FIRST TAKE | Is Kevin Durant or Damian Lillard likely to win NBA Finals title?- Stephen A. weighs in

FIRST TAKE | Is Kevin Durant or Damian Lillard likely to win NBA Finals title?- Stephen A. weighs in

What’s going on everyone welcome into first take thank you for being with us I’m Molly Kum that is Stephen A Smith hello hello hello we got Kendrick Perkins and Brian windhorse gracing your screen as well morning fellas morning what’s going on Molly what’s UPA what’s up y’all what’s up how

Y’all doing happy Thursday happy Thursday let’s go it’s Friday Eve perk it’s Friday Eve let’s get the energy right okay uh the theme of the night in the NBA last night it was homecomings folks Kevin Durant and the suns were in Brooklyn facing his former team the Nets

Where Phoenix took care of business in a 16-point win another day in the office for KD dropping 335 and8 meanwhile Damen Lillard made his much anticipated return to Portland but the Bucks got the short end of the stick falling to the Trailblazers by three despite Dame

Putting up 25 six and seven here’s Dame on his return to the city he spent his entire career I just felt appreciated you know um I think that’s what it comes down to you just feel the appreciation and the love um you know and I just kind of stood in it it was

Like man this is uh this is a big deal you know um you know just to take that moment and to to have everybody in the building just show me that type of love it’s um acknowledgement of a lot of things you know during my time here so I

Appreciated it um that was it all right perk more likely to win the title than season would you go Lillard or Durant M my honest answer is neither but since I have to pick between the two I’m going with li in the Milwaukee Bucks here’s the thing about the Phoenix Suns

Okay I understand they had a a win last night against a Brooklyn Nest team that’s completely filled with role players okay but when it comes down to the Suns you look at them and they have identity crisis nerkish don’t show up every night he doesn’t anchor the

Defense like you want him to and I’m looking at the Bradley Bill Bradley Bill right now his body language because he’s not involved with the offense when I think about this big three they’re top heavy for a reason and in order for them to win a title Bradley Bill is going to

Have to be more involved with this offense and more involved with the system now on the other hand you look at the Eastern conference with the uncertainty of Joel and B and his health status I believe that the Milwaukee Buck now K has the upper hand over the 76ers

Right Boston is clearly the better team but it Slims down the the teams that are in the East for them to compete against I have the Knicks ahead of them but they still could beat the Nicks in the seven game series so I have to get a slight

Edge to Dame Dollar in the Milwaukee Bucks when it comes down to who’s most likely to win the title yeah the answer is Dame because he’s got Giannis I mean everything the perk say said is true as he’s looking at the two sides um and even though the

Bucks are not playing very well and now their lead on the Knicks for that two seed is down to a single game and they’re still out on the west coast it’s going to be a rough go for them they by the end of the weekend they could lose

That lead you the Bucks have been great at home and they have Giannis um the fascinating thing about what’s going on with the Suns first off I don’t think the sun’s best chance to win the title is going to be this year I think it’ll

Be next year when they have a chance to get some some time under their belt and a chance to work on this to work on this roster but the the interesting thing about this you could almost Molly you could almost write a book about what’s happened to Kevin Durant in his career

With rule changes and the rule changes in this CBA which came in just really a few weeks after he was traded to the Suns have really handicapped this team they’ve there all these rules that were put in that were being negotiated that they didn’t know were going to be in

Place when they did that deal that is aimed at restricting super teams and now the Suns have very little maneuverability to improve this team either at the deadline next week or next summer and so really the only their only chance to to get there is for these

Three guys be Booker and Durant to become a Powerhouse together and they don’t have the Reps to do it and it’s fascinating because this is the third time in Durant’s career where rule changes that he wasn’t involved with have had a huge effect on him when he

Was at Oklahoma City they put in the luxury tax he got a phone call one day and said hey KD guess what you’re making $3 million more this year I hope you enjoy it one of the strangest things that’s happened in the NBA in the last 15 years

They increased his salary uh as part of the negotiation the the the Thunder were over over their spending limits and they had to trade James Harden then in 2016 famously the cap Spike where the union decided not to phase in the new TV money and all of a sudden Durant was able to

Go to a 73 win team he obviously benefited from that so while we count rings and analyze stuff and say who’s going to win the next one I’m here to tell you that the the rule changes have been just as big on Durant’s career as anything

Else I’m going to go in the opposite direction fellas and here’s the reason why it’s by default I know that both of y’all are right none of us have either of them winning the championship this year we get all of that and and KP you’re absolutely right if we got to

Pick amongst one of the teams um we’re not saying that either one of these guys are going to win the championship when you talk about the best chance I’m going to roll with the Phoenix Sun in this particular situation it’s by default because the Milwaukee Bucks look awful

It’s just that simple last night they lost to a 15 and 33 team just call it what it is um and even though Doc Rivers has just gotten there and I have no doubt that he’s going to improve the team defensively they just don’t seem to have that level of synergy let’s let’s

Go away from Giannis and D for a second and look at Chris Middleton and where he’s going to be and how he has looked look at Brook Lopez and how he has looked look at Bobby Porter compared to how he’s looked in the past compared to

