Kevin Durant is set to join his fifth NBA franchise as the Phoenix Suns agreed to trade him to the Houston Rockets for for Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and five second-round picks. His new organization has been busy at the onset of free agency, as well, as they have agreed to deals with Dorian Finney-Smith and Clint Capela.
The 15-time All-Star recently appeared on the “Mind the Game” podcast with LeBron James and Steve Nash. Durant inadvertently took a shot at Finney-Smith and former teammate Royce O’Neale.
“The best players on a team, you can’t turn them into robots,” Houston Rockets star Kevin Durant stated. “The mid-range, I believe, if you can’t find a good shot — we should look for the good shots early, the threes, attack the paint, try to get layups, try to get threes — but when it’s five or six seconds on the clock, give the ball to the best player. And if he shoots a mid-range at that point then he shoot a mid-range.”
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“But we’re not going to waste the clock trying to look for a three,” Durant continued. “Two seconds on the clock and we’re giving it to, no disrespect, Dorian Finney-Smith with two seconds on the clock to make a three. Or Royce O’Neale. I mean, they could hit them for sure, but that’s not sustainable offense for us going forward.”
It is unclear why Durant chose to use Finney-Smith and O’Neale as his examples as both players are relatively good three-point shooters who shot over 40.0% in 2024-25. Still, it is difficult to disagree with his overall point that teams should feel more comfortable with their star players attempting shots in the mid-range than forcing role players into bad threes late in the shot clock.
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