Rockets Never Addressed Kevin Durant's Social Media Scandal Internally

Kevin Durant is one of the greatest offensive players we've ever seen in the history of the NBA. His game has proven capable of assimilating into any system of play style.

The cast of characters hasn't seemed to matter, as it pertains to Durant's effectiveness. He's averaged 25 points on 60 percent true shooting for five different ball clubs, including the Houston Rockets. 

In fact, you'd have to go back to his fourth season in the NBA (the 2010-11 season) to pinpoint the last time Durant didn't pull off the feat. This season, Durant carried the Rockets, averaging 26 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 52 percent from the field, 41.3 percent from long-range, 57.2 percent on two-pointers, 58.8 percent effective shooting and 64.1 percent true shooting.

Durant finished second in total minutes played, third in minutes per game and sixth in 30-point games. His value in unquestioned. 

In fact, the Rockets don't win 52 games without Durant. Especially when considering the injuries to Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams. 

Not to mention Dorian Finney-Smith, who was tabbed as Dillon Brooks' replacement last offseason but was clearly not fully healthy. Finney-Smith didn't take the court until Christmas Day, which was 28 games into the season.

Again, Durant carried the Rockets. He's a surefire guarantee to make an All-NBA team.

However, he can also invite scrutiny by way of social media. Particularly Twitter, which is clearly his preferred social media platform. 

Durant has had past incidents involving the use of non-verified Twitter accounts (or burner accounts), which he has confirmed. Which made the scandal from this season even easier to believe, although Durant never confirmed it, or denied it, in all fairness.

During All-Star weekend, screenshots surfaced of a non-verified Twitter account posting disparaging remarks towards several Rockets players in a group chat, specifically Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith Jr. To this day, it's not fully known who was behind the account. 

And the situation was never resolved internally either, according to Will Guillory and Sam Amick of The Athletic. 

"Several league sources with close ties to Rockets players indicated the social media situation was a significant distraction, one that was never truly resolved internally. Durant never discussed the matter in any detail publicly, saying only that he was “not here to get into Twitter nonsense.” Privately, league sources said his teammates agreed to keep the matter in-house while focusing on basketball. It is unclear whether Durant ever clarified to his teammates if the account belonged to him.”

It's been stated that the Rockets had chemistry issues throughout the season. It's certainly been clear that the Rockets players weren't exactly always on the same page.

It seems unfair to pin all of that on Durant's shoulders. It also doesn't have much to do with Houston's first-round ouster from the postseason either.

The Rockets will have an interesting offseason, as they project to be one of the league's more active teams, as it pertains to roster construction.