Rockets CHAMPIONSHIP Or BUST After Kevin Durant Trade? | NBA Cup Groups REVEALED

Rockets CHAMPIONSHIP Or BUST After Kevin Durant Trade? | NBA Cup Groups REVEALED

On today’s show, why the Houston Rockets trading for Kevin Durant is not a championship or bust move. Plus, NBA Cup groups revealed. We’re going to get to all that and more on today’s Locked on Rockets. This is mission control. Houston ignition sequence start. 6 5 4 3 2 1. What’s up and welcome to another edition of Locked On Rockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball. As always, I’m your host Jackson Gatlin, native Houstononian and credentialed media member, also the host of Locked on NBA Thursdays. Be sure to follow along wherever you listen to your podcasts or on YouTube. Just search Locked on Rockets, where the best way you can help us grow our show is to listen every single day on a podcast platform of your choosing and then like, comment, subscribe on YouTube. And as always, thank you so much for making Lockdown Rockets part of your day every single day, whether it’s on your way to work, on your lunch break, in the gym. Thank you so much for being an everydayer. On today’s show, a little bit later on, we’ll get into the NBA Cup groups being revealed for uh the NBA Cup tournament next season. Rockets getting the short end of the stick once again, it feels like, with their group setting. Uh we’ll talk about that. We’ll go over the different teams and whatnot, but the main focus of today’s show is going to be on this this idea, this narrative that has started to form uh surrounding the Kevin Durant trade for the Rockets. And it’s this idea that the Rockets are championship or bust, quote unquote, after making the deal for Kevin Durant. And I just think that’s completely incorrect. Honestly, there’s there’s no two ways about it. I feel like that that is such that is the completely wrong way to view this move. Now, I will say right just to clear things up really quickly on the surface, right, the expectation is to win a championship. you trade for Kevin Durant, the expectation is that you are now firmly in title contention mode and that you should like the floor of this team. The expectation should be like at a minimum Western Conference Finals against like one of the Thunder or the Nuggets and then ideally, right, a finals trip where you get a legitimate shot, you know, seven game series, winner take all to win yourself a title. And ideally, right, you have multiple chances, multiple bites at the apple over these next two to three years with Kevin Durant before he eventually decides to hang up the sneakers, right? So that that is the expectation. But the idea that it’s championship or bust is just wrong on so many levels because teams that are championship or bust are teams where their only option, right, is you either win the title or if you can’t win the title, however many times you decide to eventually run it back and and you know, maybe swap a couple pieces, what have you. The orbust part implies that there is no other recourse if you don’t win the title. The orb bus part signifies that, okay, well, you tried to win a title, you couldn’t do it. Maybe you ran it back with the same roster and you still couldn’t do it. Disappointment all around. Cool. Now, you got to blow it up and start over, right? You know, start a rebuild, you know, mortgage off all your all your part, all your parts, all your players, and and you know, try and jumpst start the next era of your team’s basketball, right? That’s not what this Rockets team is whatsoever. And that’s part of what made the Kevin Durant trade so appealing in the first place is because of how little the Rockets were able to get a player of Kevin Durant’s quality for. Right? So when you go back and revisit what the Kevin Durant trade actually cost the Rockets, on paper, it was Jaylen Green, Dylan Brooks, the number 10 pick in the draft, and five future second round picks. And then if you want to get really granular with it, you can talk about how the five second round picks, the Suns were able to parlay those by, you know, a couple series of trades in order to get Rashir Fleming and uh Kobe Brea later in the second round. Uh and then the number 10 pick turned into Kaman Malawatch. So if you really want to like look at the trade in its entirety, Jaylen Green, Dylan Brooks, Kaman Malawatch, Rashier Fleming, Kobe Brea. I think it’s Kobe Brea. I’m not gonna look it up because it’s kind of irrelevant because here’s the thing. I love Kaman Malawich and I love her sheer Fleming. I think they’re gonna have both like incredibly bright NBA careers. I really do. But we don’t know what they are right now. And they’re also not ready to play winning basketball right now first and foremost. We know what Dylan Brooks is. Dylan Brooks is a is a starting caliber playoff caliber like 3 and D wing at the NBA level. Um, and so he, you know, that was a a certain loss for this Rockets team. Absolutely. And then Jaylen Green, four years in the NBA, some incredible highs, still some optimism that he can turn into a star player down the line. I don’t know that he’ll ever become a true superstar. I I don’t even know that he’ll ever become an