Rockets Gearing up To Pursue a Kevin Durant Trade, per Insider

Highlights

Brooklyn Nets make two major trades, reacquiring draft picks from Houston Rockets.
Rockets aiming to trade for Kevin Durant, seeking to use acquired picks for aggressive deals.
Houston Rockets in win-now mode, targeting one of multiple stars such as Durant, Jimmy Butler, Paul George or Brandon Ingram.

The Brooklyn Nets are keeping everyone awake on the eve of the 2024 NBA Draft. After finally giving up on building around Mikal Bridges, they traded him to the New York Knicks in a massive blockbuster deal. However, that was not their only trade news of the night.

The Nets have also reportedly agreed to a deal with the Houston Rockets to reacquire some of their draft capital.

On the surface, this trade feels slightly odd. The Rockets are just trading out one set of future picks for another. However, Adrian Wojnarowski added further context as to the motivations behind the deal for the Rockets. In doing so, he dropped yet another Woj Bomb.

“The implications of the Rockets landing the Suns’ picks? Houston wants to trade for Kevin Durant and that becomes far easier if they can return the Suns’ picks that they gave up in the Durant deal to the Nets. Suns have said they’re keeping Durant for now, but that could change next season. But now, Houston has the picks to make the Suns whole again.” – Adrian Wojnarowski

While Durant remains the main prize, the team will not have tunnel vision specifically for the Suns superstar. Wojnarowski added more to the report.

The Rockets were linked to several stars recently, making it clear that they are entering win-now mode, and they intend to use this offseason to firmly establish themselves in the Western Conference.

Rockets Are Cleared For Take-Off

Houston has plenty of draft capital and young talent to leverage in potential deals

It’s safe to say that the rebuild that the Rockets have been working on over the past few years is set to get a major lift. The team has done a good job acquiring young talent to go with their draft capital since the James Harden trade to the Nets.

Durant seems to be the main prize in their eyes for this offseason, but there are other names who should be available if that falls through. Bridges was previously reported to be one of their targets. Now, the star they bring in may potentially be a touch on the older side.

Potential Additions For The Rockets
Category	Durant	Butler	George	Ingram
PPG	27.1	20.8	22.6	20.8
RPG	6.6	5.3	5.2	5.1
APG	5.0	5.0	3.5	5.7
FG%	52.3	49.9	47.1	49.2
3P%	41.3	41.4	41.3	35.5

It feels clear that the Rockets will be targeting a star on the wings, based on the reports to date. If Durant is out of the equation, names like Jimmy Butler, Paul George, and Brandon Ingram will all be worth monitoring as the offseason continues.

Stats are courtesy of Basketball Reference.