It's not every day the NBA world gets a Game 7 of the Finals and a future Hall of Famer changing teams via blockbuster trade.
But just hours before the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers play for the 2025 title (8 p.m. ET, ABC), the Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets linked up to send Kevin Durant to Houston in a deal for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 overall pick in Wednesday's draft and five second-rounders.
Which franchise won the trade? How will Durant fit within the Rockets' young roster? Are the Suns going full rebuild?
ESPN's NBA insiders are examining the deal from every angle, including trade grades, the biggest winners and losers in the deal's aftermath and intel from around the league on what lies ahead for Houston and Phoenix.
Jump to a section:
Grading the trade
Winners and losers
Leaguewide reaction
Trade grades: KD to Houston
Houston Rockets: B+
There was a strange contrast over the past month as discussion of Durant's next destination heated up at the same time the 2025 NBA playoffs were reaching their conclusion. Youth and depth led the Pacers and Thunder to the NBA Finals, yet teams were competing to catch them by giving up multiple contributors to bring in Durant, who will turn 37 around the start of training camp.
Coming off finishing second in the West with only one starter (guard Fred VanVleet) older than 28, the Rockets were surely best positioned to thread the needle of surrounding Durant with enough talent to contend for a championship -- particularly as the price dropped to the point where they didn't have to include any of their most prized young players in return.
The seven-game series Houston lost to the veteran-laden Golden State Warriors in the opening round exposed the Rockets' need for more half-court scoring punch. The Rockets ranked 22nd in points per play on their first attempt to score outside of transition, per Cleaning the Glass, ahead of only the Orlando Magic among playoff teams.
During the regular season, Houston was able to compensate with frequent use of transition and by dominating the offensive glass. According to Cleaning the Glass, no team averaged more points per missed shot on second chances. Both of those factors tend to dry up in the playoffs, especially late in close games. The Rockets went 0-3 in "clutch" games against the Warriors, posting an ugly 91 offensive rating with the margin inside five points in the last five minutes of those games per NBA Advanced Stats.
Although Durant is no longer as singular a scorer as in his prime -- when he posted a true shooting percentage (TS%) at least 15% better than league average nine times according to Basketball-Reference -- he's still as good as just about anyone creating his own offense. Among players with a usage rate of 28% or higher in at least 500 minutes last season, only Denver Nuggets three-time MVP big man Nikola Jokic surpassed Durant's .642 TS%.
The contrast with Green especially favors Durant. Also a No. 2 pick, Green had Houston's highest usage rate last season with a below-average .544 TS%. (All-Star center Alperen Sengun, who had the team's second-highest usage, wasn't any better at .545 but makes more plays for others and has scored more efficiently in the past. Green's TS% was a career high.)
All the Rockets' young stars faced a tough adjustment to the playoffs, but none more so than Green, who averaged 13.3 PPG on 37% shooting. His 38-point Game 2 was the only time Green surpassed 12 points or shot better than 40% in the series. Essentially, Golden State condensed all the fears about Green's weaknesses as a leading scorer into one, salient seven-game sample.
With Kevin Durant heading to Houston, check out some key statistics and facts from his time with the Suns.
The bigger loss for Houston in the short term will surely be Brooks, whose arrival was key to the Rockets' rapid evolution from 60-plus losses in both 2021-22 and 2022-23 to 52 wins last season. Along with VanVleet and coach Ime Udoka, Brooks helped transform Houston's defensive culture. And as much as the Rockets utilized depth to finish atop a crowded pack of West contenders during the regular season, they're suddenly thin on the perimeter.
Amen Thompson will undoubtedly be a key part to solving whatever issues this trade creates. Thompson, who got my vote for Defensive Player of the Year, surpassed Brooks as Houston's perimeter stopper last season. (Having two elite defenders was certainly a luxury, one that helped the Rockets defend both Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler in the opening round.)
Because Thompson can defend on the perimeter at 6-foot-7, swapping two wings for the 6-foot-11 Durant essentially moves him from the Rockets' power forward to their shooting guard without fundamentally altering the structure of Houston's offense.
It will be interesting to see where Udoka settles on a fifth starter alongside Durant, Sengun, Thompson and VanVleet. Jabari Smith Jr. could move back into the starting five after Thompson replaced him in the lineup midseason, which would give the Rockets a frontcourt full of players listed at 6-foot-11. Alternatively, Houston's most like-for-like replacement for Brooks would be sixth man Tari Eason.
