podcast<\/a> with The Hoop Collective, Brian Windhorst explained the three hurdles that must be cleared for Durant to find a new home next season.<\/p>\nWindhorst’s first two points make the most sense, but the third will likely be the most difficult for the parties involved in the trade to reach.<\/p>\n
![\"Phoenix](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/0c0869b6fe0a56292b461ae176c9afb1.jpeg\"\/)
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Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant.\u00a9 Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
First, Durant must want to go to that team as he wants to be in control of the final seasons of his playing career. Second, the Suns must want to do a deal and agree to it.<\/p>\n
Third, the new franchise must agree upon Durant’s contractual future. The 36-year-old superstar has one season left on his deal and carries a cap hit of $54.7 million.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
The most heavily-rumored destination for Durant is the Houston Rockets. The Hoop Collective’s Tim MacMahon points out the Rockets are “reluctant” to reduce their timeline as the franchise believes they have a bright future given their young roster and bevy of future draft picks, including three 2027 first-round selections.<\/p>\n
The Rockets’ core of Alperen Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr., Jalen Green, Amen Thompson and Tari Eason are all 23 years old and younger. Keeping that group intact in a trade for Durant seems near-impossible.<\/p>\n
Ramona Flowers continued the dialogue by stating that a trade to send Durant out did not happen because Phoenix “wanted a lot” in return for its superstar, and the franchise views the two-time NBA champion as its only big trade piece.<\/p>\n
Related: Clippers Exec Provides Update on James Harden, Kawhi Leonard\u2019s Future<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2024-25 NBA season came to an anticlimactic end for Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns. A 36-46…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[1307,883,7,2949,292,194,4066,2497,861,938,6,472,211,873,4908],"class_list":{"0":"post-11743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-alperen-sengun","9":"tag-amen-thompson","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-brian-windhorst","12":"tag-houston","13":"tag-houston-rockets","14":"tag-houstonrockets","15":"tag-jabari-smith-jr","16":"tag-jalen-green","17":"tag-kevin-durant","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-phoenix-suns","20":"tag-rockets","21":"tag-tari-eason","22":"tag-trade-deadline"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114457628280718600","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}