The Houston Rockets had an outstanding season last year with a 52-30 record that was good enough for the 2-seed in the West. And though they were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs by the Warriors, it was still a huge step in the right direction for a young team that hadn’t even made the postseason since 2020.
When the Rockets traded for Kevin Durant this summer, they went from an up-and-coming team to a legit title contender. Durant’s run in Phoenix had been disappointing, though individually he still put up his customary sterling numbers. The Rockets needed a steadying offensive force and someone who could be counted on to get buckets in crunch time, and there are few players in the league who fit the bill like that like KD does.
Unsurprisingly, KD has been awesome in Houston, and the Rockets are in the thick of the race at 23-14 despite losing point guard Fred VanVleet to a torn ACL shortly before the season began.
VanVleet appeared on the most recent episode of All the Smoke with Matt Barnes, and when asked what about his new teammate has impressed him the most, he named Durant.
“The most impressive thing has just been his energy and his leadership. As an older guy with a young team, his energy and his communication, his presence on a day-to-day basis has been great for us,” he said.
FVV acknowledged that there are some negative perceptions of Durant out there due to the way things fizzled out in Brooklyn and Phoenix, but he says those ideas couldn’t be further from the truth of who KD is.
“It’s so different than the narrative,” he asserted. “He’s got a real big divide between the narrative around him and who he actually is, so it’s just been cool to get to know him and get to see him every day and like OK, this is who he really is, versus some s*** you read online.”
Durant always tells it like it is, and sometimes that rubs people the wrong way. VanVleet cited his online persona, where he regularly clowns people for their bad takes, as an example.
“You gotta be around him,” he said, “because from the outside, you’re like, ‘Damn, why is KD responding to somebody on Twitter or why he care about what people think?’ and then you get next to him and it’s like oh, he really don’t actually give a f***. He’s just chillin’, he might be getting his ankles taped, and he might just fire a tweet out at somebody, then he go hoop.”
The Rockets have hit a little bit of a rough patch in the past couple weeks, losing four of six to drop to sixth in the West. They’re still well within reach of climbing back to the 2-seed again, though, and they have a chance for a big statement win when they host the Thunder tonight.
The Rockets have missed VanVleet’s veteran leadership and steady point guard play, but there’s still a chance he could return sometime during the playoffs. In the meantime, it remains possible that they could look for point guard help at the trade deadline, especially since their recent slide has coincided with Reed Sheppard hitting a bit of a wall.
Durant has continued to be an efficiency monster in his 18th season, posting averages of 26.1 points, 5.4 rebounds and 4.5 assists on 52/40/89 percent shooting. His presence, along with the continued growth of Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson and Jabari Smith Jr. will make a huge difference once the playoffs arrive.
