Hoops Tonight - INSTANT REACTION: Kevin Durant TRADED to Rockets, Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks to Suns | Hoops Tonight

to carry their team to the chip? Try placing a bet on your personal MVP to drop thirty, forty or maybe even over fifty. Ready to place your own bet, download the DraftKings sports Book app, lock in your bets and finish the season as a winner. Here's something special for first timers. New DraftKings customers. Bet five dollars to get three hundred dollars in bonus bets if your bet wins. Don't miss your last chance to bet on the NBA this season. Download the DraftKings sports Book app and use

code hoops that's hoop. That's code hoops for new customers to get three hundred dollars in bonus bets. If your bet wins. When you bet five bucks only on DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem called one hundred gambler In New York call eight seven seven eight hope and why, or text hope and why to four six seven three sixty nine and Connecticut help is available for problem gambling call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven

seven or visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction void in Ontario. Bet must win to receive reward. Minimum minus five hundred odds required. Bonus bets expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKG dot co slash audio. All right, well, good hoops tonight you're at the volume heavy sun to everybody. Hope all you

guys are having a great weekend. Well I was. I saw a report this morning that my buddy Logan, who's our head of content here as the Volume, sent me saying that most likely the Kevin Durant trade was gonna go down either today or tomorrow, and I was secretly hoping it would be tomorrow because we have Game seven of the Finals today. I'm going live with Colin Coward later this evening. We're gonna have playback. It was gonna

be celebrating a new champion. My first thought this morning when I woke up was today we are crowning a new NBA champion, and now Kevin Durant's going to the Houston Rockets, and that is our top story to start this day. I'm gonna be breaking down this deal from the perspective of both teams when we are done. Obviously we're still planning on doing all of our NBAF NBA Finals coverage tonight, and then obviously we go headlong into the draft and everything next week. So it's gonna be

a little bit crazy. But we have our reaction to the Kevin Durant trade. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to Hoops to Night YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter, underscore json lts, you guys don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about a podcast fet where we gets podcast on our Hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you

leave a rating and a review on that front. Don't forget about our social media feeds Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, where we're making content throughout the rest of the year. And the last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments so we can hit them in our mail bags throughout the remainder of the year. All right, let's talk some basketball. So Kevin Urrant has been traded

to the Houston Rockets. Houston is sending back Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks, the number ten pick in this year's draft, and then five additional second round picks now for starters. Everyone is dogging the Phoenix Suns today forgetting an awful asset return and basically nuking their franchise over the course of the last two years. I have a little bit more of like a nuanced, positive ish kind of take on that. We'll share more about it in a bit.

I'm a big believer in self awareness and not like doubling down on your mistakes, so we'll get to that in a little bit. But I want to start with the Houston rocket This was my second favorite KD destination behind the Minnesota Timberwolves. I think redundancy is where you see teams that are on paper looking very talented, underachieved.

That's how things went south for Phoenix. It's very easy to talk yourself into just shear in a vacuum talent into a Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal team being a very good basketball team. But the problem is, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker basically do the same job, and Bradley Beal, while not being as good as Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, basically did the same job in Minnesota. And so I always talk about this big picture concept

of needing to check boxes on a basketball court. You need your lineup of five guys to check boxes on both ends of the floor. An offense, it's like advantage creation, play finishing, screening, you know, all these like different connective playmaking, all these different things that you need of the perfect concoction of for offense to work. Shooting ability, vertical spacing ability,

all these things kind of come together. On the defensive end, guys that can guard on the perimeter, guys that can guard multiple positions and different types of switches, Guys that can protect the rim, Guys that can communicate like on the back line, as like as basically the defensive coach, so to speak, on the back line calling out coverages.

There's all these different things. Defensive rebounding, you need guards in the NBA these days because of long rebounds to crack down off of the weak side or off of the perimeter to help their bigs in long rebound situations. You need all these boxes to be checked to be a good basketball team. And so if Kevin, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal all checked the same boxes, there's gonna be a lot of unchecked boxes. That is the redundancy effect. That is what causes a team to not live up

to what their potential is on paper. There's no doubt that Kevin Durant's life on offense in Houston will not be as easy as it was in Phoenix, or as it was in Brooklyn, or as it was in Golden State. There are places where Kade could have gone where he could have had an easier life on offense if you would have chosen Miami. I think with the Tyler Harrow and bam Adebayo as a screening folk from up top.

