Kevin Durant gave the Houston Rockets exactly what they hoped for in his first season with the team: elite shot-making, steady leadership, and a star who could carry the offense when possessions got tight. The problem came later. Injuries shut him down late in the year and again in the playoffs, cutting short a season in which he still managed to appear in 78 games at age 37.
Now Durant is headed into his age-38 season, and the Rockets are trying to make the most of this window. That raises a simple question: should Houston load-manage him to keep him fresh for the postseason?
The answer from our Rockets On SI writers leaned toward caution, though not everyone meant the same thing by it. One view was that Durant should absolutely be handled carefully, especially after any injury or tweak, because Houston needs him healthy when the games matter most.
At the same time, there was pushback against the idea of babying him. Durant has long made clear how he feels about load management, and that stance doesn’t seem likely to change.
He wants to play.
Another take was even more direct: don’t intentionally sit him just to sit him. If Durant is healthy, he should be on the floor. The Rockets need him in rhythm for the playoffs more than they need him tucked away on the bench, and limiting games for the sake of it was described as a poor formula for success.
What makes the conversation tricky is how productive Durant still was. Last season he led the Rockets in scoring with 26.0 points per game, along with 5.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists, and he finished ninth in MVP voting. For all the mileage on his body, he played at a level almost identical to what he had done the season before in Phoenix.
Still, there’s a line Houston probably shouldn’t cross. One writer pointed out that while Durant may not need another 78-game season, whatever happened with his workload last year can’t lead to another playoff absence. The Rockets should do whatever it takes to avoid that outcome.
The shape of the Western Conference matters here, too. The Rockets are expected to sit in the top half of the West, behind at least San Antonio and Oklahoma City.
Another view noted that the conference is strongest at the top, with Oklahoma City and Minnesota, but thinner in the middle, which means Durant missing a game here or there won’t derail Houston. The East, oddly enough, was described as deeper.
That led to the most practical suggestion of all: keep Durant on the court, but not at the same minute load. He averaged 36.4 minutes last season, and that number was flagged as too high to repeat. Shaving three to four minutes a night could help him hold up later, while also nudging other Rockets into larger roles.
So Houston’s answer doesn’t have to be extreme. The Rockets don’t need to sit Durant every other week. They just need to be smart, stay cautious when anything feels off, and protect the one player who can change their ceiling when the playoffs arrive.
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