Houston Rockets vs. Utah Jazz preseason game preview

Kevin Durant in action!

Summarized by AI ⓘ

What is the story about?

Tonight, Houston Rockets fans will finally get to see Kevin Durant play in a Rockets jersey.

The storylines here are endless. Besides the on-court aspects of bringing in a player that fills Houston’s largest need, there’s the beauty in bringing a University of Texas legend into the fold. KD also completes Houston’s quest to employ each of OKC’s original Big Three. Finally, his presence on the team spells the end of the rebuild. Last year’s Rockets squad forced the hand of Rafael Stone, and Houston spent

four seasons out of the playoffs before returning. There are a lot of teams that would kill for such a quick turnaround.

Speaking of, the Utah Jazz haven’t gone more than four seasons without playoff basketball. That’s mightily impressive, especially when you look at the factors that would seemingly hold them back. In addition to being a small market, they’re not a destination for free agents and have had to build their teams through the draft and trades. They’re currently in the “Let’s see what we have” phase of the rebuild, with Lauri Markkanen being the obvious best player on the team with lots of youth. Markkanen will probably be traded for Jonathan Kuminga despite Golden State’s protestations that they have no interest in trading Kuminga, and Danny Ainge will probably do it for a protected first despite playing hardball with every other team in his front office tenures.

Utah’s draft this year netted them Ace Bailey, Walter Clayton Jr., and John Tonje. Utah hasn’t played a preseason game yet so we don’t know exactly how Will Hardy will play this. What we do know is that for some reason, last year’s Utah Jazz played their best basketball against Houston (and no one else). Sometimes matchups make fights, I guess.

It won’t be long until these teams meet again. They play on November 30 and December 1 (Houston’s first back-to-back of the season), with both games in Salt Lake City.