{"id":151315,"date":"2025-07-21T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T10:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=151315"},"modified":"2025-07-21T00:17:55","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T04:17:55","slug":"rockets-amen-thompson-kevin-durant-teammup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/21\/rockets-amen-thompson-kevin-durant-teammup\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockets Hot Shot Expects to Reap Rewards Playing with Kevin Durant"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0<\/span>Houston Rockets<\/span><\/a>\u00a0were bound to enter the upcoming 2025-26 NBA season as a favourite to challenge for a top seed in the Western Conference again, following up on a similar accomplishment achieved last season. However, shipping away\u00a0<\/span>Jalen Green<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Dillon Brooks<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0<\/span>Kevin Durant<\/span><\/a>\u00a0almost assuredly didn’t only make the Rockets a top seed favourite, but <\/span>also likely propelled them into legitimate contenders<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to emerge from the West altogether. One player who will be in the spotlight for another Houston run is Rockets guard\u00a0<\/span>Amen Thompson<\/span><\/a>, who recently expressed his excitement about playing alongside Durant and hopes his game will be all the better for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rockets Hot Shot Expects to Reap Rewards Playing with Kevin Duran<\/h2>\n

Houston Rockets’ Amen Thompson is more than ready to team up with NBA champion Kevin Durant<\/h3>\n

Durant may be about to enter his 18th season in the NBA, but he certainly hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down. Durant is as reliable an offensive threat, even more so now, as he was back in his Oklahoma City Thunder days. He remains a sure-fire bucket machine every night, and his defense is still fairly solid for someone in their 18th season. He draws the best defenders, can read defenses like the best of them, and he’s one of the most brilliant offensive forces the NBA has ever seen. It’s for these reasons, and many more given Durant’s experience and skill set, that make Thompson eager to play with him.<\/p>\n

During the Summer League<\/span><\/a>\u00a0recently,\u00a0<\/span>Thompson chatted with Vanessa Richardson of Space City Home Network<\/span><\/a>\u00a0while supporting Houston’s squad, where he spoke about his excitement to play alongside Durant, and praised the two-time champion for his greatness, while also speaking of the work ethic he and Durant bring to the table.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to make my life a lot easier. <\/em>He\u2019s one of the greatest players ever, one of the best scorers ever. \u2026 Definitely going to be passing it to him a lot. They\u2019re going to be double teaming him, so I\u2019m going to be cutting off the back of it,” <\/em>Thompson continued, \u201cI just hear his work ethic is different. I feel like I have a different work ethic, too. Combining that, I think it\u2019s gonna be fun.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Houston’s young talent in enviable position playing with Durant<\/h3>\n

While Durant was brought in to help push Houston over the top and compete for a title right away, there’s also a massive opportunity for the Rockets’ young players to watch and learn from Durant along the way. Thompson isn’t the only talented young player on Houston’s roster. Others, like\u00a0<\/span>Tari Eason<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Reed Sheppard<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Jabari Smith Jr.<\/span><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/span>Alperen \u015eeng\u00fcn, will<\/span><\/a> also have a front-row seat to Durant’s incredible game.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Houston
May 2, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Houston Rockets forward Amen Thompson (1) dribbles the ball next to Golden State Warriors forward Kevon Looney (5) in the second quarter of game six of the first round for the 2025 NBA Playoffs at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Thompson, though, considering that his place in the starting lineup is likely solidified for years to come, running with Durant can only benefit his development all the more as he enters his third season. Thompson has crashed onto the NBA scene, and his substantial improvement last year has placed him on many lists as a future star in the league.<\/p>\n

What exactly he will take from Durant will be exciting to watch once the season kicks off and progresses. Regardless, Thompson will be able to light up his offensive game alongside Durant. At least, according to his own assessment, that’s exactly what he’s hoping for.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9 Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9 Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Houston Rockets\u00a0were bound to enter the upcoming 2025-26 NBA season as a favourite to challenge for a top seed in the Western Conference again, following up on a similar accomplishment achieved last season. However, shipping away\u00a0Jalen Green\u00a0and\u00a0Dillon Brooks\u00a0for\u00a0Kevin Durant\u00a0almost assuredly didn’t only make the Rockets a top seed favourite, but also likely propelled them into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5081,"featured_media":151316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1608,31,62],"tags":[4293,4703,772,49820,3256,69,49134,4475],"class_list":["post-151315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-basketball","category-rockets","category-nba","tag-alperen-sengun","tag-amen-thompson","tag-dillon-brooks","tag-jabari-smith-jr","tag-jalen-green","tag-kevin-durant","tag-reed-sheppard","tag-tari-eason"],"modified_by":"Aaron J Zacharias","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151315"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151321,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151315\/revisions\/151321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}