00:00Matt, I guess the question for you is this a rebuild job for J.J. Reddick in Los Angeles
00:09or are they going to be built to win?
00:11Is he going to have LeBron James next year?
00:13Well, I think Los Angeles always thinks it's built to win.
00:17Obviously, they went through a rebuild relatively recently, but they didn't really rebuild.
00:22They just acquired a bunch of superstars.
00:25So that's the nice thing about being the Los Angeles Lakers.
00:29So even if they do rebuild, I don't know how long it'll last, but I would expect LeBron
00:36to be back.
00:37Obviously, he became very fast friends with J.J. Reddick in the past year.
00:42And I think no matter what, they'll have Anthony Davis.
00:44So you still have a superstar on the roster.
00:48I would think this is a sign that there's a good chance LeBron comes back and this team
00:53will be loaded for bear again.
00:56Or whatever that is.
00:57I mean, obviously, they're veterans of the play in game right now, which I don't think
01:02is where they want to be, but the West is absolutely loaded.
01:05And so when you look at other coaches recently anyway, who've kind of gone, I know Reddick
01:11took a year in between, but have gone quickly from their playing days to the coaching booth
01:16and at a relatively young age, I think I look at Steve Nash, I look at Jason Kidd, and for
01:23whatever reason, I think people remember these guys as sort of being bust.
01:27They didn't last that long at their first job, which is both with the Nets.
01:32But they were both over 500.
01:34They both actually did pretty well.
01:36Now that was in a weaker East, and that was going into very veteran teams that had high
01:41expectations.
01:42Well, I think Reddick will be in the same situation if LeBron comes back.
01:46So I think they can be decent.
01:48But at the same time, I think the potential for disaster here is high.
01:54And I think I said this before on this show, it's one of those hires that after the season,
01:58no matter what happens, people will claim it was obvious.
02:01If they have a horrible year, people are going to say, well, of course they had a horrible
02:04year.
02:05They hired a 37-year-old, however old, you know, Reddick is.
02:09And then if they do well, people say, well, yeah, of course, JJ Reddick's a bright young
02:13mind.
02:14He knows basketball.
02:15He's innovative.
02:16He knows what you need instead of hiring all these retreads that coaches always do.
02:20So it's going to be an interesting one.
02:22I'm excited to see how this one plays out.
02:24If I had to, you know, give my bet on this, I don't think it'll go particularly well,
02:30but I think it'll kind of go with how it's been for the Lakers the last couple of years.
02:33If LeBron's back, they'll get into the play-in and, you know, won't do that well.
02:38I know two years ago, they made the conference finals and that was a very good year for them.
02:43But I think it'll be more along the lines of this year because as great as LeBron is,
02:47as legendary as he is, he's only getting older, like we all are.
02:51And so I just think eventually the play is going to diminish even more.
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