The Kevin Durant Contract Is PERFECT…

The Kevin Durant Contract Is PERFECT…

Kevin Rand signed a new contract extension to stay with the Houston Rockets beyond this upcoming season. 2 years and $90 million, which is a massive deal for a couple of reasons. One, I appreciate the Rockets and Kevin Rant getting this done before football starts on this Sunday. Very much appreciate that. And two, this is something that was going to be hanging over the Rockets the entire season, and having it solidified is going to help them a ton this year. The official numbers and the details on the extension, by the way, is a 2-year $90 million extension to the number that he was already on this year. So technically it’s under contract for three more and the final year is a player option. So realistically the Rockets have Kevin Durant under contractual control for two more seasons. This one and one more. So, if you go back to when Durant made it clear that he was going to end up being traded somewhere away from Phoenix and then that place ultimately ended up being Houston, the contract extension part of all of this has always been a massive deal from that point on because one of the reasons that Durant was able to pretty much dictate where he wanted to go was because he was going to be a 2026 free agent. And even though Durant is a very good player, still still an allNBA caliber guy, there are a lot of concerns in terms of giving him a bunch of long-term money and him being extension eligible and possibly leaving in the summer 2026 was a concern for Houston even after they made the trade. They didn’t give up, you know, five first round picks or anything, but they gave up enough that it would definitely be a setback if they could not get Durant to return beyond 2026 free agency. And so signing him to this extension is a really, really big deal. Not to mention the fact that it’s not that big of a number. Two years, 90 million, $45 million a year is below what most of the players on Durant’s level around the league are making and helps the Rockets out a ton with their long-term flexibility. It’s been reported that when Durant decided that Houston was a place that he wanted to go to, what went into that decision was him understanding when he got there that they were not going to be giving him the $60 million max that he would have been eligible for. The maximum extension he could have signed was 2 years 120. When he went to Houston, apparently everybody was on the same page that that was not the deal that he was going to be getting because the Rockets have Alprren Shenuner. They signed to a big deal. A man Thompson is going to need a new deal. Tari E is in extension talks. Jabari Smith got a bunch of money in the offseason. They’ve got a bunch of pieces here they’ve already paid for and are going to continue to have to. And in this cap environment where everyone’s worried about the second apron, everyone’s worried about their payroll spending. The Rockets made it clear you’re not getting 2 years 120. And to settle at 2 years 90, Durant gets a bunch of money for a guy at this point in his career. The Rockets get great value and can continue to do whatever they want to flexibility-wise with this roster. This is a huge, huge deal for both sides. Durant secures that long-term money at this point in his career. We’ve know he’s had some injury issues. Obviously, he’s getting up there in age, and the Rockets just don’t have this cloud hanging over them anymore of what could happen in the summer of 2026. You get it done before the season so that no matter what happens, worst case scenario, the Rockets are terrible and KD’s really unhappy, you can trade him at some point and get value back. And it’s especially important that they get this done prior to the year starting because of the Van Fleet injury cuz I still think the Rockets are going to be very good. They might not be the most aesthetically pleasing offensive team in the league, but I still think they’re going to be very good. Definitely possible that they win 50 plus games this year, but losing Van Fleet definitely put a little bit more variability in terms of their outcomes this year because they’re suddenly relying a lot on someone like Reed Shepard who barely played for them last year. you’re relying a lot on Kevin Durant doing even more on the ball at this point in his career. And there was an outcome for Houston’s season where things got a little bit weird. They don’t have Durant signed to an extension. And he’s suddenly looking at 2026 free agency as an option for him to explore going elsewhere. He’s never been afraid to go somewhere else to request to go somewhere else. And if they had just left that open-ended, not had him signed to an extension, that would have been hanging over the team the entire season. To me, this is a this is a win-win. This is a no- lose situation for everybody involved. Durant takes less than market value on the extension, but he gets a couple more years. He gets a bunch of money, and he knew that when he went to Houston, he