Just over a week into the postseason, the Houston Rockets are already on the brink of elimination in their first-round series against the Los Angeles Lakers. As a result, some are starting to look toward the offseason and diving into what needs to be done or changed to become a legitimate championship contender.
Houston has a lot of those pieces in place, though former NBA player Jeff Teague believes what is desperately missing is a point guard who can create offense. While those can be hard to find, Teague specifically likes the idea of acquiring Kyrie Irving to reunite with Kevin Durant, adding another true bucket-getter to the mix.
“They gotta get a point guard, bro they gotta get some guys that can create. They need another dynamic player. They need a Kyrie bro, yeah they gotta go that far. They gotta go Rie Rie, yeah… You need an explosive guard that can make plays. Like buddy is good, the Thompson twin, but they back up so far off of him,”
The 34-year-old Irving missed the entirety of the 2025–26 season because of the torn ACL he suffered in March 2025. He averaged 24.7 PPG, 4.6 RPG, and 4.8 APG across 50 games played in 2024–25 prior to the injury.
Irving has two years remaining on the three-year, $118,473,846 extension he signed with the Dallas Mavericks last summer, which includes a player option after the 2026–27 campaign.
Durant and Irving, of course, spent parts of three seasons playing together on the Brooklyn Nets from 2020-21 through 2022-23. Injuries, off-court issues, and underperformance on the court at times ended the experiment, though both Durant and Irving have and still do rave about their love for one another, keeping the door open on teaming up again in the future.
It’s not over just yet for the Rockets, but in a typically insurmountable 3–0 series deficit, the organization has to begin weighing options like this in order to improve its roster for next season and beyond.
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