actual star, right? I don’t know that he’ll ever actually make an all-star team, you know, in his NBA career. But the idea in theory, right, or not in theory, but you know, the way the Rockets executed things, they believed more strongly in their conviction about their ability to contend for a title for the next two or three years with Kevin Durant right here, right now than they did in some hypothetical future where Jaylen Green does level up again or pan out or become the best version of himself. And I think that’s part of the issue here is I think that Rockets fans have really throughout this rebuilding process have romanticized this idea of, you know, a homegrown squad where you draft all the players and they lead you to the promised land and all that. And it it’s it’s a little unrealistic at the end of the day. It is. We literally just saw two teams in the finals and the two best players on those two teams were acquired via trade. Now granted, you know, I I still fully consider I consider Tyrese’s Hallebertton and I consider SGA both like homegrown products because nobody’s going to look back at SGA and be like, man, you know, his time with the Clippers or Tyresese Hallebertton with the Kings. No, you know, those teams traded them when they were incredibly young, right? And it’s very different because I’ve seen this dynamic compared to as well. It’s very different than the Rockets trading Jaylen Green after four years in the NBA giving, you know, given multiple opportunities to show that he can be the future star that this organization wanted him and needed him to be versus SGA and Hallebertton who were dealt much earlier in their careers before either of the Clippers or Kings really knew what they had, you know, what they had at their disposal. So, you know, mistakes by those organizations and maybe even the Kings wouldn’t necessarily view it as a mistake. They might now, you know, hindsight fully 2020, but it also got them the three seed in the playoffs and Deamont Sabonis and De’arren Fox was a nice pairing while it lasted. It just it blew up because they didn’t make the right roster moves around those two guys. So, I’m getting down a major rabbit hole here and I want to get back to my main point. The orb bust part doesn’t apply to the Rockets. It just doesn’t because the Rockets still have an incredibly bright future even post KD. Now again the expectation with Kevin Durant is that you are competing for titles that you are trying to win at least one championship and there will be a level of I think valid disappointment if you are unable to achieve a title after making this move for KD but it’s not the end of the world because the Rockets still have so many young players with incredibly bright futures. they still have a treasure trove of future assets. And in order to like really hammer home this point, I want to take a jaunt around the NBA landscape and compare the Rockets future and their assets, their young players to other teams around the NBA. And I I I would wager that there aren’t three other teams that I’d rather have their future over the Rockets future. And I feel very strongly about that. Haven’t done any preliminary research, so we’re going through this together. Fresh-faced straight in uh start of this next segment. So, we’re going to get there in just one moment. First, today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Ever wish managing your money felt easier? With Monarch Money, it can. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more than a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building your wealth. For me, when I started using Monarch, I’ll admit I was pretty embarrassed and kind of disappointed in myself when I saw how much I was spending on food. I’m talking like dining out at restaurants, big big expensive meals, uh going to fast food places, ordering delivery, like all that. It adds up considerably. Now I budget smarter and save more. So take control of your finances with MonarchMoney. Use code locked onmbba at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com. Code locked on NBA for half off your first year. And continuing on here at Locked on Rockets, your daily podcast, home for everything Houston Rockets basketball. All right, so to lay the framework here really quickly looking at where the Rockets are now and I will say very I want to tackle this point too cuz I thought it was very interesting. You know, a few years back we saw the Warriors trying to do this like two timelines BS, right? where they had their established veteran core of, you know, Steph, Clay, Draymond, Looney, what have you, and they had the opportunity, right, to maybe take the draft picks, the picks that eventually turned into guys like James Wiseman, Moses Moody, uh, Jonathan Kaminga, like all these different picks, even the Pajinsky pick further down the line, they had the opportunity to maybe trade some of these picks and bolster their roster with established talent rather than drafting young talent. And that was, you know, they tried, again, it’s called the two timelines approach and whatnot. And it kind of backfired. It blew up in their face pretty miserably, right? Because now Jonathan Kamingo looks like