Rockets Acquire Kevin Durant From Suns For Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, 2025 #10 Pick
Keith Smith
June 22, 2025
The Kevin Durant trade saga is over! The Phoenix Suns were determined to find deal for Durant before the 2025 NBA Draft. The Houston Rockets were determined to upgrade their offense. The two came together on a blockbuster deal.
Here are the particulars:
Houston Rockets acquire: Kevin Durant
Phoenix Suns acquire: Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, 2025 #10 pick, five second-round picks
Let’s dive in!
(Note: We are recapping this trade as currently reported. If the terms change, we’ll update the analysis accordingly.)
Trade Mechanics
This trade will have to take place when the league year changes over to 2025-26 due to the poison pill provision in Jalen Green’s contract. This is also a fascinating trade because of the mechanics to make it work.
For now, we’re going to assume that Jalen Green is waiving his trade bonus (or the vast majority of it), to complete this trade. If Green insists upon getting his entire bonus, the salary-matching doesn’t work.
Because the Suns are a second-apron team (yes, even after the league year changes over), they can’t aggregate salaries in a trade. Phoenix also can’t take back more money than they send out. The Rockets are well under the aprons and the tax, so they have less concerns with how they match salary.
Houston’s side is easy. They are receiving $54.7 million for Kevin Durant. The Rockets are sending out $55.5 million in salary for Green and Dillon Brooks. That will keep Houston from incurring a first-apron hard cap, as they are sending out more salary than they are taking back. A second-apron hard cap will be incurred because the Rockets are aggregating salaries in this deal, but they have more than enough room under the second apron.
At first glance, the Suns appear to be receiving the same $55.5 million for Green and Dillon Brooks. However, Brooks has a $1 million incentive in his contract if his team makes the playoffs. As bonuses are termed likely vs unlikely depending on what circumstances happened the prior season, Brooks’ bonus will flip from likely to unlikely for the 2025-26 season (and beyond) because the Suns did not make the playoffs last season. (Brooks still earned this bonus for the 2024-25 season, which is not impacted by this trade.)
Now, because Brooks’ bonus flips to unlikely, he’ll go on the Phoenix books at $1 million less. That means the Suns are bringing in $54.5 million, which is less than the $54.7 million that they send out. That makes this a legal trade.
This is a very rare occurrence where both teams are technically sending out more salary than they are bringing in, because of how Brooks’ bonus will flip upon completion of the trade. A relatively small, but incredibly important detail that allows this trade to be made.
Houston Rockets
Incoming salary: $54.7 million in 2025-26
Kevin Durant (SF/PF, one year, $54.7 million)
Outgoing salary: $55.5 million in 2025-26
Jalen Green (SG, three years, $105.3 million (player option for final season)), Dillon Brooks (SF, two years, $42.1 million)
In their first-round playoff loss in seven games to the Golden State Warriors, the Houston Rockets offense was a problem. The defense was good enough to keep the Rockets in every game, but they didn’t have enough offense to win the series. Houston averaged just 104 points, and that figure was pumped up by a 131-point explosion in Game 5. In order to win at the highest levels, the Rockets needed offensive help.
Mission accomplished.
Kevin Durant, for all the worries about his age, injury history and happiness levels, is still an elite offensive player. In 62 games for the Suns last season, Durant averaged 26.6 points on 53/43/84 shooting splits. The star forward isn’t getting to the basket like he once did, witnessed by his free throw rate slipping the last two seasons, but Durant remains a midrange killer. The shots the Rockets were getting, but couldn’t make against the Warriors? Durant buries those consistently.
Houston had to give up two starters to get Durant. Jalen Green is inconsistent, sometimes looking like an All-Star one night and backup guard the next. But when he’s on, Green is an offensive force. You hope consistency will come with age, but the Rockets are ready to win now. However, even despite his inconsistency, Green was the Rockets best on-ball creator. That’s something the team will need to replace.
Losing Brooks takes a defensive weapon away for a Rockets team that built their identity on that end of the floor. Brooks also put up two of his better shooting seasons while in Houston. Replacing Brooks’ 3&D impact is something Houston will have to figure out.
The Rockets also gave up the 10th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. Given the trouble last year’s third overall selection had in cracking the rotation, it’s unlikely the 10th pick would have jumped right into playing for Ime Udoka as a rookie. Still, that’s Green, Brooks and a lottery pick headed out.
But, as the old saying goes: You have to give something to get something. And, crucially, the Rockets didn’t have to give everything to get Durant.
Houston still has Alperen Sengun, who should form a potent two-man duo with Durant on offense. The Rockets were likewise able to keep Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr. and Reed Sheppard, who were all reportedly off limits in trade talks. The team also still has Tari Eason and Steven Adams for frontcourt depth. The pieces are in place for the Rockets to have a good, deep team.
