The Houston Rockets had a terrible ending to the season with a first-round elimination to the Los Angeles Lakers. Kevin Durant received a lot of blame for the team’s inconsistent second half after the story dropped about his alleged burner social media page. Posts from the page featured the assumed Durant page insulting teammates Alperen Sengun and Jabari Smith.
Veteran teammate Fred VanVleet finally spoke about the story and tried to defend Durant:
“You know the lies is always more appealing than the truth anyway. You know what I’m saying? That s— is about entertainment at the end of the day. We had some weird things this year.
And I think that the gift and the curse with KD is that he’s so open and he’s so authentic and he’s so approachable and he’s so him that it leaves room for the f—ing clowns to jump in and add they own twist on the s— and then if he don’t come out and directly say no or go against that, which is what they want.”
VanVleet felt things were blown out of proportion and that the media made it a bigger story than it had to be. However, there is no denying that Houston showed less chemistry after the All-Star break timing of that story leaking.
Is Fred VanVleet Making A Fair Point?
The media did make this a massive story without having proof, but Durant also deserves a lot of blame. Past stories have seen Durant caught insulting teammates and having burner accounts that hurt his overall reputation in the NBA.
Durant was previously seen using a fake page to insult the Oklahoma City Thunder roster one season after he left. Outside of Russell Westbrook, Durant’s mystery page claimed that no one else was worthy of playing for a title contender.
Houston witnessed the same exact kind of tweets when Durant claimed that Sengun and Smith would prevent them from winning an NBA Championship. Durant also didn’t deny it and said that he was there to focus on basketball when asked about it. A quick denial would have ended the story, but Durant didn’t feel comfortable doing that.
Kevin Durant May Already Be On Trade Block
Despite VanVleet trying to argue in defense of him, Durant is rumored to be on the trade block for the upcoming offseason. Houston sacrificed young talent Jalen Green and great team player Dillon Brooks for Durant in a move that saw them having a worse season.
Last summer’s trade was done to show that the Rockets are currently looking to go “all in” on an NBA Championship run. Rumors indicate that Houston is willing to listen to offers on everyone this summer in hopes of improving the roster for true title contention.
Durant already being on the trade block and the Rockets realizing this current roster is not enough to win it all says a lot. The first season of Durant was a failure, and the franchise is not above dealing him this quickly if they can get better talent or more depth.
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