{"id":245721,"date":"2025-08-22T19:59:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T19:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/245721\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T19:59:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T19:59:27","slug":"espn-there-is-a-belief-that-rockets-kevin-durant-will-agree-to-contract-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/245721\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN: \u2018There is a belief\u2019 that Rockets, Kevin Durant will agree to contract extension"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Houston Rockets<\/a> and Kevin Durant haven\u2019t yet reached a contract agreement for beyond the 2025-26 NBA season, but it doesn\u2019t mean that one isn\u2019t coming.<\/p>\n

Per ESPN\u2019s Brian Windhorst, the Rockets and Durant have had discussions about a new contract, and \u201cthere is belief they will come to terms, sources said.\u201d<\/p>\n

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However, as indicated by ESPN colleague Tim MacMahon<\/a>, such a contract probably needs to be below the NBA\u2019s maximum salary (for Durant, that would be approximately $121 million over two additional years).<\/p>\n

The Rockets are being cautious with future payrolls and attempting to avoid many of the punitive team-building restrictions<\/a> placed on expensive teams under the NBA\u2019s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). That is particularly important for a 2027-28 season<\/a> in which rising star Amen Thompson will likely be on the financial books at a much higher salary.<\/p>\n

Windhorst elaborates<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Durant, like (LeBron) James, is no longer viewed as a centerpiece, as Houston builds around a young core of players it acquired through the draft.<\/p>\n

The Rockets view Durant as a final component, a veteran who graduates them into true contender status, while they manage taking care of core players such as\u00a0Jabari Smith Jr. and\u00a0Fred VanVleet, both of whom signed large contracts this summer, and\u00a0Alperen Sengun, a 2025 All-Star who signed a big deal the summer of 2024. But there is also\u00a0Amen Thompson\u00a0and\u00a0Tari Eason\u00a0to consider, two young players who are in position to be paid new deals over the next year.<\/p>\n

In the end, Durant might need to accept less than a maximum contract, which he has been on since 2011, if he wants to stay in Houston.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the Rockets, all indications are that Durant does want to stay, as evidenced by the All-Star forward working behind the scenes to leverage a trade to Houston<\/a> earlier this summer.<\/p>\n

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Thus, as Windhorst said, there is a belief that a deal will be reached. The question is when.<\/p>\n

More: What figure can Rockets, Kevin Durant agree to for his next contract?<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: ESPN: \u2018There is a belief\u2019 that Rockets, Kevin Durant will extend deal<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Houston Rockets and Kevin Durant haven\u2019t yet reached a contract agreement for beyond the 2025-26 NBA season,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[883,7,2949,10351,40560,130,866,292,194,4066,2497,938,516,41685,6,211,873,4136],"class_list":{"0":"post-245721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-amen-thompson","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brian-windhorst","11":"tag-collective-bargaining-agreement","12":"tag-contract-agreement","13":"tag-espn","14":"tag-fred-vanvleet","15":"tag-houston","16":"tag-houston-rockets","17":"tag-houstonrockets","18":"tag-jabari-smith-jr","19":"tag-kevin-durant","20":"tag-lebron","21":"tag-maximum-contract","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-rockets","24":"tag-tari-eason","25":"tag-tim-macmahon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115074194927730098","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245721","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=245721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}