Promoting one of those players to the starting five does put more pressure on recent first-round picks Reed Sheppard and Cam Whitmore to step forward. Sheppard, the No. 3 overall pick, played just 654 minutes as a rookie, while Whitmore was at the fringes of Udoka's rotation when everyone was healthy. Whitmore has been productive when he has gotten opportunities and Sheppard was my top-rated prospect in last year's draft, so the Rockets' front office is justified in believing both players are capable of contributing more.
Adding Durant, and presumably signing him to an extension beyond 2025-26, will force difficult financial choices for Houston. Having signed center Steven Adams to a three-year, $39 million extension, the Rockets are already pushing the luxury tax this season. If they fill out their roster with players making the minimum, they're about $33 million below the projected luxury-tax line before addressing VanVleet. Houston holds a $44.9 million team option for the veteran point guard but could decline it in favor of a long-term deal that pays him less in 2025-26.
Paying a small amount of luxury tax this season wouldn't affect the Rockets much, but delaying the clock on the repeater tax could have huge ramifications down the road. Houston will get much more expensive once Thompson's rookie contract expires in 2027. The Rockets are surely penciling in a max deal for Thompson, while Eason and Smith are eligible for rookie extensions now. Meanwhile, Durant's salary could increase on an extension as he heads into his late 30s.
Those are problems for another day. Houston has moved on to the next phase of an impressive roster build without giving up any of the team's most valuable draft picks. The Rockets retained Phoenix's unprotected 2027 first-round pick, plus the opportunity to get the two best of picks from the Suns, Brooklyn Nets and Dallas Mavericks in 2029. They also have a swap with the Nets in 2027 that puts pressure on Brooklyn's rebuild to accelerate.
Based on their combination of young talent and the lack of a go-to scorer, Houston was always the best fit as Durant's next team. Now we'll see whether he can lift the Rockets to their first playoff series win since former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate James Harden was starring in Houston.
Phoenix Suns: B
This Durant trade is surely the beginning of a roster makeover rather than the completion of it. Phoenix got back a pair of wings, exacerbating the imbalance of a roster whose five highest-paid players (Bradley Beal, Devin Booker, Green, Brooks and Grayson Allen) could all be called natural shooting guards.
Pending those future moves, this Durant trade seems pragmatic for the Suns, who never stood a chance of recouping the value they gave up to get him from the Nets at the 2023 trade deadline. Durant is more than two years older now and a year away from free agency, meaning Phoenix had far less control of negotiations. And after the team's relationship with Durant frayed when the Suns discussed trading him in February, bringing him back wasn't a realistic threat.
The worst-case scenario for Phoenix was trading Durant for veterans who fit better alongside Beal and Booker in a misguided attempt to win now. Again, let's not rule out that happening down the line, but for now the Suns got what could be the best 2025 draft pick to change hands and the 23-year-old Green.
I never liked the three-year extension the Rockets gave Green, which both pays him like an above-average starter ($33.3 million in 2025-26) when he's not currently one and allows him to become an unrestricted free agent at age 25 in 2027 if he does break out. (That extension did serve its purpose for Houston, as structuring this deal as a sign-and-trade involving Green as a restricted free agent would almost certainly have been impossible.)
Still, it's certainly possible Green can tap into his upside if he sticks around. He has never played alongside a creator as talented as Booker, and Green could get more opportunities as a "second-side guy" when the ball swings over to him after defenses have loaded up to stop Booker.
Brooks would immediately become the Suns' best perimeter defender, and it's amusing to see him finally land in Phoenix six-plus years after the miscommunication over which "Brooks" the Suns were getting in a deal involving Trevor Ariza, who is long since retired. If Phoenix is going to cut payroll to avoid exceeding the second apron and having another first-round pick frozen from trades, however, Brooks is a likely candidate given his value throughout the league.
In five years, the No. 10 pick will likely matter most to the Suns. They haven't picked that high since 2020, when they jumped from the lottery to the NBA Finals after taking Jalen Smith No. 10, two picks ahead of Tyrese Haliburton. Phoenix, which has only one first-round pick on a rookie contract on the roster (Ryan Dunn), now holds a pair of first-rounders next Thursday.
Acquiring Durant was obviously a failure for the Suns, who ended up winning only a single playoff series during his three seasons on the roster and still owe their 2027 and 2029 first-round picks from that trade. Phoenix didn't have nearly enough leverage to get those picks back from the Rockets.
