Kevin Durant already made it clear at Houston’s Sept. 29 media day that he intends to sign a contract extension with the Rockets.

It’s simply a matter of when and how much. And we may not have to wait long to find out.

ESPN insider Shams Charania said this on Wednesday’s NBA Today television show:

The Rockets and Durant’s business manager and partner, Rich Kleiman, they’ve been in constant communication about a long-term contract extension.

He can sign a two-year extension, and I’m told there is optimism about a deal getting done before the start of the regular season.

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Now 37 years old, Durant is currently under contract for just the 2025-26 season at $54.7 million, and he is eligible to sign a two-year deal (no more than that due to the NBA’s age-38 rule) for just above $120 million in total value.

But even though Durant remains an All-Star player, all indications are that the deal probably won’t be at the maximum amount.

For starters, if a maximum deal was on the table and Durant had already communicated his desire to extend (as he has), why wouldn’t it already be signed? Second, intel from earlier in the offseason were that Durant is open to taking a sub-max deal.

Finally, the Rockets are being cautious with future payrolls and attempting to avoid many of the punitive team-building restrictions placed on expensive teams under the NBA’s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). That is very important for a 2027-28 season in which rising star Amen Thompson will likely be on the books at a much higher salary.

For those reasons, it appears that at least some negotiations are taking place regarding the next Durant contract, and it won’t be as simple as general manager Rafael Stone giving him the maximum amount and years.

Whatever the case, it sounds as though we won’t have to wait very long to find out the end result. While there is no firm deadline and talks can theoretically drag into the regular season (in contrast to the Oct. 20 rookie-scale extension deadline for Tari Eason), it sounds like a Durant deal is inevitable and fairly imminent.

The regular season opens in less than two weeks on Tuesday, October 21.

The Houston Rockets recently traded for a 37-year-old superstar in Kevin Durant, but that doesn’t mean the team’s focus has shifted strictly to a short-term view.

Patrick Fertitta, son of Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta and an increasingly important figure in Houston’s front office, spoke Monday with Matt Thomas of SportsTalk 790 and explained that the appeal of acquiring Durant was in part due to its relatively low price point.

In comments from Monday’s Toyota Center media day to open training camp for the 2025-26 season, Fertitta offered this analysis (via The Matt Thomas Show with Ross):

The right player, and the right deal, presented itself. By no means do I think, ‘We’re going all-in.’ Absolutely not. The deal that we did, the player that we brought in, and what we left ourselves with allows us to be hyper-competitive and have title hopes now… but it does not foreclose anything next year, or in the years following.

We feel like we did something that made us really good now, but it doesn’t hinder our ability to be great in the future, as well.

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Me, Rafael (Stone) and his staff, and Ime (Udoka), we all have a long-term view, and we want to be good for a long time. We’ve just got to be opportunistic. When the right thing comes, we’ll take a hard look at it. It’s usually a pass, but on this one, we said, ‘Let’s go. Let’s do this.’

To Fertitta’s point, the Rockets gave up only one first-round draft asset in the trade, and that was the No. 10 overall selection in 2025 (which became Duke center Khaman Maluach). Dillon Brooks was and is a role player, and he was quickly replaced in the following weeks by Dorian Finney-Smith, a veteran free agent signing of a similar archetype.

The Rockets did lose Jalen Green, the top scorer from last season’s 52-30 team that finished No. 2 in the Western Conference. But Durant is an immediate upgrade in that perimeter role, and there were questions as to Green’s average efficiency and his playoff underperformance.

So in the end, Houston was able to bring in the 15-time All-Star while not relinquishing its most prized future draft capital (first-round assets in 2027 and 2029 from Brooklyn and Phoenix) or its most coveted young prospects — namely, Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr., Reed Sheppard, and Tari Eason.

Thus, even as Durant inevitably shows some signs of aging in the coming years, the hope is that those will be offset by continued growth and development from young players and other draft assets that are still in the pipeline (which can also be used in future trades).

