Through the never-ending turmoil surrounding the Brooklyn Nets over the last three seasons, Kevin Durant has been the main constant in the team's success night to night.

Entering the latter stage of his career while coming off a torn Achilles, Durant's workload has only increased throughout his time in Brooklyn. That trend has continued this season with the 12-time All-Star leading the league in minutes by a wide margin.

Despite the heavy workload, the former MVP is having one of the best starts in his career, averaging 29.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists while appearing in every game for the Nets. Durant's efficiency while shouldering the burden as Brooklyn's main source of offense has been a sight to see. The fourth-year Net leads the league in field goal percentage (55.3) among players attempting more than 17.5 shots per game.

While Durant's brilliance has the Nets climbing the Eastern Conference standings, his league-leading minutes load sticks out when assessing Brooklyn's long-term prospects. Head Coach Jacque Vaughn said Wednesday that the team has had lengthy discussions about Durant's heavy workload so early in the season.

“Yeah, it's priority number one in all honesty,” Vaughn said of scaling Durant's minutes back. “We looked at the short-term and long-term piece of it. There is vision going ahead of hopefully getting some of those minutes down.”

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The Houston Rockets invested heavily into Fred VanVleet during the 2023 offseason. Houston gave the point guard a three-year, $128 million deal in a move that was meant to turn the Rockets from a rebuilding team into a championship contending one. The signing did just that, as the Rockets finished the 2024-25 regular season as the two-seed in a stacked Western Conference. VanVleet was the veteran presence and 3-point shooter that the team desperately needed, and he still might have a role with the Rockets going forward. Houston has a team option on his contract for next year, and they very well may pick it up. The Wichita State product reportedly wants to stay in Houston, but the point guard would be set to make over $44 million next season under his current contract. The Rockets and their guard recently pushed back the deadline on Houston's decision with VanVleet, and although reports suggest that they are interested in writing up a new, long-term deal, it isn't necessarily a guarantee that VanVleet will be playing for Houston next year. The Rockets blew him away with an offer he couldn't refuse back in 2023, and another team could so the same when/if he hits the open market this offseason. If VanVleet does become an unrestricted free agent, which teams outside of Houston would make the most sense for him to sign with? 1. Orlando Magic Jalen Suggs and Franz Wagner recently signed big deals with the Orlando Magic, and Paolo Banchero will be getting a mega contract extension here soon. Because of that, the Magic no longer have money to blow like they have had in recent years. That will make a deal for another big ticket free agent hard to pull off, especially considering the team signed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope last year. If Orlando can make the money work, though, then Fred VanVleet would be a great fit with the Magic. The Magic finished dead last in 3-point shooting this season, and VanVleet has made at least 2.5 deep balls per game in every season since 2018-19. VanVleet can hit shots form behind the arc off of the bounce or in catch-and-shoot situations. The Rockets were heavily reliant on his shooting expertise, so the guard would have plenty of familiarity getting up deep shots with high volume if he signed with the Magic. While undersized, VanVleet is a pesky defender, so he'd fit right in with a Magic team that has one of the best defensive units in the league. VanVleet could play alongside Suggs and give opposing teams fits. Ultimately, though, the Magic just need more shooting to get to the next level, and VanVleet is arguably the best shooter who could be available on the open market this offseason. 2. Brooklyn Nets A more realistic option for a VanVleet destination would be the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets are set up to have the most cap space this offseason, and they have a major need at point guard. With D'Angelo Russell and De'Anthony Melton hitting free agency this offseason, the Nets don't have a true point guard under contract for next season. Brooklyn needs to spend big this offseason, and they'd be smart to offer VanVleet a contract big enough that he'd have no choice but to leave Houston. VanVleet averaged 14.1 points per game last season, which was his lowest mark since 2018-19. He is trending the wrong way, but he still has enough left in the tank to give the Nets a few good seasons. 3. Portland Trail Blazers In the same way that the Rockets were looking to take the next step in 2023, the Portland Trail Blazers could use VanVleet's presence to get over the hump. The Trail Blazers have plenty of big man depth, as centers Deandre Ayton, Donovan Clingan, Robert Williams, and Duop Death are all under contract next season. Portland also has a lot of wing depth. Deni Advija started to look like a star late this past season, Toumani Camara is an elite defender, Shaedon Sharpe is a freakish athlete, and Jerami Grant is a proven scorer. The team is thinner in the backcourt, though. Anfernee Simons is a solid scorer, but Scoot Henderson has looked like a fringe draft bust since being drafted third overall. Portland shouldn't give up on Henderson completely, but there wouldn't be any harm in signing another guard. Like the Magic, the Blazers were one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the NBA. VanVleet would improve that weakness, and in a stacked Western Conference, Portland needs all of the help they can get if they are to compete for a playoff spot.
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Ty Jerome Cavaliers
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Brooklyn sits three games back of third place in the East after winning seven of their last 10. The recent success comes with Ben Simmons missing the last three games and Yuta Watanabe missing the last eight. Both are expected to return to the lineup this weekend. T.J. Warren has also entered Brooklyn's rotation after making his debut in last Friday's win over Toronto.

Vaughn pointed to the additions when asked how the Nets plan to finally give Durant some rest.

“The fact that we’ll have more bodies to put in the game, more flexibility in what those bodies look like, small and big,” he said. “We haven’t seen Yuta, T.J., Kevin and Nic on the floor at the same time. So what does that look like? Does that decrease some of his minutes? The thought of more bodies back gives us more opportunities to give him relief.”

Brooklyn's reliance on Kevin Durant was evident during Sunday's 103-92 loss to the league-leading Celtics. The Nets mustered just 42 second-half points with Durant scoring 18 of them.

Vaughn's squad will look to gain some breathing room over .500 with reinforcements on the way. The Nets will close out a seven-game homestand against Charlotte and Atlanta before leaving for a four-game road trip this weekend.