he’s on the outs and the Warriors don’t want to pay him. Uh they completely whiffed on the Wiseman pick. And side note, imagine what the Warriors would have looked like if they had taken LaMelo Ball instead of James Wiseman. Could you imagine Ball and Curry playing? My god, I don’t like talking about the Warriors more than I have to, but it’s like the Rockets did the inverse of that, right? The Rockets rebuilt from the ground up. They spent multiple years being god-awful with a ton of young players and a bunch of raw talent. And then they slowly started to identify which of those young pieces they wanted to hold on to, which of those pieces they truly felt like were worth building around moving forward. And they’ve narrowed it down to the five remaining members of the young core. Alparin Shingun, Jabari Smith Jr., Tari E, Amin Thompson, and Reed Shepard. And that is an incredibly exciting young. In fact, that is literally a future starting five right there. That’s your future starting five. You could just like delete the other 10 players off the Rockets roster and that could be your starting five going into this very next season. And I would argue that it’s probably still, depending on the depth of the rest of the team, right? That’s arguably still like a playoff caliber team. It really is. You know, I I firmly truly believe that. And so you look at the future of this organization just from a talent perspective with their young players. They’re in a fantastic spot. Half the teams in the association would kill to have these five young players as their de facto future. But not only that, they also have a ton of assets in the war chest. And that’s the that’s the beautiful part about this. They still have the 2027 Suns first round pick. And by the way, the Suns just fully committed to Devin Booker with his 2-year, like $150 million extension. Dude’s going to be making $75 million a year at the end of that contract. And look, the Suns, they’ve made some nice moves this offseason. I like what they’ve done. I really do. But they’re still going to be fighting for maybe a playin spot in the brutal Western Conference. And if after retooling around Devin Booker and making this deal and trying to bolster the roster, if they don’t even sniff the playoffs a second straight year, and if they come out the gate the following season and really start to struggle, and if they don’t look like they’re putting things together, maybe Jaylen Green doesn’t pan out as this, you know, uh, new change of scenery, star player, get to the desert, become an all-star type thing that that a lot of Jaylen fans think is going to happen. then I I don’t see how much longer Devin Booker is going to stay loyal to that franchise. He’s coming up on 30. He’s going to want to win a title. And I could very easily see Devin Booker requesting out and therefore skyrocketing the value of that 2027 Suns first round pick. So, the Rockets have that pick. They have the 2027 Brooklyn pick swap and Brooklyn looks like they’re going to be a dumpster fire for at least a couple years. Hell, onethird of their roster this upcoming season is first round picks from this draft. So that 2027 Brooklyn swap is looking really good. They have the two best picks from their own pick, the Mavericks and the Suns in 2029. So another batch of first round picks that are going to be phenomenal. And then outside of all these ones that I just named, they also have four of their own other future first round picks. So, the Rockets are in a perfect position to have not only the ability to contend right here and right now with a young core that has started to cement itself as one of the most exciting capable young cores in the NBA between Alpin Shingun, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr., and Tari E. And I’m not I’m not lumping Reed Shepard into that just yet. He needs to prove himself this next season. And so, there is a lot writing on Reed Shepard panning out. And if Reed Shepard, if he’s a bust, if he doesn’t pan out, if he struggles, if he can’t be the future starting point guard in the back court with Amen Thompson, then, you know, that certainly makes things a little bit murkier for the Rockets future. But at least right now, we give the Rockets the benefit of the doubt. They’re internally very high on him. He’s shown some flashes. He’s only played one year of NBA basketball. Give him a little bit more time to grow. I feel confident in that future five. And that future five may very legitimately be the future fiveman starting lineup of this Rockets team at some point down the line. And in the postKD era, look, if none of these five players ever truly ascends to being your number one guy on a championship team, which I fully still believe that Amin Thompson will absolutely get there one day, but even if he doesn’t, even if Shingun and Amin Thompson are just like bonafide like all-star caliber players and Jabari and Tar are really great role players and Reed Shepard is like a, you know, basically we’ll just call, we’ll just say if Reed Shepard just turns into Fred Vanble Vleet, but a better shooting version of Fred Vanble. The Rockets still have all the assets available here to swing a big trade to go get