火箭应无视杜兰特出手数争议，坚持负荷管理计划

Houston Rockets superstar Kevin Durant has been at the heart of a widespread conversation about the manner in which he's being utilized in 2026-27. He's on pace to set new career-lows in points and field goal attempts, and reporters and analysts have questioned the limited nature of his role.

Though there will be times when Durant will need to take over for the Rockets, the team should ignore the discourse and continue protecting him from wear-and-tear while preserving its future.

Just a year after making the All-NBA Second Team with an average of 26.0 points per game on .520/.413/.874 shooting, Durant is attempting just 12.4 field goal attempts per game. That's, by far, the lowest figure of his career, with his previous low being 17.1—a mark he posted as a rookie all the way back in 2007-08.

Compounded by the fact that Durant is tied for No. 3 all-time in scoring titles and No. 5 in career points scored, low usage is a questionable tactic. Varun Shankar of The Houston Chronicle made that very point to Durant himself.

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The conversation about Durant's shooting volume has thus become a hot topic, but the Rockets should stay the course and trust what truly is a necessary plan.

Rockets are limiting regular season wear-and-tear—a good thing

Durant may be an all-time great scorer, but he's also 38. More accurately, he's 38 years old with a torn Achilles tendon, a Lisfranc fracture, and an all but endless number of lower-body injuries behind him. In fact, 2025-26 was just the second time since 2019 that he missed fewer than 27 games.

One of the three exceptions was a season during which Durant missed 20 games, which poses a fair question: How sustainable is it really to have him in a featured role given his age and injury history?

Rather than playing with fire and learning the answer the hard way, Houston is playing it safe. They know that Durant's greatest value to the team is what he can do in the playoffs, during which his accolades already include two titles, two Finals MVP awards, and four trips to the NBA Finals.

As a team that won 50 games without him and 50 games with him, the Rockets simply appear to be leaning into the strength of their culture and roster. The early strategy effectively embraces not needing to overburden him in order to handle the task of making the playoffs.

Taking this approach should help the 38-year-old superstar limit the grind his body endures and thus have more to offer come the postseason—where the Rockets haven't won a series since 2020.

Rockets need to build for life after Kevin Durant

Durant may not be showing signs of slowing down, but history proves that a player nearing 40 is closer to the end than the beginning. Even if he continues to defy Father Time in that regard, planning for success beyond the Durant years is still a necessary step.

That should offer the only explanation necessary for why Alperen Sengun (24), Reed Sheppard (22), Jabari Smith Jr. (23), and Amen Thompson (23) are being trusted with prominent roles on offense.

Yes, there's a clear case for Durant being a better player and scorer than all four of those players—if not everyone on the Rockets. The reality is, however, that Houston brought him in after going 41-41 in 2023-24 and 52-30 in 2024-25. In other words: They were already on the path to success with this core.

As such, the Rockets aren't just throwing out unproven players and hoping they can deliver, but trusting the very process they never truly departed from.

Durant is still the optimal choice to be the closer, as well as the go-to scorer against great teams. If the Rockets still win 50-plus games and make the playoffs, however, then panicking over granular details would be premature and unnecessary. This team is, after all, 7-2 and somehow facing media controversy.

There will be situations where Durant needs to impose his will on games, but the Rockets can otherwise ignore all criticism for limiting regular season wear-and-tear.

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