00:00I want to ask you about the Lakers, though, Coach.
00:03No Luka, no Reeves, maybe all of round one.
00:07Who knows?
00:08I mean, like, maybe Luka's overseas trying to figure some things out
00:13with the hamstring, but I'm certainly working under the assumption
00:16of, you know, no round one for either one of those guys.
00:23Do you think the Lakers, not that you'd pick them in either series,
00:28do you think the Lakers would have a better chance to upset Houston
00:33or Minnesota with LeBron out there kind of in do-it-all mode?
00:40I would take my matchup and I would go against Minnesota
00:44because of the health of Anthony Edwards.
00:46And then the fact of you being in New York,
00:50even though he was good last year,
00:52you don't know what you're going to get in Julius Randle in the playoffs.
00:56And that team has just been, as much as I feel like, Kevin,
00:59they could put it together and go on a run
01:02and get to the Western Conference Finals,
01:04Kevin, they could turn around and flame out in the playoffs.
01:07And now we're talking about, you know, Finch maybe losing his job
01:11and then kind of starting over.
01:14So I think that's the way that you need to be.
01:17And listen, at the end of the day, LeBron's going to have to put him,
01:21that team, on his back.
01:24Can he do it?
01:25I don't know if he could do it for a seven-game series.
01:28Can he give you, like, two, like, oh, my goodness, LeBron at 31?
01:34Yeah, I think he can give you a couple of those games.
01:36But it's about the other guys that have to step up.
01:39And DeAndre Ayton's got to do something here
01:42where he, at some point, has got to play like the guy
01:45that we thought he was supposed to be coming into the league.
01:49So it would put a lot on LeBron's plate.
01:53Everybody else has to play well, Kevin.
01:55But I think he can give you one to two LeBron historic games,
02:01I think, in a seven-game series.
02:03And I think the better pathway for him would be going through Minnesota
02:08because I also think that the defense of Houston,
02:13being able to put different bodies, Jabari a little bit taller,
02:16a man a little bit more physical,
02:19I think that's going to be a little bit too much for him to deal with.
02:22Better to go through the path of Minnesota with injuries
02:25and inconsistent play of that team.
02:28I just want a quick side note.
02:30I figured out the Wemby thing.
02:31We'll do it in the next segment.
02:34All right?
02:34I don't want to disrupt, but I figured it out, Coach.
02:36So we're not crazy.
02:37No one's crazy, okay?
02:38As far as this Laker team goes,
02:41I think the Anthony Edwards health is such a tilting thing
02:50from a series perspective that I find it intriguing, right?
02:56Because what I think, certainly from what you just said,
03:00even if Anthony Edwards plays in game one,
03:04there's no guarantee he's playing in game four, right?
03:06And even if Anthony Edwards, let's say the series wins six games,
03:10I don't think there's any guarantee that Ant would be healthy enough
03:17to be the best player in the series.
03:19I want to be very clear because I understand who I am
03:23as the messenger in this moment, okay?
03:25At this point in their careers,
03:27healthy Anthony Edwards is better than LeBron.
03:32In this series, though, LeBron will put up better numbers
03:36if they were to meet.
03:37He just will, okay?
03:39Because LeBron still has enough gas in that tank to,
03:44oh, you need me to do it on my own?
03:46Here's 30, 10, and 7.
03:47I mean, it's just what he's doing.
03:49It's just what he's doing right now.
03:51The Houston matchup fascinates me, though, Coach,
03:54because we've talked about Houston in a negative light for a while.
03:59And despite a really impressive win streak
04:04that they did just recently have snapped by Minnesota,
04:06there are fundamental things with this basketball team
04:11that I don't trust.
04:12And one of them that I'm surprised I don't trust
04:19is Imei Udoka's coaching acumen.
04:24I don't know if Imei has just lost such control
04:31over this team's emotions and then his emotions,
04:34or if Imei is simply just a floor guy
04:39and has a really hard ceiling.
04:41I'm not sure, Coach,
04:43but I have felt that Imei Udoka has been awful
04:48this season for Houston.
04:51And we know what,
04:53last year J.J. Reddick was outcoached by Chris Finch.
04:56J.J.'s learned it'd be an interesting matchup.
04:59I think J.J. Reddick at this point in his career
05:01is actually a better coach than Imei Udoka.
05:03And the Lakers are looking for advantages
05:06because they're so shorthanded
05:08that having a coaching edge
05:12could be enough to give the Lakers life
05:15beyond the fact that LeBron has to be
05:19otherworldly brilliant
05:20against whomever Los Angeles
05:23were to play here in round number one.
05:25Let's go.
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