NBA trade reaction: Rockets, Rafael Stone praised for Kevin Durant deal
The reaction across the NBA was largely positive in the aftermath of Houston's blockbuster trade agreement to acquire Suns star Kevin Durant.
The Phoenix Suns are set to trade two-time NBA Finals MVP Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 overall pick in the 2025 draft, and five second-round picks, ESPN's Shams Charania reported Sunday.
Those five second-round selections include the No. 59 pick in 2025; two choices in 2026; a 2030 selection via Boston; and a 2032 pick from Houston.
Because of the inclusion of Green, the deal cannot be finalized until July, since it requires waiting until his higher 2025-26 salary is on the books.
A 6-foot-11 forward, Durant averaged 26.6 points (52.7% FG, 43.0% on 3-pointers), 6.0 rebounds, and 4.2 assists per game last season, and he earned All-Star honors for the 15th time in his Hall of Fame career. The former NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) turns 37 years old in September, and his current contract runs through next season. Early indications are that he plans on extending that deal in Houston.
So, for the Rockets, it's a clear upgrade to a young team that finished 52-30 last season and with the No. 2 overall seed in the Western Conference. With that in mind, the post-deal reaction from NBA media and fans was largely positive.
Here's a sampling of what we saw on social media, with plenty of praise for Rockets general manager Rafael Stone.
Rafael Stone, Elite Negotiator?
Kevin Durant's Houston Connections
Suns Criticized for Deal
Rockets' Ticket Sales to Spike?
More Houston Trades Still Possible
Magic Johnson, Stephen A. Smith Impressed
2025-26 Rockets: Scary Good?
Projected Starting Lineup for Rockets
Kevin Durant's Winning Impact
Stephen A. Smith Wants Russell Westbrook in Houston
Dillon Brooks to Phoenix
Rockets Legend Vernon Maxwell Predicts 2026 NBA Finals
More: Rockets trade for Kevin Durant in deal involving Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, draft equity
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox Sports
28 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
Oklahoma City Thunder win first NBA title with dominant defense in Game 7
Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma City Thunder won their first NBA title with a heavy dose of an old standby –- their stingy defense. The Thunder, who led the league in defensive rating in the regular season and the playoffs, turned in another gem in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, a 103-91 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night. Oklahoma City held the Pacers to 41.4% shooting in the deciding game, far below the 48.4% Indiana shot in the playoffs overall. The Thunder forced 21 turnovers and blocked eight shots. 'You have to really grind it out,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. 'It's an endurance race. You have to be able to win in the mud. You have to be able to win ugly, have to be able to gut it out. That's what we did. The team did an unbelievable job of that.' The defensive effort, combined with another strong offensive performance by Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, put Oklahoma City over the top. The Thunder became the youngest NBA champions since the 1976-77 Portland Trail Blazers, with an average age of 25.68 years. 'It's one of the biggest moments in city history,' Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt said. 'We've achieved sports immortality, and that will open doors in our community far beyond basketball for years, decades to come. It's a very, very special day we can build upon forever.' Chet Holmgren led the way with five blocks, the most by a player in an NBA Finals Game 7 since blocks were first recorded in the 1973-74 season. 'Honestly, I never really play for records,' the 7-foot-1 forward said. 'I never play for stats. All that will be forgotten. But us winning is forever. It's immortal. I'm just so happy we were able to do that together as a team.' Thunder guards Lu Dort, Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace each had three steals. Indiana played most of the game without guard Tyrese Haliburton, who suffered a lower right leg injury in the first quarter. Bennedict Mathurin did his best to help the Pacers stay in the game with 24 points and 13 rebounds. Another spectacular effort by veteran TJ McConnell prevented Oklahoma City's swarming defense from being even more dominant. McConnell scored 16 points on 8-for-13 shooting, confounding Thunder defenders with crafty moves around the basket. But he also had seven turnovers. 'Their pressure can really get to you, but I was just trying to be aggressive and had some uncharacteristic turnovers, but that happens,' McConnell said. 'Just proud of the fight. We fought to the end. Credit to OKC. They are just really good.' Pascal Siakam, who had caused problems for the Thunder throughout the series, was held to 16 points on 5-for-13 shooting. Dort, an All-Defense first-team selection, gave Indiana credit for hanging tough. 'I mean, they're a great team,' he said. 'They've got great players. I feel like we was just trying different stuff to mess them up and to disturb them. We threw them a lot of different defensive stuff. We were just trying to slow them down.' ___ Freelance writer Conrad Evans contributed to this report. ___ AP NBA: recommended
