Suns insider pours cold water on Kevin Durant being traded to West rival

The Phoenix Suns have taken an important step in bouncing back to contention already this offseason, with the hiring of a new head coach in Jordan Ott. It remains a worrying mystery how he is going to shape the team in his vision - but when you consider how the last two veterans hires have done in The Valley - it feels like a refreshing change of pace.

The next order of business will be trading Kevin Durant, with Suns' owner Mat Ishbia saying in the past that if this were to happen, he would work with the 36-year-old to find a solution that suited everybody. This is why Durant didn't end up with the Golden State Warriors at the trade deadline, despite the Suns being up for the idea if it meant they could trade for Jimmy Butler.

Durant's links to Houston Rockets have been greatly overblown.

Another organization that has been linked with Durant since their own playoff adventure ended in the opening round - at the hands of Butler and the Warriors - are the Houston Rockets. This makes a ton of sense, they have plenty of young players the Suns should have interest in, as well as a bevvy of draft picks which also include some belonging to the Suns.

That loss to the Warriors also highlighted the painful lack of a closer for the Rockets - and as Tyrese Haliburton is showing us on a near nightly basis at this point with the Indiana Pacers - one of those can take you far with the right supporting cast. From Durant's perspective, he played his college ball in Texas and right now the Rockets are a safer postseason bet than the Suns.

But according to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports, there have been no talks beween the Rockets and Suns on this matter since the trade deadline. We now know that in February Houston wasn't the only interested party in Durant's services either - the New York Knicks very much entered the chat - but Gambadoro is likely onto something here.

Quite how reliable a source he is regarding the Suns is a divisive subject, but there is no doubt he gets some things right and he does have sources. There is also no denying that the franchise was looking for a head coach from the moment the regular season came to an end, and it would make no sense to field calls on Durant until they knew the direction of the team.

Now that Ott - as well as General Manager Brian Gregory - are in place, attentions should be turning to how to reshape the roster around Devin Booker. The Rockets will likely remain one of the teams who are going to enquire about Durant, for all of the reasons already highlighted above. But the supposed lack of constant contact since the deadline means they don't have a headstart here.

Working against the Rockets here - if they plan on building a long-term winner anyway - is that Durant is being viewed as a one-year rental around the league right now. Entering the final year of his current deal, how could he not be? They might not feel like their time is coming next season - or that they can convince him to stick around beyond that - which could scare them off altogether.