The early-summer rumor mill has been red-hot, but only one deal has actually shifted the league’s balance of power so far—and it’s the one nobody saw coming: the Houston Rockets landing Kevin Durant. On June 22, Houston sent Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 pick (Duke center Khaman Maluach) and five future seconds to Phoenix for the 36-year-old superstar. The optics alone are seismic: Durant’s move pairs a two-time Finals MVP with blossoming interior savant Alperen Şengün and a versatile forward core (Jabari Smith Jr., Cam Whitmore, Amen Thompson). Suddenly the Rockets—who won 46 games and flirted with the play-in last season—own a closing lineup that can score in every way and switch across four positions. More important, they still control all their own first-rounders, giving GM Rafael Stone flexibility to chase a veteran guard (think Tyus Jones in free agency) to complete a top-four seed run in the West.
For Phoenix, the calculus was grim but rational. After a second straight first-round exit, selling high on KD replenishes a bare draft cupboard and jump-starts a retool around Devin Booker, Green and Maluach. Brooks’ three-and-D grime should also keep the Suns competitive in the short term. Yet make no mistake: the biggest winner is Houston, which upgrades from “fun League Pass team” to “legit contender” overnight. That kind of leap hasn’t happened since the 2021 Suns imported Chris Paul—and we all know how that ended.
Other completed trades—Jrue Holiday to Portland, Kristaps Porziņģis to Atlanta, CJ McCollum to Washington—are interesting, but they tweak ceilings rather than redefining them. Holiday stabilizes Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe, Porziņģis spaces for Trae Young, and McCollum gives the Wizards a grown-up scorer. None, however, vaults a franchise from the middle tier to the title chase the way Durant does.
So, who’s next? The industry’s loudest whispers focus on Giannis Antetokounmpo. Sports Illustrated outlined a Warriors pitch—Draymond Green plus two firsts for the Greek Freak—that has Golden State, New York and Miami circling Milwaukee’s phone lines. The Bucks insist they’re keeping their 30-year-old franchise icon, but a soft-reset package that brings back a high-level defender, blue-chip picks and perhaps a young upside swing (Jonathan Kuminga in a larger three-team structure) would at least make ownership think. With Stephen Curry entering his age-37 season, Golden State has every incentive to empty the asset cupboard one last time.
After Giannis, league executives point to Boston’s Jaylen Brown (supermax salary kicks in now), Philadelphia’s Paul George (fit with Embiid remains clunky), and Derrick White (the Celtics want a “massive haul” for the two-way guard) as the names most likely to move next. Keep an eye, too, on DeMar DeRozan in Sacramento and a possible Bulls teardown around Zach LaVine if Chicago can’t retool on the fly.
Bottom line: Durant’s relocation is the first true blockbuster of 2025, instantly forcing Western contenders to redraw their whiteboards. Whether Giannis follows suit—or another star forces the next domino—will decide if this offseason goes down as merely “busy” or instantly legendary. Buckle up. #NBA #Offseason 👀
