Does Adding Kevin Durant Make Rockets a Contender?

As the race to acquire Kevin Durant nears its ending, the Rockets are holding out on including valuable assets such as Tari Eason, Reed Sheppard, Jabari Smith Jr. and future Phoenix draft capital – an indicator on how they percieve the 36-year-old star.

If the Rockets believe adding Durant would make them a true title contender in a rigorous Western Conference, there'd be less hesitation to include younger assets in a trade package for him. While the 15x All-Star is still regarded as a top 20 player in the association, Durant's days as a first option may be past him.

Durant missed the minimum game requirement for awards in 2024-2025, but finished 9th in MVP voting the previous season. The last championship team to not have an MVP vote-getter in the top nine was Tim Duncan and the 2013-2014 Spurs – iconically known for their outlier brand of team-oriented offense that had a continuous core for over a decade.

That's not the case for the Rockets, who would be entering a brand new era and by meshing new stars together for an urgent win-now move. Unless a season 19 resurgence is in store for Durant, Amen Thompson or Alperen Sengun would need to take another major leap to superstardom according to the history books.

Of course, the Indiana Pacers could be another team added to that list, as neither Tyrese Haliburton or Pascal Siakam earned All-Star honors, but they're still a game away from capturing a championship, and for now can be deemed irrelevant to the conversation. Even if they were to hoist the Larry O' Brien, they'd merely be keeping up the pattern of outlier team-branded champions every 10 season, succeeding the 2013-2014 Spurs and 2003-2004 Pistons.

Bringing Durant to Houston would take the team from good to great, but the Rockets are in search for more. This isn't to say adding Durant to the electric Houston core isn't the right move – just not the only one.