“We made some meaningful sacrifices,” Fertitta said of Houston’s rebuilding movement from late 2020 until mid-2023. “We wanted to put ourselves in a position where we could ultimately contend, and contend in a way that was sustainable. Not just taking a shot here and there, but saying we have a five, seven, or 10-year run at this.”

That’s where Durant comes into play. As the Rockets see it, his presence opens the contending window sooner, but it shouldn’t shut it any faster. And he should also help the continued development of those core prospects.

“We think it’s the right fit,” Fertitta said. “Kevin is a special player, one of the greatest players of all-time, and you have to take advantage and be opportunistic when those things present themselves.”

“He works as hard as anybody that we’ve ever had in the building,” Fertitta noted. “He’s a great teammate. Part of the reason why he wanted to be here, and why he is here, is that he’s a believer in what we have going. He’s confident in the veterans we have, and more importantly, that the youth we have are on their way to being impactful, special players.”

If Durant wasn’t 37, or if he didn’t have only one year left on his previous contract, acquiring a player of his caliber likely would’ve cost more of that youth.

In this case, as counter-intuitive as it might initially seem, the reduced asset cost could make it to where bringing in an older star leads to a longer window of title contention.

Danuel House Jr. made his return to the starting lineup for the Houston Rockets on Friday night and the results were everything he and the team could have hoped for.

The versatile forward played just over 35 minutes in the win over Phoenix, tying his career high with 18 points while going 6 for 11 from the floor 4 for 8 from three while throwing in 4 rebounds with an assist and a steal. He also had what ultimately proved to be a decisive play in the final minutes, preventing Josh Jackson from scoring after stealing the ball from James Harden.

Kelly Oubre pokes it away from Harden but Danuel House saves the day pic.twitter.com/Nux8EG3p3g

— Chris Montano (@gswchris) March 16, 2019

The Rocket announcers and fans all instantly reacted to the foul, believing it to be clean. While I myself was prepared to call it an awful foul call, House shared with Dave Hardisty after the game that he believed he made a little contact with Jackson on the follow-through and doesn’t blame the refs at all for making that call. Block or no block, the play proved huge for the Rockets as Jackson would miss both free throws and essentially end the game.

Clutch and the media caught up with House following the game:

Danuel House Jr. (@DanuelHouseJr) after scoring 18 points in his return to the #Rockets. pic.twitter.com/0MJWCpuddo

— ClutchFans (@clutchfans) March 16, 2019

After the impressive performance, fans are once again abuzz about what House means for this year’s team. Is he a starter? Will he come off the bench? Will he steal minutes from the thus-far-underperforming Iman Shumpert?

The Rockets will get answers to those questions over the final leg of the season as they head for the playoffs, but it seems pretty clear that House will play an important role in the Rockets title chase this season. His skill in shooting the three, combined with his ability to put the ball on the floor when his defender closes on him, is something sorely missing from this team. He demonstrated the combo repeatedly Friday night, attacking the rim and showing off his athleticism as Suns defenders tried to close him out on the three-point line.

Will they lose the House this summer?

Despite the excitement, you can’t help but let your mind wander to the offseason. Regardless of what happens to end this year, the Rockets are going to be in an interesting spot financially. After winning his stare down with Rockets management, House was converted to a standard NBA contract for the remainder of this season that will allow him to become a Restricted Free Agent heading into the 2019-20 NBA season. Gauging the market for House is extremely difficult right now and could fluctuate with his performance from here on out, but this much is clear; keeping House for next season will be complicated.

By virtue of his restricted free agency, the Rockets will have the right to match offers for House this offseason, but it comes with a catch. With the Rockets set to be over the salary cap, they can only match contract offers up to the mid-level exception. As a likely tax payer team next season (more on that in the offseason) that number will further be reduced to the tax-payer version of the MLE. Any contract for House above his qualifying offer ($1.88M) or Non-Bird rights (just north of $2M) would require the Rockets to pay him using those MLE dollars.

