Paulo Alves

The Rockets wouldn't have brought in Kevin Durant if they had known they wouldn't have Fred.

They specifically kept Fred out of the talks for that reason.

So this is not PR spin after the fact.

They said it.

I reported it before the trade.

This was their mindset.

Now, after Fred got hurt, obviously, they tried to spin it as, well, we hope we can still contend.

We'll give more reps to a man in Reed, yada, yada.

I mean, what else are they going to say?

I mean, one of your most important players gets hurt right before training camp.

What, are you going to say, oh, the season's over, pack it up?

No.

I mean, they're going to put on a brave face, but

You know, the proof is in the pudding.

They knew last June that they needed Fred to have a chance at contending with KD.

So Fred going down, it does put them in a tough spot where they know they have Kevin Durant playing amazing basketball, but it's really tough to actually win a championship this year unless Fred comes back.

And even if Fred does come back, he's probably going to be limited.

That's important context to remember about the deadline overall.

If it seems like there's not alignment between the KD trade and the lack of dealmaking at this deadline, well, there was a big variable in between that changed the thinking that went into the KD trade and the thinking at the deadline.

Secondly, there's a lot of comments in the chat about Jory and Finney-Smith.