Stephen A.: KD to Houston Is the Most Shocking Move This Offseason

SportsLand

05/07/2025

🔥 On First Take, Stephen A. Smith reacts to what he calls “the biggest bombshell of the NBA offseason” — Kevin Durant joining the Houston Rockets.

After weeks of speculation, Durant’s move to Houston has sent shockwaves through the league. Stephen A. breaks down how this bold acquisition immediately transforms the Rockets from a young, rebuilding team into a legitimate Western Conference threat.

With rising stars like Jalen Green, Alperen Şengün, and Amen Thompson, Durant’s veteran leadership and elite scoring could fast-track Houston into contender status. But will it all come together — or explode under pressure?

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00:00In the NBA, with the start of free agency, the Rockets made the biggest move of the offseason

00:05in acquiring Kevin Durant from the Suns. Durant averaged nearly 27 points per game last season,

00:10providing the Rockets with scoring and boosting their chances at winning an NBA Finals next season.

00:16Plus, the Bucs made a splash of their own this offseason when they added Miles Turner from the

00:21Pacers on Tuesday to a four-year deal, filling a need at center after they lost Brooke Lopez to

00:27the Clippers. However, it was the Orlando Magic that got the chaos started. I know Kevin Clark's

00:32happy about that, as they traded for Desmond Bain from the Grizzlies, as Orlando looks to take the

00:38next step and come out of the East next season. So, David, of those three teams that I mentioned,

00:44of the player acquisitions, which will be the biggest, most, I guess, impactful, biggest bombshell

00:49in the NBA next season? Biggest bombshell of Love Island. Here we go. There we go.

00:53Anyway, Kevin Durant, it's Kevin Durant, because he is the only guy in that mix

00:57that is going to elevate his team to a legitimate possibility of winning a championship.

01:02Now, I like the Desmond Bain move about making the Magic contenders in the East, but in terms of

01:05championship-level abilities, I love the hearts there. I was going to say, I like that.

01:09This is great. This is, you know, anyway, so Kevin Durant and what he's doing to that

01:13Houston Rockets team, because that was what they needed. They've missed a half-court score and somebody

01:17who, when other defenses lock in on them, somebody who can put up 30, 40 points and break down

01:23a defense. I think Kevin Durant is the biggest move here because of how high he elevates this

01:28team. Kevin?

01:30I want to start out by addressing the allegations that will come my way that I'm going to land

01:34a Magic home where I am from.

01:35Wait, you are.

01:35I think you've absolutely, like, you will never be able to beat these allegations.

01:39Nope, wrong, wrong, wrong. No one hates watching the Orlando Magic more than me since

01:43Dwight Howard got traded in 2012, okay? No one has had more misery.

01:46The fact that you've watched the Orlando Magic since 2012 is why you're in Orlando.

01:50If you try it sometime, your takes will be better about the Magic. But I promise you,

01:55I'm as tough a critic as anybody. This Desmond Bain trade not only makes the Magic Eastern

02:00Conference contenders, they're, in my mind, it makes them the favorite. They're going to win

02:04the Eastern Conference. What this does to the Magic offense in transition, as far as catch-and-shoot

02:09three-point shots, as far as the creativity and spacing the floor, this changes the dynamic of

02:14the entire team. They've been trying to get a three-point shooter since JJ Reddick left town in

02:192013. They have not had an offense in the top half of the league, top half, not top five,

02:25not top ten, top half, since Dwight Howard left the team. That's what they've been searching for.

02:30It happens now. It happens this year. Paolo Bancaro is going to be one of the best players

02:33in the NBA. We know what Franz Wagner can do. Desmond Bain changes the franchise.

02:37I just love Kevin Clark, Orlando Magic Homer, coming on here and pitching for the Magic. Look,

02:42I think the Magic had a great offseason. Getting Desmond Bain is going to help a lot. Let's see if

02:46Paolo and Franz can improve their shooting, because I think that's going to have to happen,

02:49and Jalen Suggs is going to have to stay healthy for your opinion to come true, which I'm not

02:53saying it's impossible. The East is wide open. I, though, am going to say Myles Turner going to

02:57the Bucs for a couple of reasons. One, if Myles Turner going to the Bucs keeps Giannis Teddke,

03:02that will be the biggest move of this offseason because it will take him off the board from going to

03:07a Houston or to some other team where he would obviously be a guy who could swing the championship

03:11picture. And the other thing is, by taking him away from the Indiana Pacers, to me, it takes the

03:15Pacers out of the mix. Obviously, they were out of the mix this year with Tyrese Halliburton Hurt,

03:19but it really takes the Pacers out of the mix of continuing this run when Halliburton is back that

03:23we saw them go on over the past several weeks. Turner is a critical part of what allowed the

03:28Pacers to get to the NBA Finals. Taking them out of the mix for the next couple of years opens up

03:32Kevin's Orlando Magic, to me, to be a team that could take their place as a team that's going to be

03:37in the top two or three in the East going forward. So for that reason, I will say for him impacting

03:41multiple teams at once and taking Giannis off the board, I'll go with Myles Turner.

