If the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers meet in the playoffs next year, Miami Heat All-Star Bam Adebayo is taking the newly formed duo of Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball over Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.
In a recent chat with “Makeshift Hoops,” Adebayo broke down why he prefers the Edwards-Ball combo over the Doncic-Reaves pairing.
“That’s tough cause you’ve seen Luka and Reaves play. And [Austin] took a big leap,” Adebayo began.
“I’ll say Ant and LaMelo,” he continued. “I feel like they’re gonna be exciting for [the Timberwolves]. Everything off the court is gonna be hilarious. The off-the-court media training — hilarious.”
Bam Adebayo Picks Best Duo
Adebayo proceeded to pick Joel Embiid and LeBron James over other combos like Edwards-Ball and Jalen Brunson-Karl Anthony Tows, but picked Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic over the new Philadelphia 76ers duo. Ultimately, he chose himself and Giannis Antetokounmpo as the best 1-2 punch in the NBA.
“We’re going to assault the rim,” Adebayo said of him and Antetokounmpo.
Last week, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra revealed he will stagger the minutes of Adebayo and Antetokounmpo to sustain a physical brand of basketballl.
“We’ll see where it eventually goes, but it makes sense to have one of those guys on the floor as often as you can,” Spoelstra said, via the Sun Sentinel.
“We also want to maximize their time together. That’s usually what teams are trying to do, but we have a lot of versatility, so we want to be able to maximize all of it.”
Lakers Eye NBA Title
Adebayo isn’t alone in doubting the Lakers as title contenders. Oddsmakers have the Lakers 12th on the list of title favorites, forecasting them to win under 46 games. Luka Doncic, though, genuinely believes he and Austin Reaves have the squad to win it all.
“Since the first day,” Doncic said when asked when he believed the new-look Lakers could compete for an NBA title.
“That simple. Since the first day everybody came together in Slovenia … I believed that we can win a championship.”
Doncic felt the same way last year until his hamstring injury forced him to miss the end of the regular season and the playoffs.
“My thought was just to get fully healthy,” said Doncic.
“I had the whole summer for that, and I feel great. I thought we had a team that could compete for a championship, so it was kind of disappointing, kind of let the team down, so it’s definitely motivating for this season.”
The Lakers will begin their championship pursuit with a clash against the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 21.
Lakers’ Luka Doncic, Austin Reaves Get Bad News From Bam Adebayo