Can Rockets’ Kevin Durant Return to MVP Form?

The Rockets have properly built themselves into a contender this offseason, trimming fat, re-signing rostered players, inking new deals in free agency and, most importantly, trading for Kevin Durant.

Now, Houston enters the 2025-26 NBA season as one of the top teams in the league, with versatile stars and a built-out rotation that should be able to score and defend with the best of them. But the Rockets certainly won’t have an easy path to winning the West, and they’ll need Durant to continue his superstar-level play to make a splash.

In fact, the team may need him to find some semblance of his former MVP self. That would be a tall order for the soon-to-be 37-year-old, but not entirely out of the question given Houston’s roster construction.

For years, Durant was one of the best players in the league. Quite obviously the best in the 2013-14 season, where he brought home the Most Valuable Player Award with 32.0 points on 50% shooting. In five others seasons on either side of his award-winning seasons, he would finish top-five in MVP voting.

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant. — May 6, 2014; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant speaks after receiving the 2013-2014 MVP trophy at Thunder Events Center. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images | Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images

His third and final season with Golden State would signal a change in his career, as he suffered an Achilles injury in the 2019 Finals that would see him miss the entire 2019-20 season.

Since then, he’s played for Brooklyn and Phoenix, earning four All-Star bids with continued stellar scoring, but failing to finish higher than top-nine in MVP voting. And it makes sense, given his age and the infusion of new-age talent like Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards and plenty more into the league.

There’s little question if he’s on-court that Durant will make an impact for the Rockets. Across 62 games last season he continued to light up the stat sheet, going for 26.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.2 blocks per game. But his ascension back to the MVP stratosphere could put the Rockets in another tier entirely, and the team could be positioned to offer him just that.

The team is largely made up of play-makers and defenders, and sought Durant on the trade market for his offensive talents. While players like All-Star Alperen Sengun, Fred VanVleet and Amen Thompson can score with the best of them, they’re also largely facilitators. Additionally, the team has an extremely talented crops of defenders such as Thompson, Tari Eason, Jabari Smith Jr. and plenty more, which should offer some relief for Durant overall.

With defensive pressure taken off, and a team more than willing to share the load, Durant could very well see his best offensive season in years. And better output than his last few seasons — on what should be one of the top teams in the West — would likely land him in MVP conversations.

The superstar simply being healthy might just be enough for the Rockets to see real success this season. But his output in the early part of the season could be something to keep an eye on as award season nears.