Things would have been a little easier for him an offense if you would have somehow made it to the Knicks, but Had's skill set would have been less valuable in those situations. If we've learned anything in this year's playoffs, it's that the playoffs are a physical blood bath. Houston dragged the Rockets. Excuse me, Houston dragged the Warriors to a seventh game with that physicality. Minnesota bullied the Lakers out of the playoffs with that physicality. Look at what

Oklahoma City has done to everybody. Look at what Indiana has done with their ball pressure in a different form of physicality, in terms of just the way they can wear you down by running. You win in the playoffs by winning the physical battle. And the teams that KD has been on in recent years have not been very physical basketball teams, and that is where they have lost the rope, which we'll get to when we talk a little bit about Phoenix. The Rockets, though, are a team

that is perfectly built to thrive in that setting. A bunch of really big, strong perimeter defenders, even without Dylan Brooks, and then a power player on offense, a legitimate power threat on offense in Alburn Shangoon that can draw into a lot of defensive attention right around the basket. The one thing that Houston lacked, despite being a two seed, despite being able to take that Warriors team to seven games, the one thing they lacked was high end, refined offensive skill.

And I would argue KD is still one of the most skilled and most refined offensive battle squall players in the entire world. Last year, just this last the season we're still finishing the one that ends today. He was still the best jump shooter in the world this season. Among fifty eight players in the NBA to take at least five hundred jump shots. This season, Kevin Durant was the only player in the league to shoot over fifty

percent from the field. Second place was Shay who was at forty five percent of full five percent below and even when you weiit it for threes, Kevin Durant's one point two to two points per jump shot was number one in the NBA among the fifty eight players to take at least five hundred. He was also far and away still the best one on one player in the league last year. Out of the ten players ran at

least two hundred and fifty ISOs including passes. His one point one six points per possession was number one in the league and a full six points per one hundred possessions better then shake Giljes Alexander, who was in second place. He immediately comes in the door and provides a ton of offensive utility for this team. The Rockets didn't have a single player that you needed to show at the level in screening action against. I've talked about this concept

a lot. We talked about it with Desmond Bane and the Orlando Magic. One of the most valuable things you can do in the NBA is via threat as a jumpshooter coming off of a screen, because it inverts spacing. If you can come off of a screen and knock a shot down, you draw a lock and trail defender who's gonna chase you over the top, and you're gonna force the screen defender, the guy who's guarding the screener

to come up to contest you. On the other end, that means your screener can slip out behind it and there's four on threes all day, every day. If you have that type of player, he will immediately bring in so much advantage creation with his ability to shoot off of screens. This will open up all sorts of opportunities on the roll on the skip. When rollers are tagged, advantages will be much easier to come by for this

Houston team. Amen Thompson has already shown great utility as a connective passer and as a vertical spacing threat out of the dunker spot. Now we're going to get to see a ton of action where a men Thompson is getting four on three opportunities short rolling off of KD. I'm super excited to see a whole new level to a men Thompson's offensive game. Just by playing two man game with KD. In dictating that both defenders go with KD,

KD easily drops it over the top. Now, Amen Thompson is screaming at you downhill with all of the playmaking talent, the vertical talent, and the shot making talent close to the basket to be a threat there, KD will score an off ball action. He'll attract attention and off ball like off ball like pin downs and stuff like that. KD. I've created videos about this in the past. We did a whole YouTube video about it. A couple of years ago.

Katie is a master at getting easy shots for himself by setting up his man for screens and doing a good job getting open in the flow of the offense, He'll create space as a weak side spacer off of Alburn Shangun post ups and face ups. He will immediately come in the door and make things way easier for the Rockets on offense. On defense, he provides an element of functional rim protection that makes Shang Goon a more

useful defensive player. There was one guy on the roster, Jabari Smith Junior, didn't play as much as you'd think, who brought some sort of vertical kind of length element at the rim for the Rockets as an athlete, obviously Shangoon and Adams have length, but they're just not great jumpers, right, They're not guys that are going to block a ton

of shots around the basket. Right. With Kevin Durant, you now break out one of those classes two man dynamics in terms of screen defender in lowman that should allow Shangoon to be more useful offensively. You can now bring Shangon up to the level and have him be active with his hands. Knowing that you've got a seven footer standing underneath the basket in that lowman situation. I think Kevin Durant has always been a pretty underrated defensive player.

