Rockets coach Ime Udoka on Kevin Durant’s mindset: “That’s his message to a lot of the young guys: Be who you are, continue to grow in those areas, and I’ll fit in where we see necessary.”
All-Star forward Kevin Durant hasn’t yet spoken to reporters since his July trade from the Phoenix Suns to the Houston Rockets. That will finally change at the team’s upcoming Sept. 29 media day to preview its 2025-26 season.
But Durant has, of course, spoken repeatedly to players, coaches, and executives throughout the organization. Most notably, the list includes head coach Ime Udoka, who previously coached Durant as an assistant with the 2020-21 Brooklyn Nets.
At Thursday’s Sept. 11 community event, Udoka relayed Durant’s perspective about joining the Rockets, and specifically how he wants to fit in with a team that was already at 52-30 and No. 2 in the Western Conference prior to his arrival.
Among Udoka’s comments (via Locked on Rockets):
He’s a guy that doesn’t want (us) to just lean on him. He wants to kind of be implemented into the group, and people not take a backseat to him. That’s his message to a lot of the young guys: ‘Be who you are, continue to grow in those areas, and I’ll fit in where we see necessary.’
The things that he does on the court, offensively, are seamless. You can fit him into any system. … The attention that he draws will be beneficial to others. And he’s a guy you can lean on, at times, to close games… but a very unselfish player, as well, with a high IQ.
That approach should leave plenty of playmaking opportunities for Amen Thompson and Alperen Sengun, two rising stars and foundational prospects from Houston’s recent rebuilding movement.
“You have a high-level scorer that’s been doing it for a long time, and any time you add those type of players, efficiency goes up, attention goes up, and it helps other guys out,” Udoka said. “The efficiency, the numbers at an older age, he’s still doing that at a very high level.”
That Sept. 29 media day will be Durant’s 37th birthday, but he hasn’t shown many (if any) signs of slowing down. The presence of emerging talents such as Thompson and Sengun to shoulder more of the load should only help that cause.
