TUCSON, Ariz. — Seven months after Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her Arizona home, a retired FBI agent says the ongoing investigation remains far from cold, describing law enforcement’s tight-lipped approach as a deliberate strategy rather than a sign the case has stalled.

Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, was last seen on the evening of Jan. 31, 2026, after family members dropped her off at her Catalina Foothills home near Tucson following dinner and a game night. She was reported missing the following day after failing to show up for a virtual church service with friends. Pima County investigators have said they believe Guthrie was taken against her will.

Scott Augenbaum, a retired FBI agent, told Tucson television station KOLD that the absence of regular public updates does not reflect inactivity on the part of investigators.

“This is by no means a cold case,” Augenbaum said. “A cold case is something that has been closed, it’s been put away … So in my opinion, this case is not closed at all. It’s still being held very tightly guarded by law enforcement, which I would expect at this point in time.”

Augenbaum said investigations of this nature can fall anywhere along a spectrum, from cases with genuinely no leads to those in which detectives already have a strong suspicion about who is responsible but must still build a case capable of surviving prosecution.

“There were cases where we didn’t really have any leads or anything like that and we just played that close,” Augenbaum said. “There were situations where we kind of had a really amazing idea. We knew who did it, but we had to build the case against that person. So it could be anywhere between those two things and somewhere in the middle.”

Augenbaum, drawing on his own experience at the bureau, said withholding updates until an arrest is made is standard practice, even when it frustrates the public.

“When I was with the FBI, you know, we didn’t tell anyone until we had a bad guy in handcuffs. We weren’t giving regular updates, and that drives a lot of people crazy,” he said.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has echoed that position. In a recent statement, the sheriff’s department said it “remains fully committed to the investigation into Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance,” describing it as “an active and ongoing investigation” being pursued in close coordination with the FBI. Officials said DNA and video analysis work continues with support from laboratories nationwide, and that tips are still being received and reviewed, adding that “advances in technology are aiding investigative efforts.”

The case has drawn sustained national attention, driven in part by Savannah Guthrie’s public profile and by a string of unusual developments. The FBI released doorbell footage showing a masked, armed individual outside Guthrie’s home around the time of her disappearance, and investigators later released two ransom notes that prompted a modest increase in tips, though no suspect has been publicly named.

In August, human remains were discovered in the desert roughly 15 miles from Guthrie’s home. Authorities said at the time there was no indication the remains were connected to her case.

The investigation has also produced an unrelated criminal case tied to the public attention surrounding Guthrie’s disappearance. Derrick Callella, 42, of Hawthorne, California, was sentenced Aug. 31 in federal court in Tucson after pleading guilty in July to two counts of harassment using a telecommunications device. Prosecutors said Callella, who was already out on bail in a separate overtime-fraud case at the time, sent a fake ransom demand to Guthrie’s daughter, Annie, and her son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, just days after Guthrie’s disappearance was reported. According to court records, Callella texted the family a message reading, “Did you get the bitcoin were waiting on our end for the transaction,” and separately placed a nine-second call to a family member.

Callella admitted in his plea agreement that he had been following news coverage of the case and was aware that an earlier ransom demand had already been made public, and that his messages were intended to harass the family by soliciting information about the investigation. U.S. District Judge John C. Hinderaker sentenced Callella to two five-year probation terms, to be served concurrently, along with a $200 special assessment and a requirement to report to a probation office within 72 hours. Callella had cited his methamphetamine addiction at the time of the offense, saying in court filings that it had “removed his inhibitions and his capacity for clear decision making.”

Local criminal defense attorney Louis Fidel, who was not involved in Callella’s case, said he hoped the sentence would deter similar conduct by others exploiting high-profile disappearances.

“You certainly hope that people see that and understand that to do something like that is a crime — it does hurt people, and it’s not something that people should do,” Fidel said.

Sheriff Nanos has separately warned that anyone found sending fraudulent ransom communications in connection with the case will face serious consequences.

“The FBI takes these notes extremely seriously,” Nanos said. “They track them down, and if they find it to be fraudulent, they don’t just put it aside; they will arrest you.”

