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Kevin Durant missed Game 1 suddenly, then he missed the rest of the series after his lone appearance in Game 2 because of an ankle sprain. The Rockets won two games without their superstar, but the team was entirely too dependent on him, which made winning the series too tall of a mountain to climb. Houston had a good year with Durant in the mix—earning the fifth seed in the Western Conference and falling just two games shy of No. 3. But the Rockets were “way too reliant” on Durant, an anonymous NBA scout told Sports Illustrated. The good news is that reinforcements are coming. “Getting Fred VanVleet back will be big,” the scout said. “He's going to be better than Reed Sheppard was last year. Not that Sheppard was that bad, but, Fred's a better creator. He's a better paint threat guy off the dribble. He may not be a better catch-and-shoot three-point shooter, but he's more adept at getting it off in the pick-and-roll. So they have a couple guys that can set screens, especially if Steven Adams is healthy. So I think he'll be a weapon for them that they didn't have.”
Steven Adams on his future in the NBA: "Whether it's in the league or not, I just like playing basketball, so wherever that is. I've been looking after my body as much as I can because I mainly do it just for after basketball, so I can still be functional and not move around too bad. I'll play as long as I can. I just love it, the competition is so high. You get such a rush, there's nothing like it. You get to really get immediate feedback if you're good enough to beat a team."
Steven Adams on LeBron James' move to Philadelphia: "I don't really care too much. Just because it doesn't necessarily matter in that sense. Just because you have to just see how you are in the year. You have to come together. Even our team, we have to click, come together as a buy-in. New data comes out, do we have to change the play style? There's a lot of other variables. I mean, it's cool, but just for me, I'm just like, whoever's on the other team, cool. I have to worry about our team, how we're going to do."
Steven Adams on mentoring Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Sengun: "I just go the old school just bullying tactic. Just bully them. That's just fun. Especially the Turkish people, mate. Got to bully those guys. But no, it's been good, honestly, mentoring them and just seeing the growth. It is still exciting and just again, competing at that level and seeing the growth throughout the year, not just as an individual, but as a team."
Dave Rennie maintains he hasn’t yet decided who will captain the All Blacks, but he’s provided an insight into the process to pick his man. Back in New Zealand while his Japanese team on a bye, the new All Blacks coach revealed Kiwi NBA player Steven Adams had even been involved in the process. Adams, who plays for the Houston Rockets, was invited to a two-hour meeting with All Blacks greats Richie McCaw, Dan Carter and Keven Mealamu, and came armed with answers to questions sent by mental skills guru Gilbert Enoka.
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Between Two Beers Podcast: Steven Adams shares his incredible journaling technique to help quieten self doubt. "I write down exactly how I feel. Raw emotions. Whatever it is, the word, I'm just writing it down." "I imagine that as like a 10-year-old Steven. And then my response is an adult Steven."
Varun Shankar: Stone: "The offseason plan isn't, '[FVV/Adams are] coming back, it's fine.' "I think it's much more looking at our young guys and saying, 'You guys need to improve.'" Stone noted that the young guys showed improvement throughout the 25-26 season.
They've probably heard worse in their own locker room, the source said. Between Adams' off-color humor and Udoka's tough-love coaching, Houston's young core has developed relatively thick skin. Not to mention, the source explained, younger players are used to the pitfalls and perils of social media. "Good things came out of both those discussions," the source said. "They got s--- off their chest."
Interviews with team sources and those with knowledge of the team's operations reveal that the VanVleet injury, and the season-ending ankle injury to Steven Adams later on, impacted the team in ways that extended off the floor. Beyond the team's glaring lack of playmaking, their absences created a massive leadership void that Durant and the team struggled to fill.
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Durant was predictably brilliant on the court throughout the 2025-26 season, averaging 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists while playing in 78 games, but team sources said his "moodiness" took some getting used to and wore on the team's young players throughout the campaign, a dynamic that was exacerbated without VanVleet and Adams as buffers.
Steven Adams: “As of right now, yeah, just got three years, and then I’m just keeping my options open. So, obviously, all my family is in New Zealand and whatnot, and that’s where a lot of my farm is and stuff like that, so I’ve got a lot of ties back here. But then, yeah, there’s a few in America as well. So, yeah, we’ll see, bro.”
Do you have to be really careful on your chats and threads, what you’re saying? You have to, regardless of who you are. You’ve got to be careful. Yeah. But with your profile, right? Someone else can see it and take a screenshot of messages and get you in trouble. Is that a factor?” Steven Adams: “I think it’s a factor. There’s evidence of that, I think, but if you do some digging, it just really depends on who you look at. But yeah, typically, you’d want to be pretty careful. But, you know, depends on what you say, I guess.”
You played with and against some of the very best to ever play the sport, and it’s cool to hear stories about them. But I’m also keen to hear about some of the guys like Nick Collison, who barely averaged double figures his whole career, and yet OKC retired his number. What does it mean to be a player like that? What can you tell us about Nick?” Steven Adams: “Nick’s just an amazing human. He helped me out tremendously, especially with the X’s and O’s, the basketball side of it, but also the approach on how to think about the game. He kind of organized my thinking, just to be a bit more realistic and not too emotional. It’s an emotional game, but you have to be rational through it, and he was a very rational player. He helped me a lot with that stuff. He’s been consistent throughout his whole career, and his impact was crazy. The team would just do well when he was on the floor. Good things happened when Nick was on the floor. That’s basically how it works. Even though he’s not scoring or doing this and that, there are all these things where a breakdown will happen, and he’s always in the right position to help out. That’s what I’ve always admired about him. He’s always ready for the worst. It might happen once out of a hundred times, but he won’t let that fall. He’s the one who patches it.”
