Kevin Durant & Alperen Sengun Are PERFECT PAIRING, Top 3 DUO for Rockets, & MOST Versatile Team!

Kevin Durant & Alperen Sengun Are PERFECT PAIRING, Top 3 DUO for Rockets, & MOST Versatile Team!

We’re going to get things started, right? Oh, we had a lot of um fun basketball to talk about. We’re done. We’re going to start with Orlando and Houston. Here we go. We got a little overtime action. 11713. Win for the Rockets. KD leads 35 points, 5 and six. Shenune with 302 and eight. Reed Shepard, your guy. 16 points. Uh look, Houston started the season 0 and2 after everybody thought, “Oh my gosh, they’re going to be so amazing.” And then they started to doubt and now they’ve won nine of their last 10. See what happens when you start to doubt. Um the the big thing last year was the offense. Like what are they going to do? How are they lacking it? Not having a legit closer. That’s all over and done with you guys. Anybody surprised Chandler of how this has gone so far? I am not. When you put Kevin Durant on a team and he is healthy and he’s just he’s fitting in so well with Singon. He’s fitting in with this young core and they’ve done a great job honestly with just a combination of young talent. And if OKC and San Antonio kind of weren’t doing what they’re doing, we would be talking about this young core with Thompson, with Singon, with Jabari Smith Jr., with Reed Shepard. They have so much talent. Then they go and bring in guy like Kevin Durant who is just fitting in seamlessly with Singon. It’s one of the better duos in in the league. They’re defending. They’re scoring 125 points per game. So they’re putting up at a really really high click clip. And now they have this closer in Kevin Durant, which last night just kind of showed what he can do. They can play through the big fella all night long. They can have Thompson kind of get downhill and initiate their offense. They have the true point guard Reed Shepard that comes in. They have depth. They have size. They have a little bit of everything. When game on the line, you can go to KD and you see you have him going the ISO. He’s been do we, you know, we’ve been doing that for two decades. So, I’m not surprised. They’re well coached. They defend and they can score a lot of points. There’s so many different ways they can hurt you offensively. and the setup of them. Again, like I said, if OKC and San Antonio weren’t doing all this crazy things and all this talents, all this assets that they have, we’d be talking about this team and this core a lot more. Yeah. Uh you remember when the season started and they were 0 and2 and Kevin Durant said he was happy that everybody was walking around pissed off because that showed how competitive they were and how they wanted to change the tide in Houston, right? And now you look up, they’ve won nine out of 10 in that role. And if you look at this combination of KD and Son, they’re like a blast from the past. Like you remember old school teams, you had a really good guard and you had a really good big, you can play pick and roll, you can space the floor. This is that in 2025 with these two guys. Like Singon, they can play the pick and roll or he can iso. He can post up. KD obviously can can shoot the basketball and score the basketball from anywhere. That gives you so much spacing. Now that makes it easier for your role players to even be successful when you got two different guys that can score the basketball and create so much spacing on the offensive end. And it’s worked. Like look at last night, they just took turns trying to trying to win the game each. You know, KD hits a big shot. Now you can dump it in the Son. This is a recipe for winning for Houston, man. And with these two guys, and it looks good. It it looks great to watch. And what a luxury for like the Thompsons, for the Smiths to to have all the attention basically on that duo. That’s going to free up their development. It’s going to free up their offensive game and they’re going to be able to kind of get off and in certain areas that they weren’t able to without Kevin Durant on the floor. And the fact that, think about it, Fred goes down. Yeah, they still have guys like Clint Capella, let’s not play. Dorian Finny Smith, we haven’t even talked about him once. He’s going to be valued once he comes back. So, this team is also one of the deeper teams where they can go 10, 11, 12 deep. Josh Kogi’s been solid. Adams has been like they have so many guys, so many weapons where they can go small, they can go big, they can play fast, they can play slow. Like they’re the one of the more versatile deeper teams in the league. Great role players, man. So, let’s uh we we always have to try to figure out lists and bests and all of that. Um, obviously KD once played with a man named Steph Curry, but let’s just put that aside. Is Shenun the second best running mate he’s had? I mean, you can’t overlook West overlook James Harden. You can’t overlook Kyrie Irving. Not over guys play with a lot of really really do that. We ain’t going to do that. It’s a lot. It’s fresh. It’s fresh. You He’s They’re They’re They’re figuring out something here. But they have those guys have history. Those guys have years. Those guys are first ballot hall of famers. Sing is not quite there yet. He is an unbelievable talent and his game is kind of taken to the next level. Um, but no, I we with the names that we just listed, those guys are shoeing Hall of Famers. Those guys are multiple allstars, MVPs. Like Kevin Durant’s play with a lot and I don’t know if they I don’t know if they get the opportunity to play with each other long enough as teammates. I had to clean that up because I I already know how you operate. It’s already too late. I already said it. I don’t know if they have the time to establish um that type of synergy that these other guys did. Like they fell short in Brooklyn, but Kyrie Irvin was there, James Harden was there and and Kyrie is a champion. And so like Chandler just mentioned, those guys have a laundry list of accomplishments that they’ve created. I don’t know if Son and Katie have the time to build that same type of synergy as well together. Well, what about the sty? Not necessarily comparing the talent levels of, but the style and how it allows KD to play. And I mean, he’s been very complimentary of I think it’s still being written. Now, what I what I do like is I like the way that they do play together. Like those two guys are a great one two punch, but it’s still being written. Like we’re still early in the season. And again, that’s this is a team that had some adversity to start the season. It looked like they’ve figured it out. It looks like this is going to be a team to deal with. We said it preseason. All the teams down in Texas are going to be a problem. Every single one of them, with the exception of Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, they’ve held their end of the bargain. So, this story is still being written. I would like to see what happens, you know, come All-Star break, let’s look at that record. Let’s look at how much noise they’ve made, but it’s still being built. I like it. Yeah. And Singon, again, I don’t want to discredit what he’s done and the leap he’s taken, but playing with a big guy like that that sees the floor like he does, he’s very similar to Joic and that where where you can play through him, he can be aggressive, you can give him to him off the block, he can get a defensive rebound, he can bring out, he can initiate the offense. So that’s I think early on this season when we were we were concerned if the the the point guard position are they going to start on Thompson? He’s going to be out of position. When you have a guy like him, it’s such a luxury because one through five can bring it up. One through five are interchangeable. You can start the offense with anybody on the floor when you have a center a center like him. So it’s it’s a huge luxury to play with a guy like that. And although yes, this is Kevin Durant’s team, I think. And that’s the thing when you knock look at this. when you knock Kevin Durant for going to, you know, to the Warrior. Every team he’s been on, he’s been the best team and he’s still doing that right now. So, the success they’re having, it starts and ends with Kevin Durant. And for them to actually be that contending team, he’s going to have to do things like this and stay consistent and stay healthy. Where are they right now on your one two punch tier? I mean, you can’t really overlook the Thunder. You can’t really overlook the other team that’s ahead of them in the West right now, the Nuggets, because they’ve been consistent. They’ve been doing it for a while with Yokic Murray. But when you look at the versatility that these two bring, they’re they’re they’re a top duo for sure. I don’t know rankings wise what what they would be right now, but top top three maybe like they’re there really really good. Top three is kind of a big deal. We’ll take top three. All right, we’ll take top three. Um statline wise, everyone loves to look at stat lines and try to figure out how it matches. Where’s the pattern? Well, KD’s this year is very similar to that first championship year that he had with the Warriors. Again, it’s about the style, not about the talent of the other players on the roster. This feels perhaps like natural fitwise this might be the best that he’s had since school. Yeah, it looks right. It looks right. Like with this team again, he and Son, they’re going to be the onetwo punch. And then they have a bunch of guys around them that understand their roles, that understands their positions and what they bring to the table. I think that’s great for him. You know, his last few stops, he’s been on teams with other superstars. He’s been on teams with other guys that can go out and get 25, 30 in in any given night. And so that has taken some adjustments. And he’s tried to play basketball the right way in those groups. You know, even when he was with Golden State, he went out and said, “Yeah, like I’m Kevin Durant. I can go out and get 50 at any given time. I’m just trying to play the right way. I’m trying to play team basketball. I’m trying to play system basketball.” And he went out the very next night and literally had 50 points just to show if I wanted to be selfish, if I wanted this to be all about me, I can go out there and I can do that. Brooklyn was the same thing on a team with a with a James Harden, with a Kevin with a with a Kyrie Irving. You kind of gota you got to find a place. You got to find your spots to go out and be aggressive. Then obviously you go out to Phoenix. Same scenario. But now here in Houston, Son is going to get 30 shots a night. KD is going to get 25 shots a night. And they don’t even need that many shots if they want cuz he’s being he’s what he’s look how efficient he is. He’s doing this on 16 shots a night. 51 from the field. Yeah. Like he doesn’t even he doesn’t even need it. So again, like a natural fit. He knew that it this off season I need to go somewhere where I can play basketball naturally and be myself. Like this guy’s a basketball soant. Anywhere he go, he’s going to change culture. And it’s been great for him in Houston. But it’s been a great fit so far. Yeah. We’re talking about Kevin Durant, right? We’re talking about one of the greatest players of all time. And just I think now at this point when a lot of guys say, “I just want to go somewhere and I want to win and I want to fit in.” He’s actually doing that and he’s making the guys around him better while he’s still getting his game off at a crazy efficient clip. And and this like I said when he goes to the Warriors and they were talking about, oh, he’s ring chasing. He’s super team. He’s still the best player on those teams and now he’s doing the same thing here. Now they have a lot of work to do to get to that championship level and to get to where the Warriors were. But this is a great start. Like I said, when you look at the trade assets this team has, we look at the young talent this team has mixed with the vets they have, this team is really, really dangerous and they’re super well. You know what, just a little tidbit to look back when he got so much criticism about going to Golden State now that a lot of his career has panned out. I think people forget like we’re talking about it now. He’s always just wanted to play basketball the right way and he’s a hooper. He’s a Savant. So when you look back at that Golden State team, them beating OK OKC aside, they play basketball the right way. And I think he just wanted to be a part of that culture. And since then, he’s been chasing that feeling. And I think he’s found it in Houston. Yeah. Like when the Warriors were busting our ass, we were playing. Didn’t you want to go over there, too? Like like you blame him for playing that offense. Play that offense and shoot all these threes. Should I want to do that, too? Can’t knock him. I don’t I still I’ll never get it. But that’s all right. It’s over. It’s done. And he did what he did. Um we got some hot headlines. Scorching really. Now Mavericks, we got to get you up to date on some of the things that have been

On November 17, 2025 episode of ‘Run It Back’ on FanDuel TV, co-hosts Michelle Beadle, Chandler Parsons, and Lou Williams react to Houston Rockets & Kevin Durant continue to roll and Dallas Mavericks future for Anthony Davis. They are also joined by Orlando Magic center Wendell Carter Jr.

FULL EPISODE HERE: https://youtube.com/live/DfiMKC9MFes

CHAPTERS
0:00 MAGIC VS ROCKETS REACTIONS
3:38 SENGUN 2ND BEST KD TEAMMATE?
6:36 WHERE KD/SENGUN RANK RIGHT NOW?

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