themselves an established star that better matches the timeline of all these other young guys, right? Yes, they got Kevin Durant because he was cheap. He’s 36 right now. He’d be 37 at the start of the season. Um, you know, it would have been great if they could have gotten KD 5 years ago, right? seven years ago in in the middle of his prime instead of, you know, in the twilight of his career. But that’s not the way things worked out. And they still got a version of KD that is absolutely still a top 10 player in the NBA. And down the line, they can swing another trade for a disgruntled star, a player that wants out, and a player that potentially wants to come team up with that those five young players who would all be entering their respective primes. and Eime Odoka, who’s one of the most appealing head coaches to play for in the entire NBA landscape. So, going through all of that, I think really quickly, I want to go through and I’m going to I’m going to kind of speedrun part of this because I think most of these teams are very clearly like, no, you wouldn’t take their future over the Rockets future. So, I’m going to go I’m going to work my way through a bunch of these teams. So, Clippers future, flat out, no. Uh, Warriors future, no. Old Twilight career guy, no. Lakers future maybe because Luca, but like even Luca by himself, I don’t think you swap for the entire for everything the Rockets have for their future. So, no. Um 76ers, Pelicans, Kings, Heat, Suns, nope. Their futures aren’t brighter than the Rockets future. Um Nets future, no. They’re they’re literally in phase they’re they’re where the Rockets were a few years ago. They’re in phase one of their rebuild. They’re just throwing first round picks at the wall and hoping something sticks. So, not the Nets, not the Blazers, not the Bulls. Uh, not the Jazz, even though I like Ace Bailey, but not the Jazz. Uh, Wizard. Wizards are an interesting one because they I think they’re they’re doing kind of what the Rockets did as well, really like, you know, cultivating all this young talent, but they still don’t have like a guy clearly yet. And maybe maybe it’s Trey Johnson, but I still don’t think the I still like the Rockets future over the Wizards. Um, Pistons really love Cade. He’s already an allNBA caliber player. Like Assar Thompson, too. Uh I don’t like the Pistons future more than the Rockets. So, no. Raptors, no. Hornets, no. Nuggets future, Bucks future, no. Uh Maverick’s future, like yeah, they’ve got Cooper Flag and Max Christie and Derek Lively, I guess. But I I wouldn’t trade that for what the Rockets have. So, no to the Mavericks. Um Knicks, no. They’re in cont. They’re in contention like win now, right now. Um, Wolves with Anthony Edwards is an interesting one because it’s Ant. Uh, but outside of Ant, you know, Rob Dillingham, you know, I no to the Wolves future. Wouldn’t trade, you know, this entire Rockets team for just Anthony Edwards and Rob Dillingham. And and I don’t even think they’ve got like a ton of draft assets to be able to really utilize. Um, this is where things start to get a little interesting. uh Cavs with like Garland and Mobly and I think they’re still a little juiced on their future assets because of the Donovan Mitchell trade, but like Cavs interesting, but I still think no. Hawks, another interesting, very young, exciting team. Um you count Trey, you know, I guess Trey and Luca, same draft, same age approximately, so like sure Trey still counts towards the future. Um, but then you’ve also got, you know, Dyson Daniels, Zachary Reese, Jaylen Johnson, Anaka Kongu, uh, Assa Newwell off the bench, uh, Nikquille Alexander Walker, like I don’t know. Hawks are a very interesting team. I don’t think I’d trade I still don’t think I’d trade the Rockets future. Um, Memphis Grizzlies, Grizzlies, Jaw, Triple J, two young stars, legitimate stars already in the NBA. A bunch of other young talent on their roster. Uh Jaylen Wells, Zack Edy, uh they just drafted Cedric Coward, who I really like. They’ve got some assets for the future. Still don’t think I’d swap the Rockets for them. Um and you could call that one homerisism if you want. I just I don’t think I think the Rockets young pieces are going to go either right now better or going to be better than what the Grizzlies have. Um truly feel that. Um, and then you get to I think this is the first one that becomes a really compelling argument. The Pacers. The Pacers with Tyresese Hallebertton and Andrew Nimhard and Aaron Nesmith, uh, Benedict Matherin, like they’ve got they’re one of the younger teams in the NBA. They’ve still got draft capital down the line. Um, they’re fresh off a finals run. Like I think the Pacers become a team that you really consider. Do would you trade the Rockets future for the Pacers future? Um I don’t know if I’m all the way there. I’m like on the bubble for that one. But that’s the first team where you like start heavily considering it. I think Celtics future absolutely not. Wouldn’t do it. Um and then this is like the final tier of teams because you’re down to the Rockets and then the Magic, the Spurs, and the Thunder. I’ll start with the Magic because I really don’t like even though I I commend them