Yahoo Sports Why the Rockets are the biggest winners from Kevin Durant's trade request
When news hit that Kevin Durant was seeking a trade from the Brooklyn Nets and titanically shifting the NBA landscape, again, in the process, there was probably one team already celebrating.
It obviously wasn't the Nets, who did everything they could to acquire Durant and keep him happy. It wasn't the Phoenix Suns, reported by Yahoo Sports' Chris Haynes to a preferred destination for Durant. It wasn't any Eastern Conference contender who just watched the collapse of a prospective superteam.
No, we're talking about the Houston Rockets, who could be on the verge of a very enjoyable decade if the Nets hit hard times.
Why the Rockets benefit from the Nets losing Kevin Durant
Let's rewind back to Jan. 13, 2021.
After weeks of drama, the Houston Rockets relented and granted James Harden his trade request. The former MVP was sent to Brooklyn, where he'd play alongside his old teammate Durant (and then request another trade a little more than a year later).
For Harden, the Nets gave up promising young players Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert, as well as a metric ton of draft picks. Here's the full collection:
2021 first-round pick swap with Nets
2022 unprotected Nets first-round pick (since became Tari Eason, No. 17 overall)
2022 conditional Bucks first-round pick (since became MarJon Beauchamp, No. 24 overall)
2023 first-round pick swap with Nets
2024 unprotected Nets first-round pick
2025 first-round pick swap with Nets
2026 unprotected Nets first-round pick
2027 first-round pick swap with Nets
Basically, the Rockets have every Nets first-round draft pick until 2027, all unprotected, or the right to swap first-rounders if the Nets have the better pick. Which is fine if you're the Nets, because you're about to have Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden for the foreseeable future. As long as you have that trio, you're probably making the playoffs and picking in the 20s for at least the next half-decade.
But if, say, the Nets' relationship with all three players were to sour and the team were forced to trade all of them away at a loss, leaving them with lesser players and draft selections, those picks are suddenly looking very valuable.
The Rockets were already looking good for the future thanks to a pair of top-three picks in Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr., plus a collection of other solid young players. But the opportunity to build on that young talent while enjoying a pipeline of draft picks from a different, ailing team? That comes up only once in about a decade.
Like what happened with the Nets last decade.
How did this happen to the Nets again?
The Nets betting big on veteran stars, trading every draft pick in sight and falling flat on their face should sound familiar, especially if you're a Boston Celtics fans.
Nine years ago, almost to the day, the Nets traded three unprotected first-round draft picks, a pick swap in 2017 and a plethora of players to acquire Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce from the Celtics. Like when they signed Durant and Irving, the Nets were hoping to leap into the NBA's class of contenders and make the draft picks they sent away negligible in value.
Most basketball fans know what happened next. Garnett and Pierce played like they were past their prime and neither lasted two seasons in Brooklyn. Meanwhile, those Nets picks turned into the No. 17 overall pick in the 2014 draft (James Young), the No. 3 pick in the 2016 draft (Jaylen Brown) and the No. 8 pick in the 2018 draft (Collin Sexton, traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers). That 2017 pick swap also turned into the No. 1 pick in 2017, which was turned into the No. 3 pick (Jayson Tatum) and the No. 14 pick in the 2019 draft (Romeo Langford).
The Celtics reached the NBA Finals this year with Tatum and Brown running the show while the Nets languished for years until rebuilding to the point that Durant and Irving wanted to join them.
The Rockets will be hoping history repeats for the Nets over the next half-decade.
