Shams: Rockets, Kevin Durant optimistic about contract extension prior to season

Kevin Durant already made it clear at Houston’s Sept. 29 media day that he intends to sign a contract extension with the Rockets.

It’s simply a matter of when and how much. And we may not have to wait long to find out.

ESPN insider Shams Charania said this on Wednesday’s NBA Today television show:

The Rockets and Durant’s business manager and partner, Rich Kleiman, they’ve been in constant communication about a long-term contract extension.

He can sign a two-year extension, and I’m told there is optimism about a deal getting done before the start of the regular season.

Now 37 years old, Durant is currently under contract for just the 2025-26 season at $54.7 million, and he is eligible to sign a two-year deal (no more than that due to the NBA’s age-38 rule) for just above $120 million in total value.

But even though Durant remains an All-Star player, all indications are that the deal probably won’t be at the maximum amount.

For starters, if a maximum deal was on the table and Durant had already communicated his desire to extend (as he has), why wouldn’t it already be signed? Second, intel from earlier in the offseason were that Durant is open to taking a sub-max deal.

Finally, the Rockets are being cautious with future payrolls and attempting to avoid many of the punitive team-building restrictions placed on expensive teams under the NBA’s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). That is very important for a 2027-28 season in which rising star Amen Thompson will likely be on the books at a much higher salary.

For those reasons, it appears that at least some negotiations are taking place regarding the next Durant contract, and it won’t be as simple as general manager Rafael Stone giving him the maximum amount and years.

Whatever the case, it sounds as though we won’t have to wait very long to find out the end result. While there is no firm deadline and talks can theoretically drag into the regular season (in contrast to the Oct. 20 rookie-scale extension deadline for Tari Eason), it sounds like a Durant deal is inevitable and fairly imminent.

The regular season opens in less than two weeks on Tuesday, October 21.

The post Shams: Rockets, Kevin Durant optimistic about contract extension prior to season appeared first on ClutchFans.