A Houston Rockets star revealed when Kevin Durant told him after the trade went down.
Kevin Durant's Message to Rockets Star Surfaces After Trade originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
The Houston Rockets arguably made the biggest splash of the 2025 NBA Offseason when they acquired Kevin Durant from the Phoenix Suns. Even at 36 years old, Durant is still one of the best scorers in the NBA and is coming off an excellent season despite the Suns' obvious turbulence.
In 62 games, Durant averaged 26.6 points, six rebounds, and 4.2 assists while shooting 52.7% from the field and 43% from three during the 2024-25 season. The season before, he finished ninth in NBA MVP voting and was an All-NBA second team recipient.
Now he joins a Rockets team that got the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. While the Rockets may have been eliminated by Durant's former team, the Golden State Warriors, in the first round, they were among the younger teams in the postseason.
With Durant set to debut for Houston in October, Rockets center Alperen Sengun revealed in an interview with Socrates Dergi what Durant told him after the Rockets made the deal.
"I reached out to Kevin and told him I’m excited to work together. He said, ‘We’re going to have fun and do a lot of great things,’" Sengun told Dergi, as translated by Rockets Wire's Ben Dubose.
Kevin Durant Gives Alperen Sengun Something He's Never Had Before
Sengun has bene in the NBA since 2021. In the four years h's played in the league, he's risen up to become one of the league's most talented young centers. This led to his first All-Star game appearance in 2025.
However, even as he's risen through the ranks, Sengun has never been paired with a scoring presence like Durant until now. The best scorers he has played next to throughout his NBA career have been Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr., and Fred VanVleet.
In no prior season has Sengun played with someone who averaged more than 22.1 points, which Green did when he and Sengun were teammates during the 2022-23 season. Durant might not have scored the same number of points as he used to when he was younger, but the 26.6 points per game he averaged were still good for the sixth-highest among NBA players.
The only players who averaged more were Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, Anthony Edwards, and Jayson Tatum. Pairing Sengun with Durant could give the Rockets one of the NBA's scariest scoring duos.
Related: Kevin Durant's Contract Extension Not a Priority For Rockets: Insider
Related: NBA Star Kevin Durant Shares Unexpected News on Wednesday
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Aug 17, 2025, where it first appeared.
Category: Basketball