In addition, Houston has pretty good flexibility for building out the rest of the roster. After this deal, the Rockets are about $33.6 million under the luxury tax line and $41.6 million under the first apron with 10 players on the roster. That doesn’t include Fred VanVleet or Aaron Holiday, who both have pending team options. That figure does include Jock Landale and Nate Williams Jr., who are a combined $10.3 million in expiring salary.
Let’s say the Rockets bring back Fred VanVleet on a salary around $25 million for next season (as part of a new contract), which is more commensurate with his ability than $44.8 million would be. Houston would then have more than enough room to use the full Non-Taxpayer MLE of $14.1 million. (Note: Houston does not have access to the Bi-Annual Exception this offseason, because they used it last season to sign Holiday.) That $14.1 million is more than enough for Rafael Stone to get another wing or guard in the fold. Because there isn’t much cap space available, the Non-Taxpayer MLE should have a bit more spending power than usual.
In addition to keeping several of their young players, the Rockets held onto all those future Suns picks that they hold. That’s huge, as the team will need to eventually replace Durant as he ages out.
As for Durant, he indicated as part of the trade process that the Rockets were one of the few teams that he’d sign an extension with. Houston has a couple of options. They can extend Durant as part of this trade and could give him a two-year, $122 million immediately. If the Rockets wait a bit for the extend-and-trade parameters to clear, they could bump that figure up slightly.
There’s also a chance Durant could take slightly less in an extension. That would free up some flexibility for Houston, who has to sign Smith and Eason to extensions this summer, then Thompson to an extension next summer.
The Houston Rockets got better in this trade…provided Rafael Stone is able to fill out the rest of the roster in a positive way. They’ve got the flexibility to do round out the roster this summer. Houston also has the trade assets to continue to tweak the roster, both this offseason and for the next few seasons.
Phoenix Suns
Incoming salary: $54.5 million in 2025-26
Jalen Green (SG, three years, $105.3 million (player option for final season)), Dillon Brooks (SF, two years, $42.1 million)
Outgoing salary: $54.7 million in 2025-26
Kevin Durant (SF/PF, one year, $54.7 million)
The market for Kevin Durant wasn’t nearly as strong as the Phoenix Suns had hoped it would be. They still got a decent return, but this wasn’t near the package that Phoenix sent out when they acquired Durant themselves. Such is life as a team constrained by the second apron that was trying to trade an unhappy, aging, injury-prone star.
With that depressing stage set, let’s try to be a bit more positive. Jalen Green can play. He’s inconsistent, but he still averaged 21 points in the regular season. Green is also 23 years old an on a fair-value contract, given his offensive ability. There’s a ton of talent there, provided it can be harnessed and fulfilled.
Brooks will help Phoenix, should he stick around. The Suns defense was extremely porous. New head coach Jordan Ott is probably already dreaming up ways to team Brooks with second-year player Ryan Dunn to lock up perimeter opponents. Brooks has also become a fairly consistent shooter, which will help open the floor for others.
Getting the 10th pick gives new Suns GM Brian Gregory some options too. Gregory will either get a lottery talent, who should be a Day 1 rotation player for Phoenix. Or he could swap that pick in another deal, ideally one that brings better balance to the roster.
That lack of roster balance is something that Gregory will have to address. By adding Green and Brooks, the Suns seven highest paid players are either shooting guards or small forwards. That group includes Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, Grayson Allen, Royce O’Neale, Cody Martin, and now, Green and Brooks.
You can get away with playing one of those guys at point guard, and a couple could slide up, along with Dunn, to play as a small-ball four. But that’s a lot of guys who play the same positions. That screams that the roster reconstruction has only just begun in Phoenix.
Unfortunately, this trade didn’t offer Phoenix any savings towards the tax or aprons. In fact, this deal brought additional money on the books for the 2026-27 season, but that’s something that will sort itself out over time. That means that all the second-apron restrictions the Suns have been dealing with for the last couple of years are still in place.
On the plus side, Phoenix now has five future second-round picks. Those will be helpful for adding cost-effective depth down the line, or by giving Gregory something to put into future trades.
It’s obvious that the Suns aren’t done retooling the roster. There’s mixed reporting about how the Suns see Jalen Green. Some are suggesting that he’s sticking around and the Suns have no intention of re-trading him. Other reports have Phoenix looking for a place to flip Green in a subsequent trade, or by expanding this deal before it’s made official.
It’s clear that something is going to happen to sort out the glut of guards and wing on the roster. The Suns had wanted a center in the Durant trade, but didn’t get one. That’s still a position of priority, as should be the power forward spot. This team still doesn’t have a pure point guard either, and we saw how scattered things got when Phoenix previously tried to play without a floor general.
For now, we can consider this trade to be a bit incomplete for the Phoenix Suns. They’ve got work to do to put a functional team on the floor next fall. Let’s see where Brian Gregory goes next, as this trade should be the first in a series of moves for Phoenix this summer.
