon Booker
you know what I mean yeah so I’m interested to see how that develops over the course of the next you know year realistically they can’t be done with this roster we know that
um Dylan Brooks is a player that I think is actually useful for them
sure by the way
yeah i mean I didn’t mean to just like throw away what his value was was because again like
he’s a he’s a real NBA rotation player right like there’s no questioning that like that’s 100%
he’s like honestly like a starting caliber
a starter yeah a starter not even rotation a starter level NBA basketball player and so that’s not a nothing um in this trade it just was like “Okay that’s nice what are kind of my upside options?” Like what are the things for me to get excited about in this trade um and those depending on who they take at 10 weren’t as maybe as exciting as what people would want but yeah I don’t want to discount Dylan Brooks’s being a part of this as well
yeah agree okay now from the Houston side I mean this this is a home run to me sure like I I don’t think Houston could have done better for a deal this year i I think losing Dylan Brooks is not ideal honestly but here is kind of the thing right when you get Kevin Durant the move now was probably to bring Dylan Brooks off of the bench anyway which might not have been the best strategy as it was right because like I I don’t know how enthused he would be after starting for many years in the NBA including his first two years on this roster but like I I would have guessed that they probably will start like even if Dylan was there it’s probably Fred Amen Kevin Durant like maybe you start Dylan instead of Jabari Smith and then Shangun like I’ll hear it all out like I’ll hear out like a number of different things right but Dylan Brooks’s minutes were going to get cut as it was with Kevin Durant for sure on top of the fact that you have Jabari Smith entering you know an enormous year right contract year potentially if they don’t extend him ari E is a player entering a contract year if they don’t extend him we’ll see if they do i’m interested in that as well but man I think this is a this is now a team that is difficult to deal with because you’ve got a men probably taking a thirdyear leap you’ve got a very steady hand at the lead guard position in Fred say whatever you want about the shooting the shooting was not great this year but a lot of the shooting was because he was relied upon to take really tough shots a lot of the time like that that’s to me a reality now you’ve Kevin Durant to take those bailout shots kevin Durant’s really good at bailout shots uh maybe the best player in the league at bailout shots i think that Fred’s efficiency probably improves they didn’t give up Reed they didn’t give up Jabari Smith they didn’t give up Tari they have all this lineup flexibility here moving forward they’ve already resigned Stephen Adams to a $13 million a year deal which is a great contract for Steve
descending descending too which it like we’ve talked about the descending contract with Stephen Adams it doesn’t matter that it’s descending because it’s going to be 35 when it’s over so you’re not going to have to extend off of a super low number like that thing’s below the non- tax MLE by a few million over the next couple years
yeah I think this team’s going to be awesome yeah I’m just say it
i mean so
I think this would be my guess for the team is if Kevin Durant plays 65 games this would be my guess for the team that finishes second in the West next year in the regular season we’ll see in the playoffs but in the regular season I would guess they finish second in the West again
yeah i mean I think as as rosters sit right now until we see somewhat what some other teams do I I think I’m with you right like there’s still other moves that are going to be made the way I look at it is you went from Jaylen Green as your primary scoring option to Kevin Durant and I I think games played is an important factor here jaylen Green has been very available in his career which I think is something that is worth noting and you know Durant played 62 last year 75 the year before 47 like and the fact of the matter is just more than anything with Durant he’s older right he’s in his upper 30s but you up if healthy you upgraded your number one scoring option you did it by using two two assets right dylan Brooks which for me you just outlined it you’re the Houston Rockets you have
Yeah
jabari Smith Jr Tari E we didn’t even mention Cam Whitmore and whether he’s still in the plans there or not like that’s a guy that’s at least talented if nothing else and the number the deal opens up more minutes for Whitmore in my opinion
yeah that’s what I’m saying is more minutes for all of those guys
yeah like Kevin Durant probably going to play 30 minutes a night you’re trading you know 60 to 65 minutes a night
yeah so you’re That’s why you you traded two guys Green and Brooks for one in Durant but you have the depth that it doesn’t matter as long as you believe in these guys which I assume they do to some extent and then so now it’s like the number 10 pick that’s not nothing that’s valuable but you have all of these guys on rookie you know rookie deals that you’re have to pay and what like is it the worst case in the world that you’re taking one year off from bringing in uh a rookie and so I’m with you i think it’s a I don’t think it crushed long-term flexibility it It opens the window next year we talk about windows all the time right would you agree that next year this is a team we will consider a title contender um yeah I think so they’re they’re maybe not like top tier but on the next level yeah
sure i think this opens the window where you if healthy Kevin Durant and especially a leap from a men Thompson like this team could be sick and so you open the window without jeopardizing your future it’s hard to argue that for Houston
they’re still shorting Phoenix somehow yeah
like they get Kevin Durant and they still get to short Phoenix because they still have two of their picks
the what I’m interested in is the contract extension i’m interested to see what that looks like what you know like what kind of money do they give Fred what kind of money do they potentially give KD like I’m interested to see how that all plays out i don’t know how much those decisions could change my mind here but as we sit with the information right now I love it for Houston here’s the other thing I want to say here too kevin Durant is still [ __ ] elite like I’m not sure people recognize enough how monstrous he was for the first half of the season this year he was incredible here’s the other thing by the way that this does this takes a lot of pressure off of Kevin Durant defensively