Despite the Callella sentencing and the discovery of unrelated human remains in the desert, investigators have not publicly identified a suspect or announced a breakthrough in Guthrie’s disappearance itself. Savannah Guthrie has continued to publicly appeal for information, writing on Instagram in early August, “We are begging for help. We are desperate. We need someone to come forward,” and has offered a $1 million reward on top of other reward money tied to the case.

As the investigation moves further past the seven-month mark, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department has continued to withhold a formal press conference on the case until investigators have a significant development to share, leaving the Guthrie family, and the broader public that has closely followed the case, to continue waiting for answers.

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BEERSHEBA, Israel — An international team of physicists, including Nobel Prize-winning physicist Sir Roger Penrose, has directly observed a long-predicted effect of gravity on a falling quantum object for the first time, offering new experimental evidence that Einstein’s theory of gravity remains consistent with the strange behavior of matter at the quantum scale.

The study, led by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the University of Ulm and the University of Oxford, was published Sept. 2 in the journal Science Advances. The research probes one of the most persistent unresolved questions in modern physics: how quantum mechanics, which explains the behavior of atoms and other tiny particles, fits together with Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which explains how gravity shapes the motion of objects and the structure of the universe.

At the center of the experiment is Einstein’s equivalence principle, a foundational element of his theory of gravity, which holds that for an observer in free fall, gravity should locally disappear. A person falling freely inside an elevator, for example, would experience apparent weightlessness. While that principle has withstood extraordinarily precise tests using ordinary matter, physicists had not previously found a way to test it directly using quantum objects, which can behave as waves and effectively travel along multiple paths simultaneously.

To test the principle at the quantum level, researchers built a new apparatus they call the Quantum Galileo Interferometer. The device allowed the team to split the quantum wave associated with an individual atom into two separate paths, holding one path stationary while allowing the other to fall freely under gravity, before reuniting the two paths to measure how the falling wave had changed relative to the stationary one.

The experiment was carried out at Ben-Gurion University using clouds of rubidium atoms cooled to just above absolute zero and manipulated near the surface of a specially designed atom chip. Researchers, including Ph.D. student Or Dobkowski, first used microwave pulses to place the ultracold atoms into a quantum superposition, effectively allowing each atom to exist along two different paths simultaneously. Tiny electrical wires embedded in the chip then generated precisely controlled magnetic fields, with one portion of the atomic wave responding to that field in a way that produced an upward force exactly counteracting the downward pull of gravity, effectively holding it stationary relative to the laboratory and Earth.

The second portion of the wave was pushed upward using a precisely controlled magnetic pulse, then switched into a state largely unaffected by the magnetic field, allowing it to fall freely under gravity along a ballistic trajectory, similar to the arc of a ball thrown into the air. At the end of the fall, researchers used another carefully controlled magnetic pulse to bring the two separated portions of the wave back together. When reunited, the two waves interfered with one another, allowing researchers to measure the tiny difference in quantum phase that had accumulated between the falling portion and the stationary portion during the experiment.

That measured phase matched precisely what physicists had predicted would occur if Einstein’s equivalence principle applies to a quantum wave. While previous experiments have used quantum particles to measure the effects of gravity in other ways, researchers say this marks the first direct measurement of the specific quantum phase predicted for a freely falling object.

Ron Folman, a professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the study’s lead author, described the significance of combining a difficult physical experiment with a question central to the deepest unresolved issues in physics.

“This is a unique paper, in the sense that it combines a hard experiment with a far-reaching theoretical interpretation about one of the most fundamental questions in physics: How can gravity, described by Einstein’s theory of relativity, and quantum theory be unified into one understanding of the universe?” Folman said. “These two pillars of modern physics have so far eluded all attempts at a unified theoretical framework, but this complex experiment gives more hints as to how such a unification may be achieved.”

Study co-author Vlatko Vedral, a professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford, emphasized that the result adds to a long track record of quantum mechanics holding up under increasingly demanding experimental tests.

“We have no consistent theory telling us why quantum physics should fail,” Vedral said. “This experiment pushes quantum mechanics into one of its most intriguing frontiers, gravity, and shows that, once again, its predictions hold.”

