The Rockets are out, but don’t get your hopes up for a Durant-to-Houston trade

They need shooting. Phoenix has shooting. But a KD-to-Houston trade is still unlikely.

Another team has fallen from the postseason, and this one mattered to the Phoenix Suns.

The Houston Rockets were eliminated in Game 7 by the Golden State Warriors, 103–89, and if you watched even a quarter of that series, one thing was glaring: they couldn’t shoot. At all. Houston lived inside the arc, with 65.6% of their shot attempts coming from two-point range, but they converted just 48.4% of those tries, the worst mark in the league this postseason. Unless they were finishing at the rim, points were hard to come by.

If you were to write the perfect script for a playoff exit that might quietly benefit the Suns, this would be it.

The Rockets won 52 games and finished second in the West, powered by youth, defense, and unrelenting athleticism. But their biggest hole — consistent scoring and floor spacing — was exposed under the playoff lights. And that’s where the Suns, for all their flaws, could offer a solution.

With Kevin Durant’s future in Phoenix as stable as the Soviet Union in 1991, a growing faction of armchair GMs are circling the idea: what if KD and Houston made sense for each other? One team starving for scoring, the other desperate for youth, assets, and a reboot.

The mock trades have begun.

Yet reports out of Houston suggest the Rockets aren’t interested in blowing things up for a star like Kevin Durant. They see this season not as a missed opportunity, but as a foundational step, part of the process they’ve been building toward. Despite the playoff disappointment, they appear committed to the long game, not a quick fix.

Trading for Durant looks good on paper. But paper doesn’t win championships. We know that lesson all too well in Phoenix. We believed that we were one elite scorer away from breaking through. So we pushed all our chips in for Durant. Sacrificed youth, picks, depth.

And we all know how that turned out.

Sure, the moves that followed made the hole deeper, but it was that first bet — that faith in star power solving all — that defined the Suns’ trajectory.

Houston will no doubt evaluate its path this summer. They need offense. That’s clear. But they won’t solve that problem by mortgaging their future for a player on the back end of his prime.

That wouldn’t be the right move, and they know it. The Rockets have seen this movie, and the Suns were the writers, directors, and producers. Unless you win it all, that kind of gamble becomes a critical misstep. Desperation opens doors, but only if someone’s actually desperate.

And for those hoping that Houston will simply hand back our lottery pick, which currently sits at ninth and will be finalized at the draft lottery on May 12? That’s more wishful thinking than I can muster. Put yourself in their shoes: if that pick holds at nine, it becomes another cost-controlled, rotation-ready player on a rookie deal. Why trade that for a 36-year-old superstar with a massive price tag?

Yes, Houston needs help. But I don’t believe the Phoenix Suns are the ones holding the life raft. We can hope so, sure. But history — and logic — tend to say otherwise.

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