knew he was going to have to take less than the two years 120. Apparently, that was all hammered out beforehand. And the Rockets get rid of all the uncertainty. They lock down Durant on a below market value number. And now, they can start paying attention to some of the other pieces on the roster. I mentioned someone like Tari Een earlier. There’s been some speculation that maybe he could be trade bait down the road to try and add a guard to replace Van Fleet. There’s been speculation that Van Fleet himself could get traded even though he’s injured as a way to use that salary, some of these picks to replace him. All that stuff is now made much easier by the fact that you know for certain Durant’s going to be on the team. He’s going to be under contract and you know what the number is. And so now with Durant locked down, I’m very intrigued to see what happens with Houston this year. It’s an incredibly tough Western Conference. We know that Oklahoma City and Denver are going to be near the top of the conference. There’s some wild cards like the Lakers potentially. The the Warriors are a team that a lot of people like. Minnesota seemingly always gets forgotten and Houston kind of falls in between those two ends of the spectrum, right? Clearly they’re good. They’re one of the better teams in the conference last year, but there’s a lot of new here and a lot of uncertainty, especially as I said without Van Vleet. If Reed Shepard can have a really good year and be someone that helps them a ton with their spacing, can organize the offense a little bit, they’re going to be unbelievable defensively. And so that’s going to be good enough for them. If they can’t figure that out, it’s going to rely a lot more on just being great on defense, crushing teams on the offensive glass like they did towards the end of the year last year. And of course, the big piece at the center of all that is Kevin Durant. I love watching Kevin Durant play basketball. I hope he plays for another 10 years. and him being at the center of this team. Although the fit is a little bit weird because they’re kind of starved for this like actual every single play down the floor playmaker pick and roll guy. Even though they are desperate for that kind of player, I still love having someone like Durant at the center of all this because one of Houston’s things last year and in the past has been they have not been very good at the end of games. They’re really good for 46 minutes in the last two minutes of the game. They don’t have anybody to go to. don’t know how to just get one, two, three buckets in a row to finish off the game. And now you know exactly where that’s coming from. You can give it to Kevin Durant in the mid post. You can give it to Kevin Durant on a pick and roll and you can let him go from there. And if there is continued growth from Alpurn Shen, Tari E, Amen Thompson who is a lot of people’s most improved pick for this upcoming season. Improvement from all those guys plus a little bit of improvement from Reed Shepard to me puts Houston very very close to the top of the conference. I wouldn’t pick them over Denver and I wouldn’t pick them o over Oklahoma City. Every other team in the conference, I’d feel pretty confident picking Houston over right now. I still really like Minnesota. The Warriors intrigue me. The Lakers intrigue me a little bit, but now with Kevin Durant locked in. I think Houston can just fully now focus on we know what our team is. We don’t have Infleet. We have Durant locked down, although there is a player option on the third year. And now it’s just all systems go. This is one of the teams that I am most excited to watch this year because there’s so many potential schematic things they can figure out now with Durant there. What position does Durant play? Like do they go with the with the two bigs in the front court like they had success with at the end of last year that puts Durant at the three which is a position he has not played really in years? Do they go even bigger than that? Do they play like Durant Een two bigs and Reed Shepard? There’s just so many options here. Emodoka is going to do a good job as head coach. And for a team that has a lot of expectations, I like now the fact that everybody knows what everybody’s role is. Everybody knows where everyone is supposed to be and everybody knows, hey, Kevin Durant is at least going to be under contract beyond the season. Whether he’s going to be on the team or not is obviously extremely likely, but not a guarantee. But at least, you know, he’s not entering 2026 free agency anymore. And that basically in terms of the free agency class, Durant was a possible, but that basically now just leaves Austin Reeves and Trey Young as like big time free agents at the moment now that Kevin Durant is off the board. Very very interesting uh Sunday morning news here in the

Kevin Durant has signed a new 2 year, $90 million contract extension with the Houston Rockets, and it is perfect for both sides.

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