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How the Thunder's battle cry helped OKC become NBA champions — and one of the greatest teams of all time
"Be where your feet are." It is a battle cry that the Oklahoma City Thunder adopted to help them stay in the present moment. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault first shared it with his team on Feb. 7, 2023, when they were facing the Los Angeles Lakers, whose LeBron James was set to break the NBA's scoring record over the course of the game. Daigneault did not want his players to get lost in anything but competing in the game itself. Advertisement "The idea behind it was there's going to be so much going on in the arena during LeBron's moment that you have to be where your feet are," said Oklahoma City All-Star forward Jalen Williams between Games 3 and 4 of the 2025 NBA Finals. "You have to lock in and stay present in the moment. From there, we just ran with it. There's been so many outside factors and a lot of noise that have gone into my last three years. ... It became a little team mantra. It's just something to remind us how far we've come. The more we can get back to zero, the better we'll be." Oh, how far they have come. For many, that night was their first nationally televised glimpse of the young Thunder, who had spent the previous two seasons tanking. Those years yielded a foundation of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander via trade and both Williams and Chet Holmgren in the draft. Holmgren was injured back then in L.A., but Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams combined for 55 points in a narrow victory that spoiled James' celebratory night. Advertisement We figured then it was the start of something. Nobody could have predicted that night was the birth of one of the greatest teams in NBA history, a budding dynasty, but that is precisely what happened. Two short years later, the Thunder's feet took them to Game 7 of the NBA Finals, where on Sunday they beat the Indiana Pacers 103-91 clinching the franchise's first championship since it moved to OKC in 2008. I can almost hear you wondering, Really, this is one of the greatest teams ever? And the answer is yes, absolutely. These Thunder are one of seven teams in league history to win 68 games during the regular season and the first since the Golden State Warriors won an NBA-record 73 games in the 2015-16 season. Only these Thunder won the title. Oklahoma City also owns the second-best net rating (+12.8) in league history, trailing only Michael Jordan's 72-win Chicago Bulls from 1995-96. They are widely considered one of the greatest teams in NBA history, along with the 2016-17 Warriors, 1985-86 Boston Celtics, 1986-87 Los Angeles Lakers and others. Advertisement Point is: The Thunder belong among them now. How did they get here? By being where their feet are. The Thunder are where their feet are ... as NBA champions. (Photo by) (Getty Images) "I think it's attacking every day, attacking every rep, attacking every possession and trying to make that a habit, and understanding the compounding nature of that and impact of that when you do that," said Daigneault, a 40-year-old in his first NBA head-coaching gig. "These are guys that have seen success taking that approach. When you do something, then you find success doing it, it reinforces it, breeds commitment. The guys have done a great job of building that muscle over a long period of time now." "It's almost like a default," said Gilgeous-Alexander, who has turned himself into an MVP in the process. Advertisement The Thunder's success has followed a linear progression — from a 24-win team in 2021-22 to a 40-win play-in team a year later, the same season they spoiled James' big night, to a 57-win No. 1 seed in 2023-24 and finally to the 68-win juggernaut they were this season. Their internal development cannot be denied. "When you stack the days, stack the possessions, stack the games, that's going to take you as far as you're capable of in that moment," said Daigneault. "We're obviously further now than we were then. We maxed out what we were capable of at those times. I think that's the value of that type of approach." It should give hope to every team out there. All it took was three seasons leaning into a growth mindset to transform from one of the NBA's worst teams, a team that was not even trying to win, to a champion. Of course it is easier said than done. The Thunder identified Gilgeous-Alexander, who averaged 10.8 points per game as a rookie on the Los Angeles Clippers, as a future star, and not even they could have imagined he would have reached this level. They drafted Williams and Holmgren, a pair of All-Star-caliber complements, on the same night in 2022. They boast one of the smartest general managers in all of basketball, Sam Presti, who stockpiled draft picks and hit on them more often than not, building one of the deepest rosters in the league. And they targeted two of the game's best role players, Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein, this past offseason, hoping they were the final pieces to a championship puzzle. Advertisement And it all worked. This is not always how development unfolds. You can have a motto — "be where your feet are" — but you need everyone to buy into it. You need everyone to adopt it. You need everyone to live by it, and that is not always easy, either. The players credit their coach. The coach credits