Researchers were careful to clarify the limits of what the experiment demonstrates. The result does not unify quantum mechanics and gravity into a single theoretical framework, nor does it prove that gravity itself behaves as a quantum phenomenon. Instead, it shows that Einstein’s equivalence principle remains consistent with quantum mechanics within the specific conditions the experiment was able to test.

The findings also do not overturn a separate theoretical argument previously advanced by study co-author Sir Roger Penrose of the University of Oxford, suggesting that quantum mechanics could potentially break down for sufficiently massive objects held in quantum superposition for long enough periods of time. The current experiment did not involve objects massive enough, or superposition states held for long enough durations, to directly test that particular hypothesis. Researchers say they hope the techniques developed for this experiment will serve as a stepping stone toward future experiments involving significantly heavier objects, including nanodiamonds, that could eventually probe Penrose’s proposed limits on quantum superposition. Such a follow-up experiment is reportedly already underway within the same research group at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

The broader international research effort behind the study included scientists from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the University of Oxford, the University of Southampton, the German Aerospace Center, the Institute of Quantum Technologies in Ulm, Universität Ulm, and Texas A&M University.

The research adds to a growing body of experimental work probing the boundary between quantum mechanics and gravity, an area physicists have long regarded as one of the most significant unresolved frontiers in the field, given the profound theoretical difficulty of reconciling Einstein’s smooth, continuous description of spacetime with the fundamentally probabilistic, wave-like behavior that governs particles at the quantum scale. While Wednesday’s findings stop well short of resolving that broader challenge, researchers involved in the study said the experiment represents a meaningful incremental step toward better understanding how, and under what conditions, the two foundational pillars of modern physics ultimately connect.

SAN FRANCISCO — A growing number of prominent figures within Elon Musk’s personal and professional orbit have been directing significant financial resources toward psychedelic therapeutics companies, part of a broader push to move drugs like MDMA and psilocybin from the fringes of medicine into mainstream mental health treatment.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the trend reflects a convergence of personal enthusiasm and financial investment among a small but influential group of billionaires and executives connected to Musk, several of whom have spoken publicly about their own experiences with psychedelics or their belief in the drugs’ therapeutic potential.

Antonio Gracias, a longtime Musk ally, former Tesla board director and adviser to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative, has emerged as one of the most active figures in the space. Gracias made a bid earlier this year to acquire a controlling stake in Lykos Therapeutics, the pharmaceutical company formerly known as MAPS Public Benefit Corp. that has been working to bring MDMA-assisted therapy to market for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. According to Psychedelic Alpha, Gracias has since been joined in that effort by Sir Christopher Hohn, the British hedge fund manager who leads TCI Fund Management, one of the largest hedge funds in the world with more than $60 billion in assets under management.

Gracias’s involvement in the space reportedly began with a chance meeting at Burning Man with Rick Doblin, founder and president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, the nonprofit research and advocacy organization that originally spun off Lykos Therapeutics as its for-profit pharmaceutical arm. That connection took on added significance after Lykos suffered a significant setback in 2024, when the Food and Drug Administration denied the company’s application to market MDMA for PTSD treatment, citing inadequate clinical trial data.

Beyond his interest in Lykos specifically, Gracias has also directed philanthropic resources toward academic research in the field. In 2023, the Gracias Family Foundation gifted funds to Harvard University to establish a program dedicated to the Study of Psychedelics in Society and Culture, reflecting an effort to build institutional credibility for the field beyond purely commercial drug development.

Gracias is far from the only figure in Musk’s broader circle with financial exposure to the psychedelics industry. PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel is a major investor in Atai Life Sciences, a biotechnology company that itself holds a significant stake in Compass Pathways, a company focused on developing psilocybin-based therapies for treatment-resistant depression. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who has reportedly discussed his own use of psychedelic mushrooms, has helped fund Soneira, a startup developing psychedelic treatments based on ibogaine, a compound derived from the iboga plant that has drawn increasing research interest for its potential in treating addiction and other conditions. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has also discussed his own experiences with psychedelics helping him manage anxiety and has separately invested in psychedelic therapy companies.