03:45Big if there. If Myles Turner is enough to keep Giannis Antetokounmpo.

03:49Yeah, if that doesn't happen, then I'll be wrong.

03:51Yeah. But as of right now...

03:53As of right now, you're saying you're right. Well, I'm going with David. I'm saying that we're

03:56right talking about the Houston Rockets. This is a team that won the offseason so far. They know what

04:01they had to do to contend with the Oklahoma City Thunder. And what was the conversation like?

04:06I remember when we were doing first take in April, right before the playoffs started.

04:09Nobody was buying the Rockets as a two seed. They were the inexperienced kids that were going

04:15into this just shooting for the moon, going against the Golden State Warriors. They have

04:19that experience now. They have front court, not only starting level play, they have depth. But Kevin

04:25Durant takes this team to a completely different level. You have an elite scorer. Most importantly,

04:29you have an elite closer in all of that, which I think is the most important thing that the Houston

04:33Rockets did not have in that seven game series against the Golden State Warriors in the first

04:38round. And to see him bring himself here. Is this his last stop? Who knows? He's in his mid to late 30s,

04:45played 17 seasons so far in the NBA. We'll see if this yields a championship for him after the last

04:51five seasons. But on this note, after playing 17 seasons, KD is still going strong. He averaged 27

04:57points last season. Now he's hoping to take the Houston Rockets to that same level, to keep up

05:04the same scoring pace. This season, he's expected to pass Michael Jordan on the all-time scorers list

05:10by the end of the 2025-26 season. KD ranks eighth currently in the NBA's all-time scoring list with

05:17over 30,000 points. He's the only active player in the top 10 besides LeBron, who's first on that list,

05:22over 42,000 points. Then you've got James Harden ranked 11th, Russell Westbrook at 20th,

05:27and then Stephen Curry at 24. Tim, who is the better scorer in the NBA today? I'm giving you

05:34four options here. KD, LeBron, James Harden, or Stephen Curry? I mean, this answer is easy. To me,

05:41Kevin Durant is the greatest scorer in the history of the sport, not just now. And he's definitely the

05:45greatest scorer of those four guys today. He's a seven-foot-tall player who plays like a guard,

05:50who can shoot from 30 feet. He's one of the most, if not the most efficient jump shooter in the

05:55history of the league. He's a metronomic 50-40 guy over the course of his career. And when you

06:00combine his size, I mean, you see the jump shot here. There's been nobody ever that we've seen

06:05can have the combination of skills and ability that Kevin Durant has. I mean, the only thing you

06:10could arguably question him over the course of his career is that he didn't shoot enough because

06:14he's been a guy that's been very content to be somewhere in the high 20s, averaging topping up

06:19around 30 in his career. If he wanted to have a Kobe Bryant 2005 season and score 35, 36 points,

06:25he could easily do that. But he's never really pushed himself to be that kind of player. He'd

06:28rather operate within the offense and get himself 28 points on 50-40 shooting. It's why, to your point

06:33before, Courtney, he is going to be such a great fit in Houston because he's replacing Jalen Green,

06:38who was a wildly inefficient, not very good lead scorer. And now they replace him with Kevin Durant.

06:43It's a big part of why the Rockets are going to be a team that is truly a contender this year in the

06:47Western Conference. And yeah, I think KD is not only the best of those four scorers right now,

06:50I truly think he's the greatest scorer from his combination of skills that we've ever seen in

06:54the sport of basketball. Kevin? I'm not going to be a magic home run go off menu with Paolo

06:58Banquero, just to cut that off. Well, he wasn't on the list anyways. I could have done it. I could

07:03have not have been qualified. I'm going KD here. He's getting better at some things, okay? Last year was

07:08his third highest effective field goal percentage, second best three-point percentage of his

07:12career. Everything Tim said is correct, which is a great rebound because the

07:16Miles Turner point was so terrible on the last segment. But this, he's just, in some, again,

