Heading to the 2025-26 season, many considered the Houston Rockets to be a team that other NBA squads had to reckon with. After all, they secured the second seed last season and then added all-time great Kevin Durant to their roster without losing any of their key guys.
However, things obviously didn’t pan out the way the Rockets and their fans expected. Although KD had a stellar regular season, averaging 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists per game, he clashed with his younger teammates, allegedly besmirched them via a burner account, and played just one game in the postseason due to an ankle injury.
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With a long offseason ahead, Hall of Famer Paul Pierce suggested that the time is right for Durant and the Rockets to part ways.
A fractured relationship
Before the postseason began, hoop fans and analysts had the Rockets winning easily over a Lakers team without Austin Reaves and Luka Doncic. However, what nobody saw coming was KD’s absence. Without the 6’11” forward’s reliable scoring, the Rockets bowed out in six games.
The Truth, though, surmised that the rabbit hole goes a lot deeper than just stats. With Durant’s alleged burner accounts coming to light in February 2026, which he supposedly used to critique current players, including some of his teammates, Pierce said the revelation created a divide in the locker room that nobody in the organization could mend.
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“It sounds like, unofficially at least, the reports are that based on what happened this year with KD, the team, and the burner-account stuff allegedly saying things about the team, it fractured the relationship,” Pierce stated on the “Ticket & The Truth with Kevin Garnett & Paul Pierce.””And if that’s true, I think the time might be up.”
The locker room is sacred
As crucial as basketball skills, experience, and talent are, Pierce declared that chemistry is just as crucial an ingredient in the hunt for a championship. History has shown that regardless of how many All-Stars a team has, if they can’t get on the same page, it’s all for naught.
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On this Rockets team, KD and center Alperen Sengun are the only All-Stars. However, the squad is filled with young, talented players like Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr., Reed Sheppard and Tari Eason.
It cannot be denied how passionate Durant is about hooping the right way, and all throughout the season, he has visibly clashed with his teammates over the failure to make the right reads and plays, simple plays that actually make a difference between wins and losses.
“You know how sacred and personal the locker room is. You can’t have a divide. You just saw what happens when the divide starts between the young guys and the vets,” Pierce said. “If what he said was really about them, how would you feel as a young player if the veteran y’all look up to said something like that about you?”
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Kevin Garnett, though, believes the Rockets’ front office must exhaust every effort to try to mend things between KD and the young fellows. This season, they played without All-Star point guard Fred VanVleet and didn’t have veteran center Steven Adams for most of the season, so they haven’t yet realized their true potential with a full deck of cards.
“What are you talking about? He just got there. They just went around the block,” Garnett stated.
Players like KD don’t grow on trees. He’s an automatic bucket, which is a must in the postseason, when defenses tighten up. So, the Rockets must do everything they can to keep the veteran superstar, as he provides the tools they need to win it all.
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This story was originally published by Basketball Network on May 9, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.