The Houston Rockets didn’t just make a bold trade this summer. They dismantled the identity of a team that clawed its way to the No. 2 seed and pushed Golden State to the edge. Jalen Green. Dillon Brooks. Two players who became the heartbeat of a young roster. Gone, shipped out for one man: Kevin Durant.

On paper, the trade screams ambition; a direct move to seize control of the West and turn a rising team into an instant contender. But behind the scenes, this wasn’t a clean, clinical decision. The man who orchestrated it admits he felt something more complicated and heavier, and what he revealed says as much about the human side of the game as it does about the business.

He didn’t celebrate when the deal was done. “We understood what they wanted to get for Kevin, and it just didn’t make sense for our team starting… a year ago,” Rafael Stone said on ESPN Houston, describing a trade process that stretched over months. “It was a very, very long process.” Then came the part that lingered. “Dillon [Brooks] and Jalen [Green] were just awesome… I have a ton of goodwill, thankfulness, I don’t know what the right word is, for both Jalen and Dillon.”

Stone described players who sacrificed and showed up even when their bodies fought them. “Never once with either of those guys did I feel like they didn’t care; they weren’t giving me everything they had,” he said. “He’d come in like, limping… you’re like, ‘Oh, he ain’t going tonight.’ And then he’d be on the table for two and a half hours and be like, ‘No, I’m out there.’” And his tone made clear this wasn’t just about basketball. “Either I’m in or I’m not… with our guys, I’m in. I want them to be the best they can possibly be… I went about it like I’m going to pour into them like I would want someone to pour into my kid.”

Even when Durant came into play, that feeling didn’t disappear. Stone explained how the deal came together during Summer League: “We really like our team. And obviously, you know, Kevin’s amazing, and we wanted him. But it was also just it had to make sense… and we kind of arrived at a deal that made sense for both teams.”

Now the Rockets have Durant: a proven scorer, a closer they lacked in their playoff collapse. But Stone’s confession shows the cost of that ambition: not in draft picks or cap space, but in the bonds lost along the way.

The True Contender Window Opens

The Durant trade didn’t materialize overnight. Stone revealed that talks with Phoenix dated nearly a year ago, with initial conversations beginning long before last season tipped off. Those discussions would cool, then reignite as the Rockets surged in the West, and by summer, they evolved into something tangible. Each round of talks forced Houston to weigh its present against its future: was now the right time to cash in its chips?

By July, both sides found common ground. Durant wanted another shot at a deep playoff run; Houston saw a chance to pair his scoring and postseason pedigree with its surging young core. Brooks and Green were the price; two players the Rockets didn’t want to lose, but ultimately deemed movable to push their window forward.

Durant’s arrival brings not only production but experience, something this roster lacked in the crucible of last postseason. The Rockets didn’t just need talent; they needed a closer, someone who demanded the ball in winning time and had been through the wars. Stone’s emotional farewell to Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green underscores the difficulty of giving up two players who embodied grit. Still, the move signals that sentiment will not outweigh championship ambition.

The coming season will test whether that gamble pays off. With Fred VanVleet steadying the backcourt, Alperen Sengun emerging as an All-Star, and Amen Thompson flashing two-way promise, Durant becomes the hinge. If his health holds and the young core continues its upward trajectory, Houston could turn that bitter playoff memory into the foundation of something greater. This isn’t not a reset, but an evolution.