The Houston Rockets made a big splash in free agency when they snagged Dwight Howard and that came a year after making the big move to trade for James Harden and now that the team is mostly set, could they go for more in the future, perhaps someone like Kevin Durant when he is a free agent? Jalen Rose thinks so, but the star himself says not so fast.
According to Pro Basketball Talk, Durant responded to some predictions from NBA analyst Jalen Rose, who said that he thinks that Durant will sign with the Houston Rockets when he next gets the chance to be a free agent and he picked Houston as the destination. The Rockets obviously have some big money tied up in Howard and Harden as well as other players and Durant was asked about the rumors in an interview with The Oklahoman and he basically just laughed them off.
While they seem funny now, there is a chance that could happen, but Durant has been such a face of the franchise type player, that it's hard to see him moving unless the team tries to lowball him like they did with Harden. Obviously any move by Durant is years away, but it poses an interesting scenario for the Thunder, as they have shown that they will sacrifice some winning for some money, as they did with Harden. That deal looks idiotic now and while the Thunder still has Durant and Russell Westbrook, they clearly were lacking Harden last season when he went down in the playoffs and now Durant is the key for the future.
The team obviously will do its best to keep him and he likely will stay, but that won't stop people like Rose from speculation where he will go when he gets the chance. The 2016 season is obviously far off, but people were talking about the 2014 class the second LeBron signed his deal, so it really is nothing new. The Thunder have carved out a nice place for themselves in the league, but if they don't make it back to the finals by the time Durant is a free agent, perhaps he could change his mind, especially after what happened to Harden.
Durant said that he was just concentrating on the now in the preseason and the team will start the year against the Jazz and that comes after the team finished their preseason with a loss to the Bulls. ESPN.com wrote about the Rose comments and while the Rockets possibility of signing him is far off, the way the Harden trade went down could be a sign of things to come for Durant.