sure he actually had a lot of defensive load on his shoulders in Phoenix cuz he was their best player on the defensive end Sam
correct he had to like really be locked in and engaged every night for them to have a chance to stop anybody man I’m not saying he doesn’t like Look Emma Yodoka is absolutely going to be somebody who demands
uh engagement all the time i’m not sitting here saying Kevin Durant is going to disengage defensively you know what I mean but the pressure is way off of him in my opinion now
i mean he’s the fourth best defender on the team roughly third amen yeah amen ari um I mean honestly like I still think Fred is quite good on Fred’s good fred’s good at what he does
you got Adams off the bench i mean we both think Shingun has made real strides in terms of like
he’s not like some like anchor of your defense type but I mean it’s just to your point here he can play the role that I think I I think that Durant is best in like let him play off the ball and use his length and come rotate and block shots and grab defensive rebounds and grab and go and start offense and like just be that not like be your He was the anchor of the Phoenix Suns defense as crazy as it sounds he I looked it up um I had him seventh on my AllNBA rankings through the first 25 games you know we did it we did every 25 or whatever how many ever games it wouldn’t be 25 20 whatever the first quarter of the season he was seventh like that’s the level he was playing at early in the year and I think he probably would have been there at the halfway point but he probably wasn’t on track to to hit the games at that kevin Durant 276 and4 last year shooting 534384 sounds good
he is an unbelievable shooter like people can be like “Oh he doesn’t get to the rim as much anymore.” I don’t disagree with that take it’s like important to some extent I guess like but not really when you’re as good as he is as a shooter right like when you’re as lethal as KD is it’s way more important that you continue to knock down shots at the ridiculous level that you’re continuing to knock down shots and oh by the way he might have more energy to be able to knock down those shots throughout the course of a season because he doesn’t have to wear as much load on his shoulders defensively kd is still really good guys like this is he he if he plays 65 games he’s going to make an allNBA team next year I think yeah and then you’re also getting internal improvement from Tari Jabari i’m guessing Reed Shepard is going to be better next year i would expect Reed Shepard to be better next year they are really excited about him in Houston like I can just tell you that they are they still have a lot of faith in him i really think this is a home run for Houston same this is a
if he stays healthy it’s a home run like if you want to complain about the injuries God love you like I have no no argument against that you know he played 62 games this year 47 and 23 55 and 22 35 and 21 and that’s you know uh 2020 was the year he missed with the Achilles i think absolutely you should expect Kevin Durant to miss right around 20 games at this point and I I don’t think Houston’s going into this thinking otherwise but basically they got rid of the guy that I liked least in their rotation and got a real number one option that’s pretty good well I was going to say so last year Jaylen Green led the Rockets in points per game in the regular season at 21 you you know I mean Durant for his career is at 27 and was just under that last season maybe more importantly for Rockets fans now Shenun was their leading scoreer in the playoffs at 20.9 durant averages almost 30 points per game in his playoff career like this is just such a massive upgrade for a team who is looking to take the next step and we talked about I believe on their offseason preview that they were ready to do that
and we were okay if they did we were okay if they didn’t make some sort of swing we just didn’t want to jeopardize the long-term window and I don’t think this trade jeopardized the long-term window that they have with Amen Thompson Reed Sh you know all of the young guys that we rave about all the time they didn’t move any of them Sam none of them they moved Jaylen Green who they upgraded at least for a year we’ll see maybe two maybe three and a rotation player that opens up minutes for those young guys we rave about all the time like if you’re a Rockets fan and you’re upset cuz they moved Dylan Brooks or something it’s like then did you really like Tar Een Jabari Smith Jr those guys that much cuz you’re going to get more of those guys now like Tari is no longer blocked from minutes so I I think it’s a great move again I will hold a little bit depending on what a potential contract extension whatever could look like if we get those numbers or that ends up happening uh from KDC Thunder got rid of Giddy they win the title rockets while not at that level they’re shedding the weak position i do think that there’s a huge thing that people often don’t recognize where losing like the I don’t want to go as far as to say like Jaylen Green is like negative this year but losing the weakest link in some ways is often like a value ad in and of itself on top of getting everything that you got with Kevin Durant it’s a totally different beast yeah no I I agree it’s It’s an interesting interesting comparison um obviously like the what a little bit different levels right like Giddy was the like kind of like the fifth starter for OKC and got just traded for a better fifth starter/6man and this where you’re trading your number one option for an one of the best number one options in the history of the league in terms of scoring the basketball um so it’s different roles but it it is an interesting parallel interesting idea so we’ll see how it plays out for him
yeah no I mean look Jaylen Green in terms of his uh EPM this year was a zero player uh you know neither positive nor negative uh in terms of like the actual performance was negative through his first three years uh there was like genuine improvement i do want to say that you know what I mean like I don’t want to just like crush like he got better at basketball it’s just that you know Yeah like to me even if it’s not KD even if they don’t extend KD which I would assume they’re going to extend KD but like even if they don’t extend KD and you get one year of KD and you get off of the Jaylen Green deal this is a win to me sure [Music]

Sam Vecenie & Bryce Simon discuss Kevin Durant being traded from the Phoenix Suns to the Houston Rockets.

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Sam Vecenie, a Senior NBA Writer at The Athletic, talks all about basketball. From the NBA, to the NBA Draft, to college hoops and even some high school, Vecenie has you covered in this show.