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00:00At Minnesota is set up now to make a legit run.
00:04And I think if you are Anthony Edwards,
00:06getting to the conference finals two straight years
00:08at the age of 23 is fantastic.
00:12You know, when you do your re-ranking
00:14of best players in the world,
00:15Ant's going to be a big mover, I think,
00:17ultimately off of this postseason,
00:20assuming they aren't upset in round number two.
00:25I guess the question is,
00:26and we bring these two teams a little bit together,
00:28so I'll go to you, Coach,
00:29as somebody who thought the conference finals matchup
00:32would be Oklahoma City-Minnesota,
00:33but is expecting Oklahoma City to win that.
00:37How much more of a chance are you giving Minnesota
00:39off of beating the Lakers?
00:41I'm giving them a strong chance
00:43because I think they're playing their best basketball.
00:45And I think, you know, while we talk about Ant being unguardable,
00:48we talk about what Rudy's given,
00:50you know, secretly Julius Randle had a pretty decent series
00:53because he doesn't have to think that he's the man.
00:56Because he's not.
00:57And it's Ant.
00:58And it's very simply put.
01:00But to me, and we talked about this, Kevin,
01:02is like, McDaniels?
01:05I mean, no one saw that one coming.
01:09A guy that was getting, you know, what, like, you know,
01:1212 points a game during the regular season,
01:15now just extremely, you know, exploded in the playoffs
01:19and what he gave.
01:20And it's more than just the game one performance.
01:22And listen, it was quiet in game five with only eight points.
01:26But he fouled out.
01:28You know, nine, 16, 30, 25.
01:31If McDaniels gives you this, and then you have the bench,
01:35with DiVincenzo, with Alexander Walker, and, of course, with Nas Reed,
01:38they become a way where they can play a lot of different styles.
01:46They can go really big.
01:47They can go really big and go with Nas and Rudy.
01:50They can go small with Nas at the five and then Randle at the four.
01:54They can go McDaniels at the three and go with a four at the four and go three-guard lineup.
01:59So, to me, they pose threats because I think they are a sum of their parts
02:04that they can kind of, like, mix and match at the three, four, five position
02:09what makes dangerous.
02:11And then you have a guy in hand that I was, like, you know, before the season,
02:14okay, probably about 9, 10.
02:18I'm thinking about right now, like, you could be talking about
02:21is the fifth best player in the world, ready, Jason Tatum or Anthony Edwards?
02:25If you really think it's some combination of Giannis, you know, Joker, SGA, Luka.
02:31Don't you think people are going to jump Ant in front of Luka off of this series in rankings?
02:37It depends on, like, what, again, what narrative you're trying to push of, like,
02:40we've seen it from Luka, we've seen it in the playoffs.
02:43It's not to say that we haven't seen it from Ant.
02:45Granted, a smaller sample size, but it depends on what you want to push ultimately.
02:50But I also think, sorry, I also think what happens next series.
02:53I think next series is big.
02:55If he gets to a second Western Conference Finals and they're competitive against OKC,
03:00yeah, you could talk about Ant being the fourth best player in the world
03:03right behind Joker, Giannis, and SGA.
03:06But if they go the next series against either the Warriors or the Rockets
03:10and they flame out and Ant has a rough time,
03:13then I think he sits right there at six,
03:15which is right above someone that we should also talk about at some point,
03:19and that's Kawhi at, like, seven.
03:21Huh?
03:22Currently?
03:23I have Kawhi, seven.
03:24Correct.
03:25That's what I'm talking about.
03:26That's a different story.
03:27This guy, man.
03:28This guy, Kawhi.
03:28Minnesota, I love what you said about Minnesota,
03:31and it's a team that I, and what it reminds me of is a team
03:36when the Raptors won the title, right?
03:39When you have a Baca out there and Siakam, right?
03:41And they have, and obviously Kawhi was there.
03:43They can play multiple ways.
03:45They can play small and shoot the three, multiple guards out there.
03:48They can play big and match different teams.
03:49And matching up against a team like Houston, I think, is very, very interesting.
03:55What are they going to do?
03:56They've got to shut down Dan Vliet.
03:58They can throw a lot of different defensive assignments at Shingun, right?
04:02They can make his life difficult.
04:05This is assuming that the Rockets win, which is obviously, you know,
04:08we've covered that.
04:09I'm sorry.
04:10I'm just very curious.
04:14I just blew the whole show up.
04:15Go ahead.
04:15I'm just very curious.
04:16I'm trying to stay on topic.
04:18No, no, no, no, no, no.
04:19New topic, new topic.
04:21We're going to go to Greg Popovich in the next segment.
04:24So you have Kawhi as the seventh-best player in the NBA.
04:26Joker, Giannis, SGA, Luka, Tatum, Ant, Kawhi, LeBron.
04:30This guy's better than LeBron.
04:32That's crazy.
04:33He plays half a season.
04:35I know.
04:35He plays half a season.
04:38I know.
04:39And he's seventh.
04:41Yes.
04:42That is so outrageous and yet so on-brand for Kawhi Leonard.