Ben DuBose

You can win a few more games in the interim.

Maybe you contend for or win a title, but it was never about just trade for Kevin Durant and immediately open the window, like, say, the Lakers acquiring LeBron James whenever he joined them in 2018 or 2019.

The Rockets were never about Kevin Durant to the extent that the Lakers were about LeBron James the last few years, or at least until the Luka trade.

And yet that's the way I feel like the fan base has transitioned, just watching KD for half a year.

And to his credit, he's been amazing.

But it feels like everybody has just moved the goalposts to where now nobody even cares about the young core that much.

And it's just maximize KD and whatever consequences there are to the future, whatever.

We have KD.

We'll worry about those another day.

And I just think that's overly emotional and reactionary thinking.

It's not compatible with the way fans viewed it a year ago.

It's not compatible with how the Rockets viewed the situation themselves when they chose not to trade for him this time a year ago and, you know, punted on the opportunity to add KD to last season's team for the playoffs or waiting it out until the price dropped.

I guess the bottom line for me is that to build what the Rockets want, which is a sustainable contender, it takes a lot of vision.

It takes hard choices.

And so many of the decisions that are being advocated for are just reckless.

And they're moving the goalposts.

Like to go from passing on James Harden when all it would have cost you is cap space to wanting to sacrifice Reed Shepard for him.

To giving up important pieces for next season's team and future first-round picks for a moderate upgrade to this season's team.

to wanting everything to be about Kevin Durant and not about the young core and the blueprint of what they're trying to build for the next 10 to 12 years.

It's just very short-sighted.