That choice, plus the subsequent Beal trade that further limited the Suns' flexibility and others that lost control of their first-rounders through 2031, is in the past. All they can do now is try to keep making better decisions that incrementally brighten a gloomy future outlook.
-- Kevin Pelton
Winners and losers of the deal
Winners: Tari Eason, Reed Sheppard and Cam Whitmore
While Durant raises Houston's ceiling, the Rockets' depth took a hit with this deal as they traded two starters for one. Green and Brooks combined to play 65 minutes per game this season, so this exchange opens up 30-35 "new" minutes per night to be distributed among Houston's existing roster.
Eason, Sheppard and Whitmore are the most likely beneficiaries, especially because Durant slots in as a natural power forward, whereas Green and Brooks are lower on the positional spectrum. All three deserve more playing time: Eason ranked just eighth on the team in playoff minutes, while Sheppard and Whitmore combined for 15 minutes in Houston's first-round series loss to the Golden State Warriors.
All three also offer skill sets that should help replace Green and Brooks. In his second season, Sheppard will provide backcourt creation beyond VanVleet, after the No. 3 pick didn't get much run as a rookie. Whitmore is a talented if inconsistent scorer, just like Green -- their per-minute numbers were similar this season, and their true shooting percentages were nearly identical -- and he won't turn 21 until next month. And Eason is an even more impactful defender than Brooks, although his offensive game isn't nearly as developed.
To that end, Sheppard and Whitmore should also provide Houston with much-needed shooting, as Green and Brooks ranked first and third, respectively, on the team in made 3-pointers this season. Durant can help, but he is more of a pure shooter who happens to take some 3s than a long-range marksman; his 2.6 made 3s per game this season tied a career high.
In a best-case scenario, it's possible that Eason, Sheppard and Whitmore step in and replace Green and Brooks without any meaningful on-court losses. If that developmental plan succeeds, the Rockets would, in essence, be adding Durant just for a small package of picks.
Loser: Oklahoma City Thunder
As of this writing, it's still unknown whether the Thunder are 2024-25 champions. But regardless of the result of Sunday's Game 7, Houston's major upgrade is bad news for Oklahoma City in 2025-26, which the Thunder will surely enter as favorites to repeat as Western Conference champs.
Durant doesn't just strengthen the No. 2 seed behind Oklahoma City. He also represents a particular player archetype that the Thunder might struggle to guard, because of his height advantage against all of their fearsome perimeter defenders.
The Thunder are still the best-positioned team in the West, both now and into the future. But every strong opponent represents another obstacle that could prevent their potential dynasty. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Houston develop into their fiercest challenger, just as the Rockets did against the Warriors dynasty last decade -- when, ironically, Durant was the one helping the champs maintain their throne, rather than the final piece boosting the upstarts.
Winner: Minnesota Timberwolves
Including the trade deadline, Minnesota has now attempted but failed to acquire Durant in two separate transaction windows. But that's not necessarily a bad thing for the Timberwolves, who have reached consecutive conference finals for the first time in franchise history without him.
Perhaps Durant could have helped close the gap between Minnesota and Oklahoma City -- which might be a wide one, given that the Thunder dispatched the Timberwolves in five games last month. But the cost to acquire the 36-year-old offense-first forward would have hit Minnesota hard, if it included center Rudy Gobert, as was rumored in recent weeks.
Without Gobert, Minnesota's defense might collapse, taking the team's identity with it. The other bigs on the roster -- Julius Randle and Naz Reid -- are, like Durant, offense-first contributors rather than anchor defenders. And a frontcourt with multiple defensive question marks can't win in the modern NBA.
The difference between the Rockets' and Timberwolves' situations is that Durant definitely makes Houston better, because the Rockets can backfill the production they lost in the trade. The fit in Minnesota would have come with a lot more question marks about what moves came next.
It's unclear what alternate route Minnesota will take this summer, now that a Durant deal is off the table. But it's equally unclear that Durant would have made the Timberwolves a more potent challenger to the Thunder -- to say nothing of the risk Minnesota would have assumed by trading for a star who didn't want to play there.
Winners: East contenders
Most of the serious Durant suitors play in the West, but the best teams in the East still must be breathing a sigh of relief, now that they don't have to worry about Durant barging in to boost a competitor.
The East still projects as incredibly wide open next season, which could have incentivized a fringe contender (the Detroit Pistons, perhaps, or the further-down Miami Heat) to gamble on the 15-time All-Star. But none raised an offer to beat the Rockets', so Durant is staying in the West, keeping the league axis titled firmly in that direction.