his players. Regardless, they all needed reminding of their mantra before Game 7, as none of them but Caruso had been in this spot, hours from an NBA championship. So Daigneault delivered the message once again. All the work they had done, the hours they put in, the moments they seized, it prepared them for this one. "I think that's the deal," said Daigneault. "You want to be prepared. You certainly want to learn the lessons, get the game plan into the game, but not at the expense of aggressiveness, confidence, instincts. That has been a strength of ours this season. We certainly have to lean on that. We have to understand the work is done, and we have to trust the work. The muscle is built. We have to flex that muscle." So, when the pressure reached its apex, when they needed most to be present, when the score was deadlocked, 56-56, midway through Game 7's third quarter, they flexed. They called on every possession they stacked, every rep they attacked. At that very moment, SGA, Holmgren and Williams connected on consecutive 3-pointers, turning a tie game into a comfortable advantage. From there, the team relied on its defense — the muscle it had worked so hard to build over time — to carry them to the championship. Advertisement "You've got to have those themes," Daigneault said of his team's mantra. "This team responds well to those things. If you put the right thing in front of them, they really take to it. I think that's the right way to approach competition. But these guys bring it to life with the way they play. You can talk about it all you want, but it comes down to how you perform. These guys perform like competitive monsters." When the moment called for it, they were present as themselves, calloused as champions. "Winning is what's remembered," added Holmgren. "It's what's immortal. I'm just so happy we were able to do it. There was so much hard work that a lot of people don't see that went into this. Years of hard work for everybody that led to this. It makes it all worthwhile. It makes it all — it's just a great feeling." Be where your feet are. On the NBA mountaintop.
Hamilton Spectator
30 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Oklahoma City Thunder win first NBA title with dominant defense in Game 7
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The Oklahoma City Thunder won their first NBA title with a heavy dose of an old standby –- their stingy defense. The Thunder, who led the league in defensive rating in the regular season and the playoffs, turned in another gem in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, a 103-91 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night . Oklahoma City held the Pacers to 41.4% shooting in the deciding game, far below the 48.4% Indiana shot in the playoffs overall. The Thunder forced 21 turnovers and blocked eight shots. 'You have to really grind it out,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. 'It's an endurance race. You have to be able to win in the mud. You have to be able to win ugly, have to be able to gut it out. That's what we did. The team did an unbelievable job of that.' The defensive effort, combined with another strong offensive performance by Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, put Oklahoma City over the top. The Thunder became the youngest NBA champions since the 1976-77 Portland Trail Blazers, with an average age of 25.68 years. 'It's one of the biggest moments in city history,' Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt said. 'We've achieved sports immortality, and that will open doors in our community far beyond basketball for years, decades to come. It's a very, very special day we can build upon forever.' Chet Holmgren led the way with five blocks, the most by a player in an NBA Finals Game 7 since blocks were first recorded in the 1973-74 season. 'Honestly, I never really play for records,' the 7-foot-1 forward said. 'I never play for stats. All that will be forgotten. But us winning is forever. It's immortal. I'm just so happy we were able to do that together as a team.' Thunder guards Lu Dort, Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace each had three steals. Indiana played most of the game without guard Tyrese Haliburton, who suffered a lower right leg injury in the first quarter . Bennedict Mathurin did his best to help the Pacers stay in the game with 24 points and 13 rebounds. Another spectacular effort by veteran TJ McConnell prevented Oklahoma City's swarming defense from being even more dominant. McConnell scored 16 points on 8-for-13 shooting, confounding Thunder defenders with crafty moves around the basket. But he also had seven turnovers. 'Their pressure can really get to you, but I was just trying to be aggressive and had some uncharacteristic turnovers, but that happens,' McConnell said. 'Just proud of the fight. We fought to the end. Credit to OKC. They are just really good.' Pascal Siakam, who had caused problems for the Thunder throughout the series, was held to 16 points on 5-for-13 shooting. Dort, an All-Defense first-team selection, gave Indiana credit for hanging tough. 'I mean, they're a great team,' he said. 'They've got great players. I feel like we was just trying different stuff to mess them up and to disturb them. We threw them a lot of different defensive stuff. We were just trying to slow them down.' ___ Freelance writer Conrad Evans contributed to this report. ___ AP NBA:
