Rockets will grant Kevin Durant his greatest wish from ‘Starting 5’

As the Houston Rockets enter the 2025-26 NBA season, their mindset, presumably, is somewhere just short of championship-or-bust given the blockbuster trade they made this past offseason for Kevin Durant.

Moreover, in the new season of Starting 5 on Netflix, Durant has revealed his greatest wish as he nears the end of his career: to play meaningful playoff basketball. The Rockets, given the talent and the budding nature of their young core, will be able to provide this to him this season as they attempt to mount a run at a title.

After the Phoenix Suns missed the play-in entirely last year, Netflix captured Durant's disappointment, with him reflecting on the intensity that can only be found in the playoffs:

"So much intensity about the be displayed on TV between all these great teams, and you just wish you was a part of it. I'm gonna be tuned in just like everybody else."

Kevin Durant, 'Starting 5' S2:E6

The Rockets will give Kevin Durant one more bona-fide shot at a title before the end of his career

After the Rockets soared to the second seed in the Western Conference last season, their defeat in seven games at the hands of the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs was, to say the least, a mild disappointment.

On the flip side of the equation, the Suns fared no better. In just their second season with a core of Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, the team finished with a 36-46 record and were three games out of the final play-in spot. While this was, in part, due to injuries Durant sustained throughout the year, it was primarily a result of a lack of offensive synergy across the board for Phoenix.

As a result of this disappointing campaign, the Suns decided that it was best to move on from Durant before his contract expires at the end of the 2025-26 season.

Now, however, Durant will have the chance to play meaningful playoff basketball, buoying a team that was in desperate need of a superstar-caliber into bona-fide title contention.

Since the 2009-10 season, Durant has only missed the playoffs twice: once in the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 campaign and once in his injury-riddled 2014-15 season with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Despite what might be said about Durant, he is the ultimate competitor, and his desires are aligned purely with what it takes to play winning basketball. If the Rockets can grant him his wish by allowing him to carry them on a deep playoff run, it could represent the cherry on top of a historic, legendary career for Durant.