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Shams Charania Reveals Surprise West Team That Could 'Look' at Kevin Durant Trade

Originally posted on Athlon Sports
By Nathaniel Holloway | Last updated Apr 16, 2025 4:52 PM ET

The NBA regular season has ended and the Play-In Tournament has begun with the playoffs right around the corner.

One team that will not be in the postseason is the Phoenix Suns after they fell extremely below expectations.

Of course, the Suns were expected to be one of the top teams in the Western Conference this season with their star trio of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal leading the way.

Instead, Phoenix finished 11^th in the West standings with a 36-46 record that saw them miss out on the Play-In Tournament by three games.

With the Suns poor season, they are expected to make some major changes that already began earlier in the week when they fired head coach Mike Budenholzer.

Now, all eyes will be on Durant in the offseason as Phoenix is expected to trade him and Beal to build around Booker for the future.

With Durant likely on the trade block in the offseason, there will be many teams interested in the future Hall of Famer but ESPN insider Shams Charania recently named a surprise West team as one that could deal for Durant.

“If you lose early ... could (the Houston Rockets) look at a guy like Kevin Durant? Monitor them,” Charania said about the Rockets potentially entering the sweepstakes for Durant.

"If you lose early ... could [the Rockets] look at a guy like Kevin Durant? ... Monitor them." @ShamsCharania says KD and the Rockets have a "level of mutual interest" in working together pic.twitter.com/DmDStOsUIc
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) April 16, 2025

Houston had a great season that saw them clinch the second seed in the West standings and they will begin the first round of the playoffs on Sunday against the Golden State Warriors.

Of course, the Warriors will be a tough matchup for the Rockets and if Houston is unable to make it out of the first round, they could look to add a superstar to their roster in the offseason and it could be Durant.

Houston was a team rumored to be interested in multiple stars at the trade deadline and they have been rumored to be in on Durant, but they did not want to break up their young core ahead of the playoffs.

That could change in the offseason and Durant would be a great fit with them as he would give them a true superstar next to their young core to make a run next season.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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