for what they did and I love what the move that they made this season by, you know, trading for Desmond Bane and going all in and the East is wide open. I think they’ll be a top four seed in the East next year. I still don’t think I trade the Rockets future for a future of Berrow, Bane, Suggs, and Vagner. They’ve got a few other young players up and down their roster as well. Um, but they’re also like this is their all-in move. Like the Magic traded, what was it? four, five picks for Desmond Bane. That is their all-in move. The Rockets still have an all-in move to make if they want to. That’s the impressive thing about how this roster has been constructed. And so I think I give the edge to the Rockets. And so I would not take the Magic future over the Rockets future. Um, and then it comes down to these final two teams, the Thunder. And I think unfortunately you have to say yes. You say yes to the Thunder’s future. They’ve got they’re the youngest team in the NBA. They just won a title. They’ve got SGA, you know, unanimous MVP, uh, or like clean sweep of the MVP. I apologize. You know, all three MVP awards, uh, conference finals, finals, and and regular season. They’ve got JDub, who’s already playing like an all-star. They’ve got Chad Holgren, who is going to be contending for DPOise, you know, every few years, and all the other young talent up and down their roster. Like, I think you got to take OKC’s future easily. And then the Spurs. I think the Spurs, Wimi is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here, but yes, there’s Wimby. He has a chance to be the best player in the NBA at some point down the line. Um, but you’ve also got Steph Castle, you’ve got Dylan Harper, you’ve got the Fox who’s still kind of on that same like, you know, Luca Don’s Trey Young age timeline, whatever. So, he’s still got a bright future ahead of him. um Jeremy Sohan, Devin Vel, like I think you, as much as it pains me, I think I would still I’d probably take the Spurs future over the Rockets future. They’ve also got a decent amount of draft capital to work with. So, with that being said, that’s only two teams out of 29 other organizations that I think I would confidently say, or begrudgingly, however you want to describe it, would swap the Rockets future for their team’s future. Um, and then one maybe on the bubble with the Pacers. And that’s it. That’s really all there is. And so, not only are the Rockets actually at their peak right now, being able to contend for a title this very next season and and having two to three years to contend with KD, but they also have a top three at no worse top five future in the NBA as well with all their young players. So hopefully that means we can maybe dead these conversations about championship or bust with the Rockets because it’s certainly not or bust. It’s it’s championship or what’s next like after KD, right? And that’s going to be the the the question. Um and it’s still going to be what even if they win a title with KD, they’re still going to have to figure out what the next iteration of Rockets basketball looks like post KD. And you know, it’s just it’d be a lot easier to figure that out if you win a title. So, with that, uh, that’s going to do I I’m curious your thoughts, though. Are there any other teams that I missed that that I that I glossed over who you would trade the Rockets future for? I still think they’re clearly top three in the NBA as far as bright futures and at no worse than top five, and they’re still competing for a title right here, right now, which is literally the best of both worlds. So, give me your thoughts about that in the YouTube comments. Coming up, I want to talk about the NBA Cup groups being unveiled. We’ll get there in just one moment. and final segment here at Locked on Rockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball. All right, let’s take a look at the 2025 NBA Cup groups that were announced just the other day. Go ahead and pull up this graphic here. Um, wish I could make it look a little bit better, but if you’re watching on YouTube, the graphic is there. Um, so West Group A is the Thunder, the Wolves, the Kings, the Suns, and the Jazz. Total BS because it’s basically just the Thunder and the Wolves that are like actual high tier opponents in that group. Then you have West Group B gets a little bit harder because you’ve got the Lakers, the Clippers, and the Grizzlies who all project to be, you know, playoff caliber teams. Then you got the Mavericks and the Pelicans. Um, and then West group C, which is completely brutal. Rockets, Nuggets, Warriors, Spurs, and Blazers. Keep in mind, the Blazers were only like, you know, a handful of games away from making it to a playin tournament birth this past season. Spurs are going to be considerably better. Warriors are still going to be good. Nuggets are in the same tier of opponent as the Rockets are. And then obviously the Rockets. The Rockets group is by far the hardest group of all six groups in the NBA. And just really quickly looking at the Eastern Conference groups, right, you have Cavs, Pacers, Hawks. Hawks have a chance to be really good this next season, but they’re a little unproven right now. And then Raptors, Wizards. So