Stephen A. Smith: “DeMar DeRozan, I believe would have pulled off the same thing Kawhi Leonard did if LeBron wasn’t in the Eastern Conference that year.” (via @FirstTake)
Stephen A. Smith:
“DeMar DeRozan, I believe would have pulled off the same thing Kawhi Leonard did if LeBron wasn’t in the Eastern Conference that year.”
(via @FirstTake) pic.twitter.com/QDZitIhyv8
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) April 18, 2023
by XviiChong
48 Comments
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The absolute blasphemy from this guy, like what a ridiculous take. Nuff said.
That is insane. We love you Derozan but you are not that guy.
wouldn’t even have made it past 76ers let alone the Bucks
Clutch 3 point and shot making vs 76ers pulled out of series. Defended Giannis at an elite level.
As much as I love deebo, there is no way that’s happening
Wild take lmaoo
What year is he talking about? Lebron was on the Lakers during the championship season
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Forget replacing Kawhi, Demar needed to become a passable playoff performer first. Absolute lunacy.
love demar but this guy’s off his meds
At least he is admitting the Raptors around Kawhi were an awesome good team, not just Kawhi carrying the team the whole way like some say.
I love DeMar but no, he wouldn’t have. This is what happens when talking heads talk about something they know nothing about.
The best we can do is cook DJ Augustine and Vuc
Stephen A. Smith is a complete idiot. He’s barely even a real journalist, he’s just a professional shit disturber.
I’ll never forgive him for what he said about our team and country during the finals.
It’s even funnier because he’s seems to forget where the first NBA game was played and who actually played in it, what a great Knicks fan.
Not even comparable on defence. No disrespect but DeRozan couldn’t make an all-star team in the west.
Sixers in 5 if we have DeMar instead of Kawhi.
Magic in 7
He also has said we could’ve won with coach Casey and Nick Nurse wasn’t needed. NN arguably won 2 games against the bucks by just out scheming Bud
Man I thought the worst raptors take that non raps fans make is saying that we shouldn’t have fired Casey but this might be even worse. Kawhi had maybe 1 or 2 off games in the entire playoff run in 2019, Demar would have 3 horrible games in the same series. Just can’t be that inconsistent as a number 1 option in the playoffs. No Demar lead team would ever win against a contender
I know he was happy the Knicks are in the Playoffs and that they won Game 1, but maybe stay off the WEEEED if you’re going to host a show Monday morning.
He’s really digging up DeRozan’s grave here
I would bet all the money I have in the world that he wouldn’t have
DeRozan is great, but he was never on Kawhis level.
As good as DeMar (and presumably poeltl) is, I don’t see us beating that Philly team. Kawhi’s two way masterclass was very important
Kawhi did it against LeBron though
This is what Stephen says when they tell him he needs to pump up the Canada numbers. The man is master.
Man, this guy will say anything to have people talking about him!
Nah.
I love Stephen A and DeMar… But no. Not in any universe.
Lmao the sixers probably would have lost to the warriors if we had Double D instead of Kawhi
There was a steal on Indiana that Kawhi made where he wasn’t even looking, leaned back and fell on top of the ball and Jack Armstrong was like “oh my goodness”… it’s those intangibles that DeMar will never be able to replicate, period.
What was Kawhi stats for the 76ers series? Has Demar had a postseason series even close to that?
I love Demar, no way. If we are one percent worse we lose the 76ers series. That’s before we talk about how to stop Giannis.
I would love to believe that’s true but like most people here I think they don’t get past the 76ers.
Although I will say that raps team minus Kawhi and adding Demar was better than the 76ers on paper but they underperformed that series, especially on offence making it closer than it should have been.
Kawhi made everyone on the team mentally tougher and less goofy. Delusional statement
Right on brand for Stephen A. Smith to throw out a take that can never ultimately be proven wrong.
ESPN sux so bad.
Bs
76ers would’ve whooooped us. Then if we got past them, Giannis would’ve pile drived us. And don’t get me started on the red hot GSW who made the west look like they Bitch. Cheese doodles is tripping.
Umm… no. DeMar lead team would have not beaten the 76ers.
It’s only a ridiculous take because it puts the team in a vaccuum.
Even with Kawhi this team wasn’t winning a championship with JV. That’s why we traded him for Marc Gasol. On top of that, we got terrific contributions from Danny Green. All three of those dudes were major contributors as well as Pascal Siakam ascending. Probably be harder for Pascal to do what he did with DeRozan here.
Add in Marc Gasol, Jakob Poeltl, DeMar DeRozan and subtract JV/Kawhi/Danny Green I think cases can be made that we would still be a contender. Over that three year stretch the only team we lost to was LeBron James. That’s not to say that Philly couldn’t beat us as they were absolutely terrific themselves. Lowry/DD/OG/Siakam/Gasol with FVV/Norm/Ibaka/Poeltl off the bench would have been fun. That’s 4 positive defenders and a former DPOY around DeRozan, as well as the best defensive team he was ever on.
Everybody remembers the Kawhi carry job, but I think we would still have had a chance but only IF we still had Gasol to do what he did to Embiid that year. He made him the man he is today, basically. Then you have Simmons covering DeRozan and Lowry running pick and roll and doing essentially whatever the hell he wanted. People also forget how much of a step back offensively Lowry took that season, if DeRozan was here he’d probably have switched back into his #1 scorer mode.
I’m not gonna predict who would win, but I think it’s fair to say that the series likely goes 7 either way, and it’s anybody’s game and whatever team won there was likely to win a chip after. I think you guys disrespect DeRozan too much by playing the DeRozan vs the field card too much when that version of the Raptors were always sum of it’s parts teams and not just a superstar player.
Wow, what a dumb statement. That really highlights how casual SAS is. Lol
Yall disrespect DeMar too much and it’s why you all deserve DeTreadmill
Not sure about winning it all, but we would have made the finals during the years that Lebron dominated us in the finals.
The year LeBron left and we had Kawhi, not sure about beating GSW, but we’d be a favourite for the finals.
American media try not to discredit the 2019 raptors challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)
Is he saying that if Lebron stayed in Cleveland he would have stopped Kawhi?
no way you can watch the sixers series and believe this lmao
Who is this guy? I really like the journalism of Blake Murphy. And William Lou.
But I thought Kawhi carried us to the finals all these years?