Rafael Stone isn’t hiding what he sees in Houston’s roster: a team built around Kevin Durant, younger legs, and a belief that the whole thing can grow together instead of being forced into a short-term sprint.
The Rockets GM said the plan around Durant was clear from the start. Houston wasn’t going to rip up its core and surround him with a wave of veteran stopgaps. Stone said Durant knew he was joining a group that would look young, and that the organization was comfortable with that direction from the jump.
“Obviously, when you trade for somebody of Kevin [Durant]'s stature, it's very important that you have good conversations coming in about expectations,” Stone said. “He understood coming in this wasn't gonna be a situation where we're trading for him, and now, we're gonna go get 75 veteran players to come play with him, which sometimes happens. But it's not like that has a great track record of success.
“So, he understood that he was coming in to play with a bunch of younger guys, and that the team was probably going to look the way it looks now. And it has. As best I can tell, you can ask him, but he really enjoys it.”
That younger core is the point for Houston, with Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun among the players Stone believes can keep rising alongside Durant in his second season with the Rockets. Sengun already has playoff experience, and Stone expects him to build on the 2025-26 season, which ended with a first-round exit.
Stone also said Durant has fit into the environment in a way that makes sense for where he is in his career now.
“Every day's not a perfect day, and Kevin is not somebody who is chipper and upbeat every minute of every day - that's just not his personality,” Stone added. “But I think he's really enjoyed being around the young guys.
And it does, at least for me, as I get older, having youthful energy is great. I'm an old curmudgeon.
Ime's an old curmudgeon. Kevin's definitely not old, but he has his curmudgeon moments.”
For Stone, the bigger picture is about durability and balance. He believes the Rockets have enough variety in their roster to keep winning for a long stretch, rather than blowing their window open all at once and hoping it stays there.
“We just have some diversity. And I think this group has good diversity,” Stone said.
“And we want to be good for as long as we can be good. And I don't think teams that go all in intentionally shorten their windows to win a championship; it's not that it hasn't happened, a couple of teams have done it, but the track record is really, really bad.
And I think the teams that have had more success have built more organically, which we're trying to do.”
Health, though, still sits at the center of everything. Stone pointed to last season’s reality across the league and made the case that Houston knows exactly what stood in its way.
“We won 52 games. Fred [VanVleet] didn't play a game.
Steven [Adams] played less than half a season. Kevin didn't play in the playoffs,” Stone said.
“The reality of the NBA today: nobody wins in the playoffs if they're not healthy. People don't even win a round.
And we didn't win a round last year. You just don't.
Kudos to those who won. I'm not taking anything away from them.
But if we're going to be the best team we can be, we obviously have to stay healthy. We just do.
And last year was very, very tough in that regard.”
Houston’s preseason debut offered an early look at what that mix can look like. The Rockets beat the Dallas Mavericks 135-117, with Tari Eason scoring 20 points and grabbing nine rebounds. VanVleet posted 17 points, seven assists and two steals, Sengun turned in a triple-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Durant finished with 15 points, two assists and one block.
In Other News...
Kevin Durant Gives The Rockets A Delicate Problem To Solve
Kevin Durant is in his 20th NBA season now, and the age checkpoint alone would normally invite a conversation about easing a veteran into a lighter workload. Instead, the early read from his career numbers is the opposite: even after recently turning 38, Durant still looks like one of the leagues steadiest offensive players, the kind whose production has held up so well that Houston has a real decision to make about how carefully to manage him.
For the Rockets, the delicate part is figuring out how to balance long-term caution with what Durant still brings every night. His role and minutes are going to matter all season, especially with a player of his stature and mileage, and the team now has to sort through how to preserve him without stripping away the rhythm that has defined so much of his game. [Read more 🡒]
Kevin Durant Had An Emotional Reaction To Russell Westbrooks Exit
Russell Westbrooks announcement that his playing career is over landed with plenty of reaction around the league, but Kevin Durants response stood out for how personal it felt. Durant said he was sad to hear the news and spoke glowingly about what Westbrook has meant as a player, a fitting reflection from someone who spent years alongside him and saw firsthand how electric he could be when he was at his best.
Westbrooks exit also leaves open the broader conversation around his place in the game and whether this is truly the final chapter. Zach Randolph suggested Westbrook might still find a way back, and the emotions around the announcement showed how much respect he still commands from former teammates and peers. For Houston fans who watched Durants career unfold from afar and now know how closely these stars have been tied together, it was another reminder of how quickly the league can turn a familiar face into a memory. [Read more 🡒]
Rockets Should Avoid This Veteran Guard Gamble At Any Cost
A speculative trade framework has been floating around that would send Jrue Holiday to Houston from Portland, with the Rockets giving up Jabari Smith Jr., Bogdan Bogdanovic and a future first-round pick. It is strictly an exercise, not a reported negotiation, but it does capture the kind of veteran-name temptation that can pop up when a team starts to believe it is closer to contention than it was a year ago.
For Houston, the bigger issue is not whether Holiday would bring the kind of defense and playoff experience any contender covets, but whether the move actually fits the roster the Rockets are trying to build. The salary structure is already tight, the pieces on hand have value for different reasons, and the article argues that the concept does not improve the team enough to justify the cost, which is why this is the sort of gamble the Rockets would be wise to leave alone. [Read more 🡒]