Don't Believe Every Rockets Rumor During the NBA Offseason

The NBA champion will be crowned in Oklahoma City on Sunday as the Thunder and the Indiana Pacers play Game 7 to determine who takes the crown. The other 28 teams in the league have already turned their focus to next season as they prepare for the draft and go through different trade proposals. The NBA trade deadline is usually referred to as the NBA "silly season" because of the exaggerated or false reports that come out during that time.

The Houston Rockets are no different as they, as of this writing, hold the No. 10 overall pick via their trade with the Phoenix Suns before the trade deadline. This would be the Rockets' fifth lottery pick in a row since trading away James Harden in 2021.

The Rockets have also been in the middle of the majority of the trade chatter this offseason. A 52-win season and finishing second in the tough Western Conference made the Rockets one of the surprise teams in the NBA. The Rockets also have several players who played a big part in those 52 wins, which makes them an attractive team to other players and front offices.

The most mentioned name by a wide margin in trade talks across the NBA has been Kevin Durant. The future Hall of Famer and most decorated Olympic USA basketball player of all time seems to be on his way out of Phoenix.

That means there have been a lot of rumors connecting Durant and the Rockets. Unfortunately, the majority of those rumors are either flat out not true or exaggerated for clicks. When it comes to breaking news in the NBA, Shams Charania of ESPN is at the top of the list, but even Charania doesn't always get it right.

Most NBA "insiders" have sources within the organization that can be anyone from an intern to the general manager himself. One problem with this is that you may hear something from someone who is in the building but doesn't necessarily have any real information.

Even when they do get information from someone high up, it could just be what the team wants them to hear and not what will actually happen. Teams feed false information all the time to get across a certain narrative or to test the waters.

When it comes to the Rockets and Durant, we have heard everything from the Rockets being his first choice to the Rockets no longer being interested. Durant's top choice has changed almost every day in the last week as multiple "insiders" have put out their reports as if they are facts.

That leads to fans not knowing what is going on, as most trades that are made public are usually not reported on. The perfect example is the blockbuster Luka Doncic trade from this past trade deadline. It happened late at night, and not one NBA insider spoke about it until the trade occurred.

It will be a long offseason with lots of twists and turns for the Rockets, so don't believe most of what you hear or see during the NBA "silly season."