His effort can wax and wane from time to time, but he legitimately has insane tools for the position. He's just gonna make life better for them on both ends of the floor. As I look at the Rockets new roster, because again you're losing Dylan Brooks in this situation, You're losing Jalen Green at the guard spot. You still have Fred van Vliet, There's Reed Shepherd and Aaron Holliday. Definitely

a little light there. My first thought was, like, man, you remember when Phoenix signed Tias Jones and I told you guys that I thought it was redundant. That I didn't understand the point in wasting one of those five key spots that you have in your star group or closing group on a player who's again redundant. With Devin Booker and Kevin Durant in this roster, if I was Kevin Durant, I'd be calling Tiaest Jones and being like, hey, bro, this is the set, this is the setting for you.

They actually need a backup guard, they actually need ball handling, so why don't you come down here. It's definitely an area where they're a little light on the wing, Amen Thompson, Tarry Easton, Cam Whitmore, Jayshon Tate at the forward spot, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith Junior at the center spot, Shangoun Adams and Landale. Again, I think they're pretty deep and

pretty solid at every position group. They're just light on ball handling, and so if they can get a backup guard, a solid backup guard, and again I would literally like, I think Tias Jones could help the Rockets in a way that he couldn't help the Suns. That's the type of fit where there's less redundancy. If you have Tias Jones surrounded by a bunch of big, physical athletes, all of a sudden, his ball handling and shooting becomes pretty valuable.

If you have them alongside a bunch of other skinny finesse players, it's a redundancy. You're getting a diminishing return there. Who's the starting slash closing five? So we know it's gonna be Shanegun, Kevin Durant and Fred van Vliet most likely a men Thompson, who's that fifth guy? Though that fifth guy was Dylan Brooks. That was the spot that he filled. You start to view a men Thompson because, again,

when it comes to positions offense, you can figure it out. Defense, you gotta build your lineup spased on who you can guard. Amen Thompson is defensively effectively a two guard. He's gonna guard the other team's best guard. So I think Fred Van Vliet and a Men Thompson that works defensively as a backcourt Kevin Durant and Shane Goon works offense or works defensively as a four to five. Who's gonna play the three? Though? That's where it gets a little tricky.

Does this mean Jabari Smith Junior starts at the three? I think both Jabari and Kevin Durant are pretty much functionally fore men. Neither of them move their feet insanely well, neither of them navigate screens insanely well. And specifically, Jabari Smith is a little bit of a ball stopper on offense. So I don't love the natural fit of that fifth guy. They're going to have to figure that out and that'll happen in time. Maybe it ends up being one of

the bench guys. Maybe Javari Smith ends up taking a leap as a decision maker and as a connective playmaker and as a guy who can move his feet on the perimeter, and maybe it all comes together. But I am curious to see how that starting closing five takes shape.

But they do have surpluses they can afford to move a guy at a different position group like Jabari Smith Junior, for instance, is a guy that I think has some value around the league that you might be able to flip for a player that stands more in line with

what you need out of that three spot. Like do you call up a Brooklyn and see if you can put together a deal that sends Jabari Smith Junior and some additional draft compensation for Cam Johnson And now all of a sudden, you're rocking Cam Johnson and Kevin Durant alongside of men Thompson, Fred Van Vliet, and Alprin Shang Gun with just a boatload of super athletes coming off the bench to anchor everything. They're gonna have some stuff they need to work out. But I always say, don't

overthink it. This is the two seed in the NBA. Last year in the Western Conference that had a kick ass, physical defense that had a huge problem when it came to generating offense. Kevin Durant seamlessly slides into that spot and makes life a lot easier for them. My prediction is that Kevin Durant right away makes a big impact and that the Rockets look like a bona fide contender, and that everyone starts becoming convinced that Kad somehow got