Musk himself has been notably open about his views on psychedelics over the years, expressing public support for the drugs’ potential therapeutic value even as he has also publicly disclosed using ketamine, a related dissociative compound, under a prescription he has said he uses to manage depression. Musk has previously argued publicly that societal attitudes toward psychedelics are likely to shift as younger generations move into positions of political influence, a view he articulated during a 2021 interview, saying he believes people should generally be open to psychedelics and that lawmakers from an earlier era will gradually be replaced by those more receptive to the drugs’ potential benefits.

The broader psychedelics investment landscape has continued expanding well beyond Musk’s immediate circle. Venture capital fund Palo Santo closed a $50 million fund dedicated specifically to backing emerging psychedelic therapeutics companies, with the fund currently maintaining a portfolio spanning more than 20 companies across the broader psychedelics ecosystem. Palo Santo co-founder Tim Schlidt has framed the fund’s mission in terms of addressing a growing global mental health crisis through what he and other backers view as a coming shift in the standard of care.

“Against the backdrop of a growing global mental health crisis, our mission is to drive clinical development and FDA approval of these much-needed therapies that we believe will become the future standard of care,” Schlidt said.

Julie Holland, a physician and adviser to the Palo Santo fund, echoed that sense of urgency around funding.

“It’s crucial that the most promising companies and therapies receive the funding needed to advance psychedelic medicines through clinical trials in a timely manner, and I am proud to be part of a team of experts who share that same goal,” Holland said.

The renewed institutional and celebrity interest in psychedelics comes amid a broader cultural shift in how the drugs are perceived, following decades in which they remained largely relegated to underground or purely recreational use following their prohibition in the 1970s. Oregon and Colorado, along with several U.S. cities, have moved to decriminalize psilocybin, the active compound found in so-called magic mushrooms, with Oregon going further to legalize its supervised use. Pharmaceutical companies have also found commercial success with related compounds already approved for medical use; Johnson & Johnson’s nasal esketamine treatment, Spravato, became the company’s fastest-growing product at one point, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in sales within a single nine-month period.

Despite the growing enthusiasm and capital flowing into the sector, the regulatory path for psychedelic-assisted therapies remains far from settled, as illustrated by the FDA’s 2024 rejection of Lykos Therapeutics’ MDMA application. That setback has not deterred figures like Gracias and Hohn from continuing to pursue investment in the company, betting that additional clinical trial data and continued advocacy could eventually clear the path toward regulatory approval.

With billionaires spanning the technology, finance and artificial intelligence industries now directing substantial personal wealth toward psychedelic drug development, alongside dedicated venture funds like Palo Santo building out broader portfolios across the sector, the psychedelics industry appears positioned to continue attracting significant capital in the years ahead, even as questions remain about how quickly, and how thoroughly, these compounds can move from high-profile private investment interest into broadly accessible, FDA-approved medical treatments.

Former NBA player Terrence Ross has reignited one of basketball’s most enduring debates, arguing that Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving possesses more raw basketball talent than Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, even while ultimately naming Curry the greater overall player.

Ross made the comments during a recent appearance on the “Players Choice” show, where he was asked to choose between the two guards.

“I’m gonna say Steph,” Ross said. “But I will say this: I think Kyrie is definitely more talented in a sense of him as a basketball player. We all know Steph is relying on that three, hell or high water, and because he’s goated at it, it’s nothing you can do. But Kyrie, bro, I’ve never seen a dude … I played against Kyrie. He had 60 points, bro. He ain’t even played the whole fourth.”

Ross, who spent 11 seasons in the NBA, was referring to a game between his Orlando Magic and the Brooklyn Nets on March 15, 2022. Irving, then playing for the Nets, scored a career-high 60 points on 20-of-31 shooting from the field in just 35 minutes, and could have finished with an even higher total had he not been subbed out with 8 minutes, 32 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.

Ross went on to describe the specific style of that scoring outburst, contrasting Irving’s shot-creation ability with Curry’s reliance on catch-and-shoot three-point shooting.

“And it was one of the hardest 60s,” Ross said. “If Curry gonna get 60 or 50, he’s gonna hit 11 threes, and it’s gonna be quick. He gonna catch and shoot it, bow. Kyrie is gonna be like, walking the ball up, iso, pick-and-roll … And it’s annoying, bro.”