How he’s looking right now look at the absent of Grayson Allen obviously look at the absence of Drew holiday and I think that when you look at the Eastern Conference like you said KP before the New York Knicks have elevated I think that Joel embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers are just prioritizing

Making sure that this brother’s going to be healthy for the playoffs and I believe in Maxi because you don’t have the Harden distraction that’s going to go that’s going to come into the mix for the Philadelphia 76ers I think the energy will be there I think their focus

Will be there I think the coaching of Nick nurse would help they’ve increased in Pace of play in terms of speeding up and what they could do I think that there are impediments to the success of the Milwaukee Bucks based on how the Milwaukee Bucks we expected them to look

Compared to they’re looking right now let me go to the Western Conference and tell you why I’m looking at the Phoenix Suns maybe it’s not really just about basketball it’s about me looking into the camera and saying you damn well better be a title Contender you damn

Well better step it up the hell y’all think this is you know that you’re limited as an organization because of the assets that you ultimately gave away whether it being players and picks or what have you you’ve got Kevin Durant who post 35 years of age is averaging 28

A game third leading scorer in the league busting everybody’s you living know what we’ve got a guy in Devin Booker that can drop 21 night 70 to next 40 or 50 to next 62 to next this brother is something special and then we got a guy in Bradley Bill that you just

Pointed out KP that looks a bit disoriented not necessarily involved but they’ve elevated in terms of offensive efficiency over the last few weeks they’re one of the top offensively efficient teams in the NBA they’re a top 10 team I think they’ll figure it out as time goes along we’re usually worried

About a Frank vogle team offensively we know what he can do defensively if you give him time to do it so the level of fith that you have in that fact that they’ll Elevate defensively combin with a big three that they have offensively nurkic although he shows up once every

Three or four games damn it we know he’s capable of showing up I’m just of the mindset even though I’m looking at Oklahoma City and Minnesota and Denver and the Los Angeles Clippers I’m looking at all of those things we all know that if you have a big three on the offensive

Side of the ball and they show up that they have the potential to knock off anybody again I’m not saying they’re going to win the championship we’re all on the same page but in terms of the direct question is who I’m giving the better chance to meaning Milwaukee in

The East or Phoenix in the west based on what I’m seeing and what I have seen thus far I would give Phoenix a better chance because because of their offensive Firepower compared to Milwaukee’s flagrant defensive efficiencies and the fact that they look disoriented offensively what well off

Look well look let me say this first of all the Phoenix Suns they’re three and nine in the Western Conference against teams that have a 500 record or better okay second of all second of all they have to find that balance in their offense if you go back and look at when

Devin Booker dropped I believe 44 and then he dropped 62 both of those games the Phoenix Suns took L’s they took L’s so that’s how important it has to be when it comes down to having that Balan attack and making sure that Bradley Bill is put into that offensive system okay

Right now one can say that Grayson Allen is the third best player on that team the way this season has been going now on the other side you could canel you could cancel the 76ers okay you can canel this I said this last night on the countdown if if

I’m the 76ers I’m shutting Joel and be down he’s not going to be healthy in the postseason things are only going to get worse for him for as his injuries with with his kns Ramona Shel said yesterday that you could write a story on each one

Or write a book on each one of his knees like the the games before the Golden State Warriors the game before before he got hurt against the Golden State Warriors do you realize sa say that he couldn’t jump in in pregame when he went to go test

His knee out that is a major concern so the 76ers I I I hate to say it but they’re out of the picture so the only team that you the only two teams that you’re standing down the barrel at is the Knicks and the Celtics in the East

So the thing about it is Stephen A if if the the Suns and the bucks made the finals I would agree with you I would say the Suns would maybe beat them but I don’t think I think the Suns the the barrier is much higher because of the

Difficulty in the west and I just I’ve been around the Suns and while they their intentions are very good and they do want to work together the the lack of reps with these three guys it shows up all the time and I just don’t think that

They’re going to get there by the time it matters well I guess what I’m asking y’all I shouldn’t say asking you what I’m saying is this we’re anticipating I mean you got you you you’ve got 30 plus games to go in the season I’m anticipating that there’s going to be a

Level of continuity that elevates I mean I understand they’ve only played 17 games games together they’re 11 and six with their big three in the lineup right now they’re eighth in offensive def efficiency right now in the in the in the league and on top it all over the

Last 11 games in which they’ve won nine they’ve been third offensively so one could liter legitimately make the argument that they’re getting it together they’re not there yet we know this but when you take into account and I and and let me see KP and and and

Wendy when I asked this question and it’s just a simple nod or yes or no I understand Denver we got to wonder about James Harden which you said on numerous occasions big perk right we looking at OKC and Minnesota and regardless of their talent we have to take into

Account youth in Phoenix not only do we have a big three who can score on anybody Devin Booker has been around for a while and Kevin Durant one of the most prolific scorers in the history of the game and a two-time champion in the two-time NBA Finals MVP is on their

Squad as well so when I’m looking at youth I’m saying are going up again forign spee for speech spe our Dragon Lane Tower is under attack you got to roll with the punches son buiness not the personal First Blood our Slayer Lane Tower is under attack an enemy has been defeated

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FIRST TAKE | Is Kevin Durant or Damian Lillard likely to win NBA Finals title? – Stephen A. weighs in