Could Kevin Durant ignite Portland's offense? His elite scoring could transform the Blazers into a Western Conference contender.
Now that the Houston Rockets season is coming to an end, it’s officially time for teams around the league to ponder the possibility of acquiring Kevin Durant.
After what was an up-and-down season for Houston, Durant was ultimately injured in the postseason and was not available for the vast majority of the team’s biggest games of the season. And whether he decides this offseason that he wants out to play for another franchise, or the Rockets determine they’d rather pivot back toward youth and a longer runway, he very well could be on the market.
At the bare minimum, the Portland Trail Blazers should certainly consider it.
General manager Joe Cronin has already mentioned that, for the right price, a trade for a star this offseason is not off the table. And Durant does check a lot of the boxes. He’s owed a significant amount of money, given he’s still one of the best players in the league and is on a very large contract. But when you start to package Jerami Grant and Shaedon Sharpe with other draft capital, Portland can actually get pretty close to the money.
Perhaps the most interesting part of a potential Durant trade is what he brings on the offensive end.
When looking at the Blazers’ primary issues this season, it came down to scoring in the clutch, having a secondary punch alongside Deni Avdija and just the offense overall. For large chunks of the season, the Blazers were one of the worst offenses in the entire NBA. The defense held the team up for much of the year, and some win streaks here and there were the reason Portland was ultimately able to finish 40-42 in the regular season.
Durant is still one of the premier scorers in the league and arguably one of the best scorers in the history of the game. He still has a lot left in the tank, and given his size, positional versatility, ability to score in isolation and playoff experience, he could really take the Blazers to the next level.
If you consider a Portland team that made the playoffs and looked good for the most part against the Spurs in the first round, adding Durant changes the outlook significantly. And if Damian Lillard comes back from injury as well, all of a sudden, this is a team that could realistically be a top-four seed in the Western Conference next season.
Of course, that doesn’t mean Portland should push all of its chips to the middle of the table without thinking through the cost. Durant is still highly productive, but he’s also much closer to the end of his career than the beginning. Any trade package would have to reflect that reality. The Blazers shouldn’t gut their entire young core or mortgage too much of the future for a player who may only have a short window left at this level.
But that’s also what makes the idea so interesting. Durant isn’t a clean timeline fit, but he is exactly the type of offensive weapon Portland currently lacks. He would give the Blazers a proven playoff scorer, another elite shot creator and someone who could immediately raise the ceiling of a team that already showed it was ahead of schedule this season.
There’s no indication that the Blazers are proactively seeking out a Kevin Durant trade at this point. But now that Houston’s season is over, these conversations should at least begin around the league.
And for Portland, a Durant trade should be considered. Not at any cost, and not if it means tearing apart everything that made this season encouraging. But if the price is right, and if the Rockets are open to making a deal, the Blazers should at least make the call.