The Houston Rockets brought Kevin Durant in with a clear idea in mind: they think this team can win a championship. That’s the bar now, and it changes the conversation around what Durant has to be for them this season.
He does not need to go out and score 30 points every night. He does not need to spend the year chasing an MVP trophy. Durant will be 38 when the season begins, and at this point in his career, the smarter goal is the one that actually matters to Houston.
A good season from Durant looks a lot more specific than gaudy scoring totals. He needs to play at least 65 games, help the Rockets land in the top four in the Western Conference, close games when they need a bucket and, above all, arrive at the playoffs healthy.
If Houston gets that version of Durant, there’s plenty of reason to like its chances in a seven-game series.
Durant was available for most of the regular season last year, but his postseason ended with an injury. No one should expect him to get to 78 games again, but getting to 65 would still count as a strong year. There’s no sense in burning him out trying to steal a random game in January when the whole point of bringing him in was to have him ready for the postseason.
At the same time, Houston can’t just treat him like a part-time star. The Rockets should be pushing to finish in the top four in the West, and that means Durant has to be on the floor enough to help make it happen. Home-court advantage matters, especially for a team with real championship expectations.
When the game tightens up late, Durant is the guy Houston brought in to finish the job. The roster has plenty of young talent, but in a fourth-quarter possession where the offense needs a clean look, the ball should be going to Durant without much debate. He’s still one of the best scorers in the league.
That’s the value of a player like him. Houston doesn’t need him to run everything or fire away for four quarters. The team has enough depth to keep him from carrying the whole offense by himself.
And that’s where the rest of the roster comes in. The Rockets need to help Durant.
Getting Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams back healthy should matter because both are veterans who know their jobs and can ease some of the pressure on Durant. But the bigger question for Houston’s ceiling may come down to its younger players.
Amen Thompson needs to keep climbing. Jabari Smith Jr. has to become more consistent on offense. If Reed Sheppard can take another step and turn into a dependable scorer and shooter, Durant won’t have to shoulder nearly as much of the load.
Durant can still give Houston those nights where he looks like one of the best scorers in basketball. That part is never in doubt. But if the Rockets are leaning on him to do that every night just to stay near the top of the West, then something else has gone wrong.
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Jabari Smith Jr. has settled into the kind of profile the Rockets hoped for when they made him a cornerstone piece: a 23-year-old power forward coming off a season in which he averaged 15.8 points and 6.9 rebounds over 77 games. With a contract running through 2030, he is already part of Houstons long-term picture, and the mix of size, durability and defensive value he brings makes him one of the more reliable young pieces on the roster.
The debate now is less about whether Smith belongs in the Rockets future and more about how high his ceiling can climb from here. His rank among the leagues top power forwards for the 2026-2027 season reflects how far he has come, but it also underscores the unfinished parts of his game that still shape his next step. For Houston, the question is whether those improvements come soon enough to match the teams broader ambitions. [Read more 🡒]