better or something, which is ridiculous to me. All the stuff Katie has been saying on Twitter about how basketball is a team sport and some of the realities of what's gone wrong over the last few years is true. Is every bit as good as the Lebron James that took the Lakers to the Western Conference finals in twenty twenty three, or the Steph Curry that has done the work that he's done with the Warriors over the last

few years. He's been on flawed rosters. Does Kad deserve some blame for the types of teams that he's put himself in position with over the last couple of years and kind of putting him in a position of redundancy, putting himself in a position of diminishing returns, sure, but once you get there and you look at the rosters and you look at the way it works, there are basketball reasons why those teams failed, and it wasn't because Kevin Durant wasn't good enough at doing Kevin Durant things.

Is here's the deal. Is Kevin Durant still a top tier superstar that's a true needle mover. No, and that's why he didn't go for four or five first round picks this time around. But he is still a legitimate second tier superstar in this league that on any given night can play as well as the top guys in league, and he will immediately address a specific need for the Rockets.

And what I think is frustrating is We're gonna be like watching KD in a second round playoff series having like thirty seven points and hitting three or four clutch jump shots, and everyone's gonna be like, oh my god, Kevin Durant, as if it's not the same damn guy who floundered in Phoenix last year. It is the same guy. Basketball is a team sport, it is, ultimately, and Kevin Durant's gonna go play for a much better basketball team and you guys are gonna pretty quickly see a lot

of success. That doesn't mean he's gonna win the title necessarily, it's hard to win a title in the NBA, but he's in the mix now, and I think that for most of us, it's just gonna be like such a pleasure to get to watch Kevin play in meaningful basketball

games again. That's what I'm looking forward to. These big spots or you see it's a Big West Conference finals game or semi finals game or finals game where there's five minutes left in the scores ninety nine ninety nine, We're gonna get to see KD in those moments again,

and that to me is the most exciting part. I'm I'm this was my second favorite KD destination because I wanted to see him go play for a physical, ass kicking team where his specific trait of you know, indomitable offense would simply serve to lift them over the top, rather than him needing to carry everything. And that's what Houston is going to allow him to.

sports programs only on Vice TV. Go to vicetv dot com to find your cable channel.

each other. You make them separately from each other. I'm a big believer in taking risks, and I'm a big believer in self awareness. And what happened to the Suns is they took a risk that didn't pay off because they had self awareness, and now they're moving off of

KD because they have self awareness. And to me, like, let's be real about what happened with the Suns in twenty twenty one with Chris Paul and Devin Booker and a bunch of really good role players in a year that was weird because of COVID and all of the top playoff teams in the league at the time, Miami, Denver, the Lakers, Celtics, all of them were a beat broken, just not ready to compete in that season. All of a sudden, we have this weird playoff run. There's a

Tray Young led team in the conference finals. There's a Paul George led team in the conference finals without Kawhi Leonard. There's this Suns team, and then there's obviously the Milwaukee Bucks, the one team in that mix that was actually led by a bona fide superstar that actually had the characteristics of a championship team. But they won the title. They

won the title that year. But in the process, the Suns end up going up in the finals two to zero, and it looks exciting and it looks like they're there, but as Draymond Green says, you can have two wins in the finals and still not be close. The Bucks random four games in a row. Then you fast forward to the next season, they get utterly humiliated by Luka Doncic in the second round, like straight up sunned by

Luka Doncic in the second round. And I think they looked at the situation and they went, we're not good enough. We are not good enough to win the title. That is self awareness. Then they look at it and they go, well, what if we get Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant is better than Mikhale Bridges, is better than Cam Johnson. What if he puts us over the top. They took a gamble. There are lots of teams in NBA history that have taken gambles and it's paid off, And there are lots

of teams that have done it and it hasn't. Generally speaking, I'm in support of pushing your chips into the middle and trying to go for the title. You get one title, you are immortal in the NBA. And by the way, in twenty twenty three when the Nuggets won the title, who is the one team who like really actually kind of made things kind of difficult for them? The Phoenix Suns and it wasn't enough and they weren't good enough

and it didn't pay off. But you don't hang on to Kevin Durant because you traded four first round draft picks for him self. Awareness again entered the equation, we are not good enough with KD. He is our best vehicle with which to bring back draft compensation and to try to pivot and to try to make this thing tenable for the future. And this is what they did. So they pushed their chips in and it didn't work.