David Weiner (a must follow for any Rockets fan!) does a great job of breaking these options down on twitter. Basically, the Rockets could offer House up to 4 years and around $8.65 million in total dollars without using the MLE. That gives the Rockets three options to retain House next season:

1. he plays on his qualifying offer ($1.88 million)
   
2. he signs for a Non-Bird contract ($2+ million)
   
3. he signs for all or a portion of the tax payer MLE ($5.6 million)
   

Assuming House plays well between now and the season’s end (hopefully sometime in June) the first two options seem unlikely.

Complicating matters for the Rockets is that beyond House, they will likely need that tax payer MLE to have a shot at keeping Austin Rivers and Kenneth Faried, both significant additions following buyouts this season. If one or both would accept their one year Non-Bird offer for a modest salary increase next year, it would certainly makes things easier, but even then the MLE would be the only avenue the team would have for adding talent in free agency this offseason (aside from the minimum).

Despite a perceived snub picked up on by Bill Worrell and Clyde Drexler, House has said he hopes to remain with the Rockets and went so far as to say “I trust Daryl” in an interview with Jonathan Feigen. House’s agent, Raymond Brothers, said that their priority was for House to remain with the Rockets in that same interview.
By converting House now instead of waiting until the end of the G-League season, the Rockets did ensure House earns $200k+ more than he would have otherwise, so perhaps that will create some goodwill heading into offseason negotiations. Still, with House and his agent so steadfast in their desire to hit RFA this season, you have to wonder if they have reason to feel confident that there is an offer out there already from another team.

It’s not impossible to imagine plausible scenarios where everything works out for the Rockets, both during this season and in the offseason. Could one of House or Rivers take their Non-Bird right contracts with the other taking the MLE? Absolutely. No matter what happens between now and the end of this Rockets season, keeping Danuel House for the 2019-20 NBA season will be an interesting challenge. Rockets fans can only hope that the decision has to be made following a strong showing from House throughout a deep playoff run.

There’s no question that the Rockets have title hopes once again this year and Danuel House, a player who went unclaimed on waivers twice this season, has managed to make himself an integral part of those hopes.

A lot is being made over the fact that Jeremy Lin leads all NBA point guards in true shooting percentage through the first handful of games this season. Conversely, Patrick Beverley, the named starter, has had a rough go of it so far, fighting through a rib injury and some poor shooting. As those who spend any time at all on message boards like the one here at ClutchFans can attest, those who like Lin are more than a tad miffed.
(more…)

I’m not a big fan of hyperbole in much of anything, least of all sports. Overly simplified explanations for problems or successes are almost always inaccurate when it comes to the intricacies of performance and they almost always create expectations that are unfair of both the performer and the fan.

For the Rockets fan, the diehard who reads ClutchFans and watches every game with great intensity, this generates a kind of duality that is difficult to resolve. In this case it is the macro versus the micro, and both are a problem.

The Macro

The macro is epitomized by current sports culture as driven by highlight reels. Before ESPN, fans, writers and others only had their personal observations from watching games, box scores and reports from other broadcasters/journalists on which to base their assertions about a player or team. For the most part, they stuck with what they saw, fearing that if they went only by a box score or, for journalists, stories they didn’t write, they might sound like an idiot — at least for those who cared about sounding intelligent.

Today, with highlights splattered across networks and the Internet, and every news outlet, blog and gossip column digging for the tiniest morsel of dirt, everyone is an expert, except they aren’t.

I respect the opinions of some national commentators, but for the most part their narratives are based out of little more than some highlights and a handful of observations. Take LeBron James. For years, he was killed by the national media for not being a winner. He gave up the ball too often in the waning moments — because being unselfish is akin to being soft — and he couldn’t lead. Put him on a loaded Heat team and he wins a title. Now, he’s obviously a winner.

Nevermind the fact that his numbers across the board didn’t change from his time in Cleveland. Nevermind that he still deferred at times in critical situations. Now, he’s one of the true greats because he “learned how to win.” Or maybe he just learned that he needed other winners around him to win. Of course, even that “decision” was met with stultifying scrutiny until he got his ring.

