FIRST TAKE | Kevin Durant & Amen Thompson or AD & Cooper Flagg: Texas duo is better? – Stephen A.

FIRST TAKE | Kevin Durant & Amen Thompson or Anthony Davis & Cooper Flagg: Texas duo are better? – Stephen A.

each team loading up heading into next season despite trading Luca Donuch to the Lakers for 10 time all-star Anthony Davis the Mavs hope for a generational pairing after drafting the number one consensus player in the country in Cooper Flag the Rockets made a big splash this past Sunday with the acquisition of 15time all-star Kevin Durant from the Suns pairing KD with the likes of young rising star Almond Thompson and let’s not forget about the Spurs after acquiring Jiren Fox from the Kings last season San Antonio looks forward to having him and the French sensation Victor Winyama for a full season danny which Texas duo are you the highest on i may sound a little biased here but I’m I’m looking at the Spurs i want to see a healthy WBY and a Darren Fox we never got a chance to get them at full strength last year obviously everybody’s interested in seeing what KD looks like too but for me it’s that that duo and seeing how WBY bounces back from that bloodcot issue and Darren Fox from his surgery so uh and they have a great good core around them they just drafted Dylan you know Harper they have uh Stefon Castle they have so many good young pieces you know Vel you got Kell Johnson over there Jeremy Sohan like they have a really great you know young core so I want to see how they can because I think they’ve been one of those teams that turned around fully and not be you know obviously they were lottery this past year but going from that to being probably a top six scene in the West top six seed in the West excuse me
McMahon who do you have your eye on i’m shocked that Dan Green went first go right uh you win championships somewhere you should be a little bit biased but look this is honestly this is a there’s a no wrong answer situation here there’s reason for excitement with all of these duos i’m gonna go with Kevin Durant and Amen Thompson uh and and the tiebreaker there is I think they have the best team i think they have the best situation in terms of being able to make a deep playoff run amen Thompson is one of the best defensive players in the league just spectacular in transition but this team had a massive massive glaring hole in terms of the go-to guy you bring in Kevin Durant who can get 27 points per game in his sleep you know 30,000 plus points still playing at an elite level and I do expect that the Houston Rockets are going to be playing into May potentially even deep May
molly I don’t know the answer to this question i I honestly I don’t i think part of it is we don’t know necessarily who the duos are what I mean you’ve talked about when WBY and De’aran Fox certainly those guys are are top of the game but what if Dylan Harper is the kind of player that that the Spurs and a lot of people think he is what if their new duo with all due respect to Dear Fox what if their duo ends up being Dylan Harper and Victor Webeyama and then you have Stefan Castle and De’arren Fox now you’re talking about a different conversation alto together i got to say the same thing about Dallas this is not really a duo situation this is a trio when Kyrie Irving gets healthy we’re talking about Kyrie and Cooper flag and AD that’s very powerful and you know it’s really hard to build it’s really hard to build a big three in the modern NBA because of the the new rules the new CBA rules except when one of them is on their rookie contract which Cooper flag is going to be for the next four years and then in Houston I kind of you know if I had to pick a team now that I like to win I like Houston like McMahon said because I think KD go adding to that roster and I am as high on AN Thompson as I am on any young player in the league and again they have a he is Amen Thompson is on a rookie scale contract
but that leaves out their all-star their all-star is Al Perin Shenon and so what makes this so remarkable and it’s a really good construct of a question because it’s a really good you know who do you like the best but these teams are deeper than these duo
okay let’s put it this way i love the appreciation you’re having for the league but you know if Big Perk was here right now he’d tell you this is first take and you need to pick a side but but but I’ll work with you a little bit what do are you most excited to see right now the most excited to see with McMahon is Amen and Durant because I think their skill sets potentially especially if they’re going to complement each other on the wings potentially very very interesting but I will say Cooper Flag is going to be fascinating to watch but I but if you’re backing me into a corner
I will say the Rockets
danny uh interesting take no love for Cooper Flag Anthony Davis from anybody here um I’m interested in seeing that i said I picked the Spurs because I just think they can turn it around houston does have the better team right now but if healthy I think Dallas honestly could be the team to give OKC their their toughest run they could be one of the best teams in the West uh between Houston and Dallas so yeah Wimby I mean Wendy I love the fact that you’re looking at the the trios but we got to pick a duo here and I guess I can settle with Kevin Durant Thompson that’s a good second for me anyway
i talked him into it
