The Houston Rockets are holding off on signing new trade acquisition Kevin Durant to a potential contract extension — apparently, they're looking to care of some other business first.
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Houston finished the 2024-25 season with a 52-30 record and the Western Conference's No. 2 seed, but the club's relatively inexperienced young core (outside of seasoned then-starters Fred VanVleet and Dillon Brooks and backup center Steven Adams) couldn't stave off the more experienced, No. 7-seeded Golden State Warriors, who outlasted the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs.
The Rockets wasted little time fortifying their own depth during the subsequent offseason, trading for 15-time All-Star Durant in a seven-team deal and signing free agents Dorian Finney-Smith, Clint Capela and Josh Okogie.
Houston's offseason overhaul came at a personnel cost
Brooks and starting shooting guard Jalen Green were offloaded as part of the Durant deal. Houston also ditched its No. 10 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and five second-rounders.
But the Rockets didn't stop there.
Houston also re-signed many of its own key free agents, including VanVleet (who opted out of the final year of his deal to ink a two-season agreement, before suffering a possibly season-ending ACL tear in a workout last month), Adams, guard Aaron Holiday, and forward Jae'Sean Tate. Why the team is paying two older, non-shooting centers generous new long-term deals (the 31-year-old Capela is on a three-season, $21.1 million contract; while the 32-year-old Adams is making $39 million over the next three years) is a bit of a mystery.
Especially in light of VanVleet's injury, one wonders why Houston didn't look for a better option than the little-used Holiday or Reed Sheppard to serve as his chief backup over the summer.
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While Houston's short-term future is looking a bit dire with VanVleet staring down an extended recovery timeline, the team could secure some long-term security by locking down Durant to a new multi-year deal.
According to Jake Fischer of The Stein Line, however, Houston is hoping to resolve the fate of power forward Tari Eason first.
Our latest notebook for @TheSteinLine has some final words on restricted free agency, early rookie scale intel, and more trade chatter: https://t.co/WELLYaXpVC https://t.co/qjjrbIaYJq
— Jake Fischer (@JakeLFischer) October 5, 2025
Fischer hears that the "some cap strategists" project that a new deal for Eason will pay him less than the $24.4 million average annual sum being paid out to a just-extended Houston power forward Jabari Smith Jr.
Do the Rockets really want to play three players who nominally play the same position — Durant, Smith and Eason — quite so much money?
Durant, 37, is eligible for a fresh two-year deal, thanks to the NBA's over-38 rule. The two-time Finals MVP is raking in $54.7 million this season.
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