It's still possible that other stars will cross eastward this summer, following Desmond Bane's move from Memphis to Orlando. But Durant was the most obvious candidate to do so. (The other superstar in trade rumors is Giannis Antetokounmpo, who already plays in the East.)
Loser: Bradley Beal
As Pelton noted, the Suns' five highest-paid players could all be called shooting guards. While that might change with a Grayson Allen trade, this deal still bumps Beal, who's set to earn $53.4 million next season, down the depth chart.
Assuming the Suns keep Green rather than trading him to a third team, they will surely devote more playing time and developmental attention to the 23-year-old former No. 2 pick, rather than to a player in his 30s on the downslope of his career. Theoretically, trading Durant could have freed up more on-ball opportunities for a scorer with Beal's résumé, but Green -- and Brooks, who attempted 12 shots per game this season -- will receive the lion's share instead.
Perhaps that state of affairs is OK with Beal, who seems happy in Phoenix; if he were inclined to waive his no-trade clause to move to another city, he might have already been dealt. But Beal's usage rate already dropped to a career low this season, and his minutes per game were at the lowest rate in nine years. It's hard to imagine either of those numbers rebounding in 2025-26, with Booker and Green now posing as the future of the franchise. Will Beal still be happy if he's the No. 3 or 4 shooting guard on his own team?
-- Zach Kram
Leaguewide intel: Next for Suns and Rockets?
A quick canvassing of the league in the wake of the Durant trade reached a pretty clear consensus: a great deal for the Rockets and the best the Suns could do for Durant under the circumstances they'd put themselves in.
"They did pretty well, all things considered," one executive told ESPN of Phoenix's return in the deal.
For the Rockets, this accomplishes what have been their twin objectives: continue to upgrade a roster that was a surprising second seed in the West last season, while not kneecapping the ability of the team's young core to continue to improve and develop.
League insiders praised Houston for threading that needle.
Green, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft, is a talented scorer. But he's also an inefficient one and struggled mightily in Houston's seven-game loss to the Warriors in the first round of the playoffs, shooting 37% overall and 29% from 3-point range.
Durant, at 36 years old this past season, averaged 26 points per game on 52.7% shooting overall and 43% shooting from 3, and will immediately give Houston's offense a far higher ceiling -- while also creating more room for Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson to operate. Doing it while keeping all of the team's premium young talent, plus its future draft capital -- it leaves open the possibility of a second big trade for a prime-age star if the opportunity arises and Houston wants to pursue it -- makes it an even bigger win.
The widespread expectation across the league is also that Fred VanVleet, who has a $44.8 million team option for next season, will be back in Houston, too. The only question is whether that will be on that option number, or if the two sides will negotiate a longer-term deal to ease Houston's financial burdens this season.
For Phoenix, the question now is what's next for a roster that is clearly far from complete. The Suns currently have six players making at least $10 million for the 2025-26 season, and all of them -- Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, Green, Brooks, Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neale -- are wing players. Booker, Beal and Green, in particular, have extremely overlapping skill sets.
Sources said Phoenix is expected to be aggressive over the next couple of weeks, with a mandate to retool its roster around Booker. He is expected to get a two-year extension next month in the neighborhood of $150 million, tying him to the franchise through the 2029-30 season. But the Suns currently have a roster that doesn't have a point guard, likely needs an upgrade at center over Nick Richards and doesn't have a clear-cut starting option at power forward.
"They have a lot of talented players," another executive said, "but do they fit together?"
Another question: What will the Suns do with the No. 10 pick they have acquired? For a team largely devoid of young talent, certainly adding a lottery pick in a good draft to a core led by Booker is a good long-term investment. But will an opportunity arise to upgrade in the short-term by using that pick?
Before this trade, the Suns were severely depleted in draft pick reserves. By doing this deal, it now gives Phoenix some amount of currency -- even if outside of that 10th pick this year most of it is either in late firsts or second-round picks -- to try to upgrade.
The truth is, however, that the Suns kept waiting for a team to up its offer, and no one did. The Rockets didn't move multiple picks or any of their premium young talent. The Heat, the finalist in the Durant sweepstakes, had no interest in including Kel'el Ware, sources said, while Houston wasn't willing to budge off its offer and no one else was pushing to make a deal, either.
As a result, on the day the Thunder hope to claim its first-ever NBA championship, Durant is now a Rocket, and could enter next season armed with the best potential chance to take down his former team.
-- Tim Bontemps