Rockets blockbuster trade proposal lands Suns star Kevin Durant

06/26/2024 11:39 AM

The Houston Rockets may not be a legitimate playoff team just yet, but they are just about ready to take that next step into playoff contention. On Tuesday night, the Rockets made a shrewd move, acquiring two of the Phoenix Suns’ first-round picks (an unprotected 2027 first-rounder and a 2025 pick swap) to try and insert themselves into the Kevin Durant sweepstakes in the event that the Suns blow up their squad.

All offseason long, reports have come out stating that the Rockets are looking to add a star on the wing to lift their rebuilding project to the next level. Durant has been mentioned in passing, but the possibility of a trade with the Suns looked close to zero before the Rockets pulled off the trade with the Nets. Now, the Rockets should have a stronger chance at acquiring Durant even though the most likely scenario still is for the future Hall of Famer to stay in Phoenix for at least one more season.

But if the sun sets in the Valley earlier than anticipated, here is the trade the Rockets must put on the table to acquire Kevin Durant from the Suns.

Rockets go all-in on Kevin Durant

Rockets acquire: Kevin Durant, Grayson Allen

Suns acquire: Dillon Brooks, Jabari Smith Jr., Cam Whitmore, Tari Eason, Jae’Sean Tate, Steven Adams, 2025 PHX first-round pick (negating pick swap), 2027 PHX first-round pick, 2025 HOU first-round pick, 2027 HOU first-round pick, two second-round picks

It will be interesting to see what route the Rockets take when they decide to pursue a trade for Kevin Durant. Will they dangle the likes of Alperen Sengun or Jalen Green so they could keep some of their draft picks? Or will they decide to keep those two and trade away their collection of draft assets instead?

Sengun, as pointed out by ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, could be the centerpiece of a potential Durant trade with the Suns. Windhorst noted that the Rockets have the third overall pick of this year’s draft, which they could then use to draft Donovan Clingan so they could have their de facto Sengun replacement.

Windy on First Take this morning says that if the Rockets take Donovan Clingan with the #3 pick, they could offer Alperen Sengun, along with the PHX picks they just acquired from Brooklyn, to the Suns in exchange for Kevin Durant pic.twitter.com/6njHbsn8vB

— Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) June 26, 2024

Sengun, however, is one of the best players on this Rockets team. He averaged 21/9/5 last season, proving himself to be one of the best stat-sheet stuffers at his position and a legitimate foundational piece to build around on offense. He will be entering just his age-22 season and he’s already this good of a player; if the Rockets were to become a contending team, they will need him to be at his best and most creative self on offense so he could make the lives of his teammates better. Trading for Durant seems rather counterintuitive if they’ll be trading away one of their best players in the deal.

Sure, it takes talent to acquire talent. Teams have to give up something good to get something good in return. But the Rockets can certainly find a way to put together a package that doesn’t involve Alperen Sengun. The same goes for Jalen Green; Green has had his bouts with inefficiency, and he has been benched by head coach Ime Udoka on multiple occasions. But Green finished the 2023-24 season on a tear, looking like a much-improved player in the process. And he’s only 22 years of age.

In this scenario, Durant will find himself flanked by players who will make his life easy on both ends of the court. The Rockets should also be able to keep the third overall pick of this year’s draft in this hypothetical, which paves the way for them to draft another talented youngster to add to their burgeoning core and to help them replace the players that they’ll be losing in this deal.

The players that they’ll be losing are no joke; Jabari Smith Jr. is a floor-spacing defender who stands tall at 6’11; he also improved his efficiency by leaps and bounds last season. Smith is only 21, and he has the prospect pedigree to boot, being the third overall pick of the 2022 NBA Draft and all. He is a worthy centerpiece of this blockbuster trade.

Cam Whitmore and Tari Eason are solid young pieces who could very well blossom in larger roles that may not be available to them in Houston. Whitmore, in particular, has flashed his incredible potential as an athletic scorer who can provide energy with all of the minutes he spends on the hardwood. Eason may be injury prone, but he is a relentless crasher on the boards and he can space the floor as well. Whitmore is only about to turn 20, while Eason is just 23.

Losing those three youngsters will undoubtedly hurt. But giving up those three is better than trading away Amen Thompson. Sure, Thompson shot 13.8 percent from three last season. He literally did not make more than one three in a single game. That does not bode well for his floor-spacing future. But Thompson is a winning player; he can defend from one through four, handle the rock with ease, and he is one of the best rebounders in the association even though he’s not of a prototypical big man size.

Thompson averaged 13.5 points, 9.9 rebounds, and 3.7 assists last season after he stepped into the starting lineup after Sengun’s injury — impressive numbers for a rookie. He may have been drafted as a guard, but Thompson has earned his keep as a forward in this association. The Rockets will need a starting four in this scenario, with Fred VanVleet, Jalen Green, Kevin Durant, and Alperen Sengun being the four other starters, and Thompson should easily slot in as a short-roll, athletic hustle guy extraordinaire who could very well get better, especially offensively, in his second season in the NBA.

But then there’s the matter of draft picks; the Mikal Bridges trade simply blew the market wide open. If the Nets nabbed five first-round picks as well as a pick swap for Bridges, then there’s simply no way that Durant is going for fewer picks than that. But with the Rockets offering some very good youngsters in exchange, then giving the Suns back two of their picks, as well as two Rockets picks, should be enough to get the deal done.

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