火箭总经理拉斐尔·斯通为何看好凯文·杜兰特身边的年轻阵容

Houston Rockets GM Rafael Stone has high hopes for the 2026-27 season. While Fred VanVleet’s return from a season-long injury is a significant step in the right direction, Stone said the Rockets’ youth, including future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant, is, too. With playoff experience under his belt, All-Star Alperen Sengun will look to build on the 2025-26 season, which ended in a first-round exit.

Stone reflected on how the Rockets envisioned Durant’s tenure, and that both sides were on the same page about building a title-contending roster, per ESPN’s The Hoop Collective podcast.

“Obviously, when you trade for somebody of Kevin [Durant]’s stature, it’s very important that you have good conversations coming in about expectations,” Stone said. “He understood coming in this wasn’t gonna be a situation where we’re trading for him, and now, we’re gonna go get 75 veteran players to come play with him, which sometimes happens. But it’s not like that has a great track record of success.

“So, he understood that he was coming in to play with a bunch of younger guys, and that the team was probably going to look the way it looks now. And it has. As best I can tell, you can ask him, but he really enjoys it.”

Surrounding Kevin Durant with younger Rockets players like Amen Thompson and Sengun is exactly what GM Rafael Stone had in mind as the core continues to blossom in Durant’s second season in Houston. And he truly believes Durant is happy with where he is at this stage of his career.

“Every day’s not a perfect day, and Kevin is not somebody who is chipper and upbeat every minute of every day — that’s just not his personality,” Stone added. “But I think he’s really enjoyed being around the young guys. And it does, at least for me, as I get older, having youthful energy is great. I’m an old curmudgeon. Ime’s an old curmudgeon. Kevin’s definitely not old, but he has his curmudgeon moments.”

Still, Rafael Stone sees the makings of a championship roster in the 2026-27 Rockets.

“We just have some diversity. And I think this group has good diversity,” Stone said. “And we want to be good for as long as we can be good. And I don’t think teams that go all in intentionally shorten their windows to win a championship; it’s not that it hasn’t happened, a couple of teams have done it, but the track record is really, really bad. And I think the teams that have had more success have built more organically, which we’re trying to do.”

As for last season, health is critical for any NBA team with championship aspirations. Just ask the Indiana Pacers, who watched their star, Tyrese Haliburton, be helped off the court during Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. Or the team that beat them to win it all — the Oklahoma City Thunder, who lost Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell ahead of Game 7 of last season’s Western Conference Finals.

“We won 52 games. Fred [VanVleet] didn’t play a game. Steven [Adams] played less than half a season. Kevin didn’t play in the playoffs,” Stone said. “The reality of the NBA today: nobody wins in the playoffs if they’re not healthy. People don’t even win a round. And we didn’t win a round last year. You just don’t. Kudos to those who won. I’m not taking anything away from them. But if we’re going to be the best team we can be, we obviously have to stay healthy. We just do. And last year was very, very tough in that regard.”

The Rockets defeated the Dallas Mavericks, 135-117, in their preseason debut. Tari Eason led with 20 points and nine rebounds. VanVleet finished with 17 points, seven assists, and two steals. Sengun recorded a triple-double (16 points, 10 rebounds), and Durant added 15 points, 2 assists, and 1 block.

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