07:22some cases getting better. He's going to be part of a championship contender, which I'm not sure you

07:26can say for a lot of these guys. He's going to be at the forefront of the sport next year,

07:30even in his advanced age. I love him. All right. A few days ago, I did David's A-list. It was the

07:34best list I think we've ever had on First Take History. Yeah. And I had Kevin Durant as the second

07:39best scorer of all time, right? The accolades, the years and all that. But for this year,

07:44one year, Wardell, Stephen Curry, what school did he go to, Davidson College? Wardell, Stephen Curry

07:49is the best scorer that we have right now. Look at the defense that he has up against on a night-to-night

07:55basis. They are double-teaming this dude at half court every time he touches the ball. And yet and

08:00still, he is a destroyer of defenses. He went up there against that Houston Rockets team, which is one of

08:07the best defenses in the league, which was equipped specifically to stop this dude. And we're trying to

08:12double-team him at every minute of that game with a hobbled Jimmy Butler, and he broke their spirit

08:17by the end of that series. He can do that. He does that with every team. The most confounding

08:23player to guard in the league since Shaquille O'Neal is Stephen Curry for what he does.

08:28When we talk about explosiveness and scoring, he had two 50-point games this season. Kevin Durant

08:33hasn't had a 50-point game since 2022. When you talk about a guy who can go off, who in one quarter

08:38of scoring can rip out a team's heart, it's Stephen Curry. That is the reason that defenses

08:43cannot figure him out, that everybody is in a panic whenever he's anywhere near crossing

08:48half court. That is why you guard the guy 50, 45 feet away from the basket. I have seen more people

08:54when they have their defenses keyed in on Kevin Durant, give him a hard time. They have given

08:59Steph Curry and his Warriors team around him because he also creates openings for other people

09:04just by being on the court. All the time, we can talk Kevin Durant because, again, my list

09:08was perfect. But this year, it's Stephen Curry. Davidson, Homer? I mean, obviously.

09:13Absolutely. We've been knowing this since we're around the morning days.

09:16We got big homers all across the board here.

09:18Well, Steph Winston-Davidson? I didn't really forget. I forgot that.

09:20To your point, though, what happens in Houston to get him to the level where you'd be willing

09:25to put him over Stephen Curry? Do you think there is something about the makeup of that

09:29roster that will help him get back to, I guess, where he was two on your list

09:33yesterday? He was two. How would he finish two from this year?

09:36Well, I think that Kevin Durant will just have to go against some of these defenses

09:40that we've seen. Like, I want to see a series where you have the Rockets and OKC

09:45and that incredible defense where they have dudes who can lock up pretty much anybody.

09:49They gave Anthony Edwards trouble. They gave Jokic probably the worst series he's had

09:53in a long time, even though he put up big numbers. Kevin Durant has to go out there

09:57and be the best scorer against the OKC team. He has to dominate in the playoffs this year

10:02and get them to a championship because I have seen Stephen Curry do that with the Warriors

10:07team that did not have a lot of offensive weapons where it was Steph Curry. Jordan Poole

10:11was number two. Wiggins was there, too, and he went into Boston in game four and ripped

10:16out that team's heart and put up monster numbers and maybe the best road performance

10:20we've seen in Boston in the finals. Think about the history of Boston. Kevin Durant,

10:25to do that in the playoffs with the team equipped right now to make a run, that's where we make

10:29the argument. And to what you were saying, Tim, I mean, he's got to take more shots this year.

10:32Well, I don't know if he has to take more shots. He just has to beat Kevin Durant. I mean,

10:36this is a guy who his scoring record, again, is unparalleled. I mean, David has him as the

10:39second greatest scorer of all time behind Michael Jordan, but not the best scorer now.

10:43It's a little hard to square. Yeah, the math is not really math.

10:44Well, no, no. If you think about the, we're talking about the overall, right, the overall years

10:50that he's put in. Yes, when you put the accolades and the numbers, raw numbers and all that stuff,

10:54yes, you could put him above Stephen Curry in terms of scoring. But this year, one year,

10:58if you gave me one dude to say, I need you to carry a team offensively and get me to the next

11:02level, I'm putting Stephen Curry on that roster. All right, well, we got to leave it here because

11:05I've got an A-list coming up that's going to absolutely trump the one that you put together

11:09yesterday. Being second this week is not bad. The hot dog eating contest has become one of the top

11:14traditions in America. It's coming up today. Is it going to make my A-list of the country's top

11:19traditions in sports? Plus, the Eagles...

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