In a second trade adjacent to their big trade sending Mikal Bridges across the East River to the New York Knicks, the Brooklyn Nets got back some of the picks from their James Harden trade from the Houston Rockets. However, the most interesting part of this trade was the fallout from a report about the Rockets wanting to use all these picks to get Kevin Durant out of Phoenix.
The trade — broken by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and confirmed by the teams as official not long later — breaks down like this.
• Brooklyn gets back their own 2025 pick swap and 2026 first-round pick, both sent to Houston in the James Harden trade.
• Houston receives the right to swap picks in 2025 with the Suns, the Suns’ 2027 first-round pick, and a first-rounder and swap in 2029 (Houston outright gets the more favorable of either Dallas’ or Phoenix’s first-round pick, then has swap rights on the other of those).
For the Nets, the motive is clear when combined with the Bridges trade: Brooklyn is pivoting into a complete rebuild, and the most valuable thing it can control in that setting is its own picks when the team is expected to struggle. The Nets are going to lose a lot of games in the next couple of seasons, which happens to coincide with some outstanding drafts that have projected franchise talent at the top, and now the Nets control their picks.
For the Rockets, they add valuable picks — the Suns could be rebuilding in 2027 and 2029, and those could be very high picks — that they likely will want to trade again as Houston goes big game hunting for a star to help them win now.
That led to a post on X from Wojnarowski that set off a mini-controversy:
The implications of the Rockets landing the Suns' picks? Houston wants to trade for Kevin Durant and that becomes far easier if they can return the Suns' picks that they gave up in the Durant deal to the Nets. Suns have said they're keeping Durant for now, but that could change…
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 26, 2024
The pushback out of Phoenix was instant and forceful — Kevin Durant is not available in a trade. Under any circumstances. The Suns are going to run it back next season with Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal (with a new coach in Mike Budenholzer and some tweaks to the roster around them) and try to contend in a deep West.
Soon Wojnarowski was posting on X about how the Suns were not trading Durant and the Rockets would be “aggressive” in using these picks this offseason to land another star from elsewhere. That said, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and others pointed out the obvious — at least internally the Rockets made this trade thinking about a trade with the Suns, that’s why they got so many Suns’ picks. If Phoenix ever pivots towards retooling/rebuilding, it will want control of its own picks.
Front offices around the league are watching the Suns’ three-star experiment, especially considering Durant has a history of player movement. While Booker is locked down for a while with a four-year contract extension that kicks in this season, both Durant and Beal have just two fully guaranteed seasons left on their contracts. If Budenholzer cannot get more out of this roster this season and the team doesn’t live up to expectations, it is possible the Suns will look to make major changes a year from now. Could Durant start pushing his way out the door before that? All that led to this post from Wojnarowski.
Rockets possess a pick swap with Suns in 2025, Suns' pick in 2027 and could end up with the Suns' pick in 2029 based on contingencies. If the Suns are ever faced with breaking up team, Houston's also in prime position to pursue a younger Devin Booker. For now, Phoenix is trying… https://t.co/p29C3XSpe2
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 26, 2024
All of this means that whenever a true superstar becomes available in a trade — maybe this summer or during the coming season, maybe next summer, maybe from the Suns and maybe not — the Rockets will be in the mix to land him. That’s what this Nets trade was ultimately about for them.