Ross recalled a specific sequence from that game in which Irving scored directly over former NBA center Mo Bamba, who is widely regarded as having the longest wingspan in league history.

“I seen him go up against Mo Bamba. He had the longest wingspan in the history of the game, bro,” Ross said. “He goes up at Mo with the right, hits him in the chest, and then scoops it to his left, and then just finishes it. And I’m just like, ‘Yeah, it’s just one of them nights. We can’t do s***.’ We throwing double teams at him. He essentially turning the double team into another pick-and-roll and just going off the slower dude and just fading s***. So, I’m just like, there’s nothing we could do, bro.”

Ross’s comments echo similar praise Irving has received throughout his career from other current and former players. Kevin Durant, who played alongside both Irving and Curry at different points in his career, has previously described Irving as capable of doing anything imaginable with a basketball, often citing him as the most skilled offensive player he has ever shared a court with.

Despite acknowledging Irving’s exceptional individual skill, Ross ultimately said he would still choose Curry when forced to pick the better overall player, pointing to the tangible difference in team success and individual accolades between the two.

“So, I see him do wild s***,” Ross said of Irving. “But at the end of the day, bro, what Steph got like 4,000 threes and four championships, two MVPs, one of them unanimous. I would have to go Steph.”

Curry, 38, remains widely regarded as the greatest three-point shooter in NBA history, though his overall game extends well beyond that specific skill, including a strong ball-handling ability and effective finishing at the rim, qualities Ross suggested often get overlooked given how dominant Curry’s shooting has become as his signature trait.

Curry’s career résumé significantly outpaces Irving’s by traditional team and individual honors. The 12-time All-Star has won four NBA championships, one Finals MVP award, two regular-season MVP awards and two scoring titles over the course of his career. Curry remains the only player in NBA history to win the MVP award unanimously, a feat he accomplished during the 2015-16 season. Irving, by contrast, has never received a single MVP vote throughout his career, despite being widely regarded by many players and analysts as one of the most individually skilled offensive talents the league has ever produced.

Irving, 34, has built his own decorated career since entering the league, winning an NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 as part of the team’s historic comeback from a 3-1 deficit against the Warriors in the NBA Finals. He has earned nine All-Star selections over the course of his career and has frequently been described by teammates, opponents and analysts as possessing one of the deepest offensive skill sets, sometimes described as a “bag,” in the history of the sport, reflecting his ability to score in a wide variety of ways against nearly any defensive scheme or individual defender.

The Curry-versus-Irving talent debate has persisted for years within basketball circles, often centering on the distinction Ross drew between individual offensive skill and overall team-level impact and accolades. Analysts and former players who favor Irving in pure skill-based comparisons typically point to his exceptional ball-handling, finishing creativity and ability to consistently create difficult shots against tight, well-schemed defenses, as illustrated by the 60-point performance Ross referenced. Those who favor Curry, even while acknowledging Irving’s individual talent, generally point to Curry’s unprecedented shooting efficiency at scale, his broader offensive gravity that reshapes how opposing defenses are forced to operate, and his significantly more decorated championship and individual award history.

Ross retired from the NBA in 2023 after an 11-season career that included stints with the Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns, among other teams. His comments add to an ongoing conversation among current and former players about how to properly weigh pure individual skill against overall career achievement and team success when evaluating and comparing two of the most stylistically distinct and individually accomplished guards of their generation.

HOUSTON — The Houston Rockets have secured the long-term future of their young core, locking up 23-year-old guard Amen Thompson with a five-year, $208 million contract extension, a move that drew an emphatic reaction from veteran teammate Kevin Durant.

According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, Thompson agreed to the rookie-scale extension on Sept. 3, with the deal including a 10% trade kicker and running through the 2031-32 season. The Rockets later officially announced the agreement.

Durant, who saw the news announced on social media, responded on his Instagram Story with a direct message aimed at his younger teammate.

“Don’t wanna hear a word; everything on twin all year,” Durant wrote over an ESPN graphic announcing the extension.

Thompson earned the significant financial commitment following the best statistical season of his young career. During the 2025-26 season, Thompson averaged 18.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 53.4% from the field and starting all 79 games he appeared in. He also led the entire NBA in total minutes played over the course of the season.