I don't think it's as bad as it looks on the surface strictly because that Sun's team from before the KD trade was not good enough to win the title if they were, if they were a legitimate top tier championship contender perennially, and then they did this totally different conversation. They weren't good enough, they pushed their chips in, they got worse. Now they're getting ready to potentially rebuild. Now.

Jalen Green, I've talked about this with respect to him and Jonathan kaminga super flawed players, Guys that specifically struggle with processing and reading the floor, Guys that are inconsistent with their jump shooting, young players that make a lot of mistakes, especially on the defensive end. It's a mixed

bag with these guys. But in the modern MBA, with how much of the league is played in transition, with how much of the league is shifting more towards physicality, with the officiating, with all of these things, having a true S tier athlete that can get to his spot and elevate over the top to finish or elevate through traffic at the rim has a level of comfortability in those settings that lesser athletes don't have. Again, does that mean that Jalen Green is gonna go be a top

ten player in the NBA. No, I don't think that's gonna happen. But I do think that Jalen Green and guys like Jonathan kaminga guys in this like super freaky raw athlete category, have a lot of upside. And so again I as far as Jalen Green goes, you're getting a chance with him. You're getting a chance with him in Phoenix to see if maybe he can develop into that type of player. Being around Devin Booker will be very good for him. Devin Booker has a lot of that,

you know, traditional two guard bag, so to speak. But he is an excellent passer. He is a guy who has developed into one of the better high pick and roll playmakers in the league. Getting him with Jalen to help him learn about those reads, to get him to take a damn deep breath every once in a while and relax, and to approach the game with a little bit more of like a change of pace element, all

of that will be good for Jalen. And you know what, maybe you can keep Devin Booker around Jalen for a year and just see how things go next year, and then pivot off of Devin Booker when the time comes. I don't like the idea of a Devin Booker Jalen Green backcourt. I don't think that's a championship backcourt. I don't think that's a backcourt that compliments each other really well. But in the short term I like the partnership because I think Devin Booker has the ability to teach a

lot of higher level offensive basketball to Jalen. Not to mention, Devin Booker on Team USA was their primary point of attack defender, and he can help Jalen Green with his defensive discipline and his attention to detail. So ultimately, is

it ugly. Yeah, the Suns did get nuked over the last two years, but the nuking was a product of them being aware that they were not a championship team, gambling on one of the greatest players in NBA history it not working, and then being aware enough to acknowledge that it didn't work and to take the first step forward into the next era. You weren't getting four first round picks for Kevin Durant, not at his age. He's not a true like needle moving, top tier superstar anymore.

He is a second tier superstar that can help an already really good team go over the top. That's about what you get in return star with some upside, A young guard with some upside, Dylan Brooks, who's legitimately one of the better three and D players in the league. I think Dylan Brooks is a really good Dylan Brooks is gonna help the Suns. Like Dylan Brooks will make the Suns substantially more of a pain in the ass to beat next year. There's upside there, there's value there.

Maybe it turns into you trading Dylan Brooks for draft picks and trading Devin Booker for draft picks. But this was the first step into the direction of the next era of Suns basketball. I don't think they were winning a title with Chris Paul, Devin Booker and Michal Bridges and Cam Johnson. I don't think they were close. I don't think they were winning a title. They went for it with KD. It didn't work. It's time to move on. That's what they did today. All right, guys, that is

all I have for today. Again, we would be back with Colin Coward tonight. I'm sure we'll have more thoughts on the KD trade as well. We'll have a new NBA champion tonight. That's super exciting. I've already talked to Sam Vessini. He's coming on the show on Monday. We're gonna be recording an NBA Draft preview. Tons of content coming out over the next couple of days, and then the Draft is literally on Wednesday, so the NBA never stops thanks to a long NBA Finals. It's all running

into each other now. But we're gonna be with you guys every step of the way. I will see you guys tonight after game seven. What's up guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting OOPS tonight. They would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.