Rockets are the perfect fit for Kevin Durant for reason nobody talks about

Kevin Durant has scored over 30,000 points in his career. He's been established as one of the game's best for over a decade. He's on the backend of his remarkable hoops journey. In 2025, though, he's still expected to be a top-flight, go-to guy for the Houston Rockets. He knows that, Ime Udoka knows that, we all know that. And he will be able to provide that. Even better, the build of this roster will allow him to essentially be just that.

In other words, Durant will be surrounded by massively talented and versatile defenders and won't be expected to carry much defensive load — specifically on the interior, which is a welcome sign for a 37 year-old.

Of course, Ime Udoka doesn't let anyone take defensive plays off, no matter how many All-Star Games they've made (and Durant has made 15). But I think he'll also understand that Durant's biggest impact comes from scoring the basketball, and if most of his energy can be spent doing that, that's when the Rockets will be at their best.

With Amen Thompson, Tari Eason, Jabari Smith, Dorian Finney-Smith, Steven Adams, and (still) Clint Capela all protecting the paint, KD being just okay defensively won't hurt the Rockets in a meaningful way. Realistically, it will probably help them because it will allow Durant to take less of a beating. After over 1100 games, those things matter.

Rockets roster will allow Durant to be just average on defense

The future Hall-of-Famer has been an underrated defender throughout a lot of his career. Zero All-Defense selections is a little surprising — he's averaged over a steal and a block per game for his career, which isn't the only indicator of defensive impact, but those numbers plus Durant's stardom make it a little surprising that he never got All-Defense love, especially from about 2013 up to his achilles injury.

But this version of Kevin Durant is flanked by a roster full of guys who could feasibly be in All-Defense discussions. They help cover for KD on the defensive end, and KD will save them over and over on the offensive end. It's a match made in heaven, honestly.

Kevin Durant is a great fit on this team for plenty of reasons. A big one is that Kevin Durant is a great fit on any team. But everything about his game feels complementary to the games of his new teammates, and vice versa. If that's the case when the team actually takes the floor, then this Rockets team can be special, even in the wake of Fred VanVleet's devastating injury.