Thompson’s production placed him among an elite statistical group last season. He was one of just nine players in the league to average at least 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists, joining a list that includes Alperen Sengun, Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Scottie Barnes, Jalen Johnson, Paolo Banchero and Giannis Antetokounmpo, with Thompson standing as the youngest player to reach that statistical threshold.

Rockets general manager Rafael Stone addressed the significance of the extension in the team’s official announcement, pointing specifically to Thompson’s development and two-way impact on the roster.

“Amen represents everything we want our organization to be about,” Stone said, adding that Thompson has improved “in every facet of his game.”

Thompson’s new deal comes as part of a broader pattern of the Rockets locking up their young core over the past two seasons. Houston has now reached multiyear contract extensions with Thompson, Sengun, Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason, giving the franchise financial cost certainty around its core rotation players for at least the next several seasons, until Sengun reaches a player option in his own contract that he can exercise for the 2029-30 season.

Thompson becomes only the second player from the 2023 NBA Draft class to sign a rookie-scale extension, joining San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama. Several other players from that same draft class remain eligible for extensions but have not yet reached agreements with their respective teams, including Charlotte’s Brandon Miller, Detroit’s Ausar Thompson, Utah’s Keyonte George, Oklahoma City’s Cason Wallace and Milwaukee’s Jaime Jaquez Jr.

Under the terms of Thompson’s previous rookie contract, he was set to earn $12.3 million during the 2026-27 season, with that figure rising sharply to $35.8 million in 2027-28. Notably, that 2027-28 salary would have matched what his former Rockets teammate Jalen Green is currently earning, despite Thompson having been drafted two years after Green. Green, who was traded to the Phoenix Suns last summer as part of the deal that brought Durant to Houston, reacted to news of Thompson’s extension on social media with a heart emoji.

Durant’s own contract situation with the Rockets adds additional context to his reaction. Before last season, Durant agreed to a two-year, $90 million extension with Houston that included a player option for the 2027-28 season, a deal widely characterized as a pay cut relative to what Durant could likely have commanded on the open market, one made specifically to help give the Rockets additional financial flexibility to reward their emerging young core with extensions of their own, including Thompson’s new deal.

Durant joined the Rockets last summer in a blockbuster trade that sent Green to the Suns in return. Since arriving in Houston, Durant and Thompson have developed what has been described as a close working relationship and mutual admiration, with Thompson reportedly viewing Durant’s arrival, and the scoring attention Durant draws from opposing defenses, as an opportunity to further sharpen his own defensive game.

Despite Thompson’s clear offensive and defensive growth, some analysts have identified his outside shooting as the most significant area still requiring development. Thompson shot just 21.6% from three-point range last season, with the majority of his made field goals coming on dunks and finishes near the basket rather than perimeter shots.

Former NBA player Joe Johnson, appearing on the Night Cap podcast with Shannon Sharpe, was direct in describing the priority Thompson should place on his jump shot heading into the offseason.

“All he should be doing is putting up jump shots, you know, this summer,” Johnson said. “I mean, because look, that tells me one thing. The Houston Rockets really believe that he is like that. You know, invest that type of money into you. Come on, bro. You got to develop this jumper. They’re going to need that.”

The Rockets have taken steps to address that specific area of Thompson’s game, hiring a new shooting coach in July who is expected to work closely with Thompson on refining his jump shot heading into the coming season.

Durant’s own experience during his first season in Houston highlighted the stakes tied to Thompson’s shooting development. Opposing teams frequently sent double-teams at Durant in crucial situations last season, in part because they were comfortable leaving Thompson open as a kickout option in the paint, given his limited perimeter shooting threat at the time.

Should Thompson and the Rockets’ new shooting coach make meaningful progress on that specific weakness, and should Durant continue mentoring Thompson on navigating those defensive coverages, analysts have suggested the Rockets’ overall offensive ceiling could rise significantly. With Thompson, Sengun, Smith and Eason all now under contract for multiple additional seasons alongside Durant, Houston enters the 2026-27 campaign with one of the more financially secure young cores in the league, giving the franchise, which has won 52 games in each of the past two seasons, a clear runway to continue building around its emerging star group in the years ahead.