yeah tim why no love for Cooper and AD well listen again there’s no wrong answers here and I will say obviously everybody is extremely excited to to see Cooper Flag and especially early in the season when Kyrie unfortunately will be recovering from a torn ACL he’s not going to be on the floor cooper Flag is going to have a chance to really spread his wings jason Kid sees a lot of Grant Hill type of characteristics remember Detroit Grant Hill that was a bad dude and Cooper Flag is going to have a chance to be a point forward to have the ball in his hands a lot not sole responsibility but like Jay Kid did with Giannis he’s going to put the ball in his hands and see what he can do with it uh and you know this is a guy there’s the Grant Hill comparison there’s also a Kawawaii comparison with what he can do defensively obviously there’s a ton of excitement about Cooper Flag so much so that uh I think that some of those folks who promised never to show up to the AAC again after the Luca trade they’ll have their butts right back in those seats with number 32 jerseys on
i think we’re giving Cooper flag a lot of credit here early on um the Grant Hill compar Grant Hill was a realist that I said he was a bad dude and I think the reason why a lot of us have not chosen the Cooper flag Anthony Davis because Cooper flag hasn’t been proven yet he has to still learn a lot ammon Thompson has shown what he can do dear Fox has shown what he do so obviously Wimby has too and Kevin Durant um so we are waiting to see what Cooper Flag can bring obviously we know he’s an unbelievable talent he’s gifted and we expect some big things from him i think he’s going to be in a situation where he can learn a lot so we don’t know what he’s going to look like yet obviously there’s these comparisons of Grant Hill but I haven’t given him that type of you know credit just yet or those type of flowers just yet till I see it so I think that’s why they’re in last place for me and the duos on the on the top duo list
all right let’s push it forward but stay in the
They really really want to extend his contract they can’t do that for another month until August 2nd in between now and then though they need to make sure that they improve their roster so that he’s excited about signing a long-term contract extension specifically at uh at the center position also LeBron James has an option in decision in his contract he has to decide whether to opt out by Sunday the expectation is he will opt in to his $53 million deal austin Reeves uh turned down a contract extension this week but don’t overreact to that that was expected the Lakers will hope to have him signed up to a new deal next year
lots going on in LA excitement around obviously what they can be with Luca lebron still uh with at least I guess one year left we we don’t know but in order they talk about championships in LA like that’s what matters so how do they get back to that level
well you would love to mirror what he did in Dallas when they had Daniel Gaffford and Derek Lively unfortunately both those players are probably not available to get you them to Los Angeles here it starts with the center position but how do you go out and acquire one they have the $5.7 million tax mid-level exce exception to go out and sign a player it’s a it’s a below average in total free agent market here when you look at players like you know certainly Luke Cornett is an interesting name jackson Hayes who was here last year Al Horford who was 39 years old clink Capel is an interesting name that is the priority now outside of free agency you’re looking at the trade market you’re looking at the players on your own roster whether it be Gabe Vincent or Ruie Hachimore um Maxi Cleber who are all on expiring contracts you have $60 million plus and you’ve got a first round pick in 2031 but it takes two to tango i was going through some names when I was sitting on on the side here and I’m having a hard time coming up with a a a true trade that the Lakers could do right now
tim what do you think the Lakers priority needs to be in these upcoming months well as Bobby said the challenge here is figuring out who to plug into the holes the Lakers have the holes are pretty clear it starts with that center preferably a rim running center who can protect the rim which has always been a great thing for Luca Dod to have they need more perimeter defense they need more shooting across the roster for guys like LeBron James and Luca Dodas to set up for open threes two things those one thing those guys are both excellent at doing so look the thing to look at with the Lakers is as you said Graz the goal is to win championships they lost in five games in the first round to the Wolves the Wolves lost in five games in the conference finals to the eventual champion Oklahoma City Thunder that is the gap that we’re talking about the Lakers having to make up and to do that’s going to require a lot of work and a lot of assets which the latter of which the Lakers do not really have so it’s going to require a lot of creativity from Rob Pelinka some use of the fact that they are in LA the fact that they’ve got LeBron and Luca there to try to entice some guys to come but it is not going to be easy for the Lakers to fill in these holes on their roster and catch up to a Thunder team that is the deepest team in the league already one of the youngest champions ever and is only going to be better with the experience they gained over the past couple of months
like the switch from LA to Milwaukee now Wendy we call that the reverse what’s [Music] [Music] [Music] Foreign speech foreign speech foreign speech [Music] foreign speech foreign speech foreign speech foreign speech [Music] forchech [Music] [Music] maybe she can thank you are you ready how do you like it where’s Daddy pick up again excuse me okay is that good yeah we got right now