In similar fashion, the collective jaw drop by national media members at Dwight Howard choosing Houston over LA would be comical if it didn’t fit neatly into their narrative about Howard the player. Like LeBron’s exit from Cleveland, Howard was met with derision because he dared to leave the vaunted Lakers. At least with James, the argument was over HOW he exited rather than why. For Howard, the discussion becomes his fear and insecurity when, in truth, he picked a better team if not a more glamorous city. No one argues his game must improve, but the myth that a player must have Kobe-like intensity to win a championship is nonsense. Unfortunately, it is one of the primary driving forces behind the public’s perception of Howard as a player.

The Micro

On the other end of the spectrum is the dissection of every tiny detail, the micro. I don’t mean intelligent analysis from brilliant minds of the game or even the study of quantitative metrics. For me, the micro is more about scrutiny based on the tiniest detail, the best example which is what I call “camera face.” This is the moment when a person is caught on camera for a few seconds or even a single frame and how fans and pundits extrapolate from there. One smile in the wrong moment — during a bad loss, for example. One glare. One mouthed curse word. That’s all it takes for a player or coach to be judged as soft or mean or uninterested or dispassionate or whatever other negative terms might be applied.

Instead of a rational dialogue about the entirety of a player’s game, we get a wealth of conspiracy theories and conjecture. It is understandable that the average fan would not have the time to study film and take the time to gain insight into how the game is played. It is also reasonable to believe that most people will never have the level of expertise necessary to work in sports. It’s why I cut even seasoned writers slack because, despite devoting a large amount of their lives to the game, much of what they do is report on what they see, not study every nuance and become experts on the motion offense or individual player tendencies.

Yet, there is a great desire it would seem by fans and casual observers to apply a sort of Occam’s Razor approach to sports analysis. If there is a rumor of players bickering in the locker room, the entire team is in turmoil and that two-second shot during the game is proof. It is the same overreaction that causes people to want to bench players after a single game or fire coaches in midseason for a losing streak.

But that kind of fandom is as old as sport itself (people just watched in person before the cameras were beaming hi-def signals into our homes). A newer phenomena is how this information is disseminated and legitimized by the Internet. Just as the web fuels the fires of the ridiculous (conspiracy theories) and the untoward (sex scandals), a single rumor started on a message board can go from outlandish to implausible to possible to a legitimate theory with little or no actual fact to back it up. It’s analysis paralysis spread into the realm of legitimate thought and it can be infuriating.

Years ago, a friend of mine who worked in sports media told me that we will never know what really goes on behind closed doors, in locker rooms, in meeting rooms, in training rooms. That inner sanctum is guarded like Google’s search algorithm or the codes to missile silos. It is sacred to players and coaches because of the privacy it affords them both from gawking fans and the prying eyes of the media. Still, we speculate.

Solving the Conundrum

Unfortunately, the whole thing frustrates the hell out of me, not just because the behavior of both ends of the spectrum is annoyingly pervasive, but also because I don’t have the answers either. Maybe Howard is too jovial. Maybe there are rifts between players that are only spoken of in hushed tones behind closed doors. Maybe winning and losing is simple or maybe it is ridiculously complicated. I don’t know.

But, I do know that, despite a really disturbing loss to the Lakers Thursday night, the Rockets are 4-2 and a mess on the floor. That indicates to me they have the talent to beat most teams they should (even Miami lost to Philadelphia already) and will struggle to figure out how to win against good teams, at least for now. They are better than we think and worse than we think too. Truly, we don’t know who they are at this point. It’s too early in the season.

If 30 games from now, the defense still looks out of sync and the offense is stagnant, well, I’ll consider the possibility that Howard hates our point guards or that he smiles too much. Maybe I’ll lend some credence to the critics and bend an ear to the conspiracy theorists. For now at least, I’m just going to enjoy watching some basketball.