Last offseason’s trade between the Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets, that saw Kevin Durant get dealt to Houston, in exchange for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, five second-round draft picks and the 10th pick of the 2025 NBA Draft has been a franchise saver, of sorts, for the Rockets.
Especially when considering the mountain of injuries Houston has seen. Fred VanVleet was out before the season even started.
Steven Adams is out for the season.
(And hasn’t suited up in a month).
Tari Eason has missed over 20 games (well, 22, to be exact).
And Houston’s prized free agent signing, Dorian Finney-Smith, has missed 33 games (and hasn’t looked good, although we’ve seen positive signs, of late ).
Yet and still, the Rockets have their same record at this point in the season as last year. Despite being without three of last year’s starters.
According to Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein, the Rockets’ brass tried making the deal for Durant at last year’s deadline, albeit with the inclusion of Jabari Smith Jr. instead of Dillon Brooks.
“The deal was never gonna get done without Jalen and Dillon in the deal.”
Bartelstein claims the Suns wanted Brooks, to help set their culture.
Houston’s brass has denied being willing to part with Smith.
But make no mistake. They surely would’ve included him, if it came down to it.
Not many players on last year’s roster should’ve been deemed untouchable, especially with Kevin Durant on the table as an acquireable piece.
Even an older version.
We should expect the Rockets to deny their willingness to move Smith.
In the same way that it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Suns are now hyping up their guy in Brooks.
It’s a bit less believable that Brooks was a sticking point for the Suns.
It’s not like it could’ve been predicted that he was going to average a career-best 21 points (albeit on 18 shots).
It should also be noted that Phoenix couldn’t have moved Durant for Green and Smith at the deadline, from a salary standpoint, as Smith was still on his rookie salary.
But again, this shouldn’t be surprising.