Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant made his debut against the Utah Jazz. Troy Taormina / Imagn

Kevin Durant's long-awaited debut in a Houston Rockets uniform finally arrived Wednesday night, and the new-look Rockets were just as fascinating as expected with all the young talent they've put around the 15-time All-Star.

After sitting out Houston's preseason opener on Monday, Durant played 23 minutes and finished with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting en route to a 140-127 win over the Utah Jazz. In his first preseason action, Durant appeared to be in cruise control most of the night. That's to be expected for a player entering his 19th season as a pro.

After missing his first three shots of the night, Durant found his rhythm and knocked down his next seven field goal attempts before sitting out the entire fourth quarter. As impressive as his individual performance was, what stood out more was the effect his presence had on a Rockets team flooded with young talent.

Here are some of my takeaways from KD's Rockets debut:

The Rockets clearly didn't want to waste any time figuring out how to get their two best players working together.

During their first possession of the game, Houston ran an action that got Durant and All-Star center Alperen Şengün involved in a pick-and-roll. They went back to that two-man action multiple times throughout the night.

While Durant is capable of impacting the game from just about anywhere, he hasn't relied heavily on pick-and-roll as his go-to offensive action for most of his career. But playing next to a dominant center like Şengün -- and without starting point guard Fred VanVleet -- the star forward showed Wednesday that pick-and-rolls with him and Şengün could be one of the actions Houston leans on a lot this season.

First off, Durant has never played with a center who demands the attention Şengün does when he's involved in a ball screen. There were a number of times when Durant came off a Şengün screen, and it was fairly obvious the Jazz couldn't decide whether they should cut off Durant's drive or make sure they remained attached to Şengün.

When Durant ran actions like this in Phoenix, teams would happily allow him to toss the ball back to Jusuf Nurkić or Mason Plumlee at the top of the key. It won't be as easy for defenses to give Şengün that much space and freedom at the top of the key. He's too dangerous as a scorer and a passer.

The 23-year-old finished Wednesday's win with 13 points, five rebounds and 13 assists (one shy of tying his regular-season career-high).

Şengün's gravity will also play a factor when Houston puts the ball in his hands and allows him to operate as a giant point guard. In the third quarter, Houston ran an inverted pick-and-roll with Durant setting the screen for Şengün, and it pretty much broke Utah's defense.

It's going to be fascinating watching Durant and Şengün learn how to bring the most out of each other this season.

As beautiful as Houston's offense was when Durant and his new teammates figured things out, for the most part, this group looked fairly disjointed when it came time to run half-court sets.

Houston turned the ball over three times in the first three minutes of the game, and a lot of the mistakes stemmed from forcing passes to Durant instead of allowing the offense to flow naturally.

Some of those issues will get ironed out over time as the chemistry improves. Still, it's going to be essential for players like Reed Sheppard, Amen Thompson and Jabari Smith Jr. to play with confidence and not feel the need to defer to Durant all the time.

I wouldn't be overly concerned with this being a major, especially when it comes to Thompson. He had 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists in Wednesday's win, and he made at least three or four spectacular plays, slashing into the paint while Durant's defender stood and watched.

Still, with the spacing issues and lack of ball-handling this group may have to overcome, it'll be essential for the complementary pieces around Durant and Şengün to play with aggression and take advantage of the space defenses give them.

One of the players expected to benefit most from Durant's arrival on and off the court will be Smith, and Durant's influence on the court jumped out immediately with some of the plays Smith made early on.

With Durant, Şengün, Smith and Thompson in the starting lineup, teams will have to make some difficult decisions about how they'll match up defensively against Houston's massive starting lineup. After adding some muscle in the offseason and refining his in-between game, Smith should have opportunities to take advantage of mismatches when teams try to hide smaller players on him.

The key will be for him to be assertive when those moments arrive instead of just running to the corner and waiting for the ball.

On back-to-back possessions in the first quarter, Smith had 6-foot-4 combo guard Keyonte George guarding him in the open court. In both instances, Smith took George down to the low block and used his size to draw a foul.

These plays might not show up in the box score, but they put a ton of pressure on opposing defenses and make it difficult to find a hiding spot for some of the weak links on defense.

There will be a lot of eyes on Smith's shooting numbers and his success spacing the floor. Instead of getting caught up in his 3-point percentages, Smith should focus more on attacking when he has an advantage and forcing defenses to respect him as more than just a shooter.

Smith showed the different elements of his game against the Jazz, finishing with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting.

Although Smith's 3-point shooting won't be the end-all, be-all for Houston, there will be moments when the Rockets have to take advantage of defenses selling out to slow down its best players.

In particular, when Durant and Şengün are going to their two-man game, defenses will almost certainly send a third or even fourth defender over to clog the lane and make it difficult for them to operate.

During those moments, Houston will need guys like Sheppard, Smith, Eason or even Thompson to step into open shots and knock them down with confidence. Having VanVleet healthy and available would've made it much easier to envision how Houston can punish teams that try to defend him this way. But with much younger and much shakier shooters in these situations, teams will sell out in certain instances and force the other guys on the floor to beat them.

Here's a perfect example:

As Durant comes off the screen, the man "guarding" Houston's JD Davison is parked at the free-throw line waiting to cut off the drive. Houston guard Aaron Holiday is also spotted up in the corner, but his man basically has one foot in the paint in case he has to come over and help.

Durant makes the easy pass to Davison, and he clanks the 3-pointer. In this situation, Durant has to make the easy pass and the guy on the wing or in the corner has to take that shot with confidence. If the Rockets are going to focus a lot of the offense around Durant and Şengün working off each other, the other guys surrounding them have to punish teams that leave them alone.