like two bad teams, two great teams, one so team. Although the Pacers with no Tyresese Hallebertton, they’re not going to be a great team next year. So that should be a clean sweep for the Cavs in that group. East group B, Celtics, no Jason Tatum. Pistons and Magic should run the show in East group B. And then you got the Nets and the 76ers. 76ers are never healthy. I’m not counting them for anything until they’re actually like on the court doing their thing. Um so it’s basically between the Pistons and Magic. I think I like I think I like Magic in that East group B. Um East group C, Nick Knicks, and then the rest of it’s just kind of a dumpster fire because the Bucks are going to be a mess. The Bulls are a mess. The Heat are a mess. And the Hornets are a mess. Actually, I take that back. The Heat, I like some of the stuff that they’ve done. I think they’re actually the second best team in that group, even better than the Bucks. But I still like the Knicks. So, I’m going Knicks for group C. I’m going Magic for group B. I’m going Cavs for group A. I’m going Thunder for group A in the West. I’m going to go I’m going to say Clippers for group B in the West. And then for West, group C, all the way back to your Houston Rockets. I think they’re going to be younger and hungrier than the Nuggets and the Warriors about trying to win. And I’m going to remove this graphic now. Just put it back to how it’s supposed to be. Um, I think the Rockets are going to still be a younger, hungrier team uh than the Nuggets and the Warriors because again, those teams are teams that have like literally been there, done that, won a title. their goal is going to be to make it to the end of the regular season in one piece. And granted, you know, Kevin Durant, Fred, you know, Jeff Green, some of the vets on the Rockets have won titles as well. Um, but I do I I think it’s going to I think it’s going to come down to between the Rockets and the Spurs in West Group C. And I say that because I think the Spurs being on the comeup, having missed the playoffs this past year, you know, really they were gunning for it, right? Wimy’s injury kind of derailed them. Uh, I think that the Spurs pending health for Wimi are going to be fighting absolute tooth and nail to kind of make a name for themselves just like the Rockets did during their, you know, push towards the NBA Cup finals this past year, uh, after missing the playoffs the previous year going 41 and 41. The Spurs, I think, are going to be on the same trajectory as the Rockets. Um, I don’t know if they’ll jump from missing the playoffs entirely to winning 50 plus games this next season. I still think the Spurs are like one year away, but I think they’ll actually firmly be in the play in tournament mix this upcoming season before finally leveling up one more time and being like squarely in playoff contention discussion, what have you, uh, one more year down the line. But I’m going to say the Rockets win West Group C. Um, I’m not going to do the whole like tiebreaker, whoever the hell. Although I, you know what I will say? I bet the I bet the wild card team uh comes out of West Group C because that group is just that group is just monstrous. Um Rockets, Nuggets, Warriors, Spurs Blazers. My god, they just the Rockets just get screwed, man. In this in these tournament groups, it would have been so much nicer to be in either of the other two groups in place of one of the good teams from those two groups. So, with that, um, I’m curious your thoughts on the NBA Cup tournament groups. Let me know your thoughts in the YouTube comments. I want your thoughts on the championship or bust discussion. Give me your thoughts on that stuff as well. Uh, but that’s going to do it for today’s episode. As always, thank you so much for checking out the show. Uh, remember, the best way to help us grow the show is to listen every single day on a podcast platform of your choosing and then like, comment, subscribe on YouTube. But as always, thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for listening. We look forward to having you back right here at Locked On Rockets, your daily podcast home for everything Houston Rockets basketball.

Rockets CHAMPIONSHIP Or BUST After Kevin Durant Trade? | NBA Cup Groups REVEALED

Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets: A game-changing move or a calculated risk? The blockbuster trade sends shockwaves through the NBA, but it’s not just about immediate championship aspirations.

Host Jackson Gatlin (@JTGatlin) dives into the Rockets’ bold strategy, exploring how Durant’s arrival impacts their young core and future assets. Uncover the team’s enviable position, boasting both win-now potential and long-term flexibility. Compare Houston’s outlook to every NBA franchise, and discover why their future might be brighter than you think. Plus, get the inside scoop on the NBA Cup groups reveal and what it means for the Rockets’ challenging path ahead.

Tune in for an in-depth analysis of Houston’s roster construction, potential trade targets, and how they stack up against the league’s elite. Will the Rockets’ gamble pay off?

#Rockets #NBA #KevinDurant

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