Lakers News: LeBron James Makes Bonkers Assessment Of Playoff Teams' Chances

He's probably just being nice, but this is a spicy take.

Los Angeles Lakers All-Star small forward LeBron James was serving up piping hot takes today following a team practice.

Head coach Darvin Ham and his staff are currently putting LA through its paces in Memphis ahead of its first round playoff matchup against the 51-31 Grizzlies tomorrow at noon PT.

Per Jovan Buha of The Athletic, James offered up a diplomatic response when pressed by gathered reporters as to how he felt about the Lakers' chances in a fairly available Western Conference, even incorporating the East's eight playoff clubs in his assessment for good measure.

"I think it's 16 teams in the postseason and there's opportunity for all 16," James opined, per Buha.

James has always been a generous sort, but this was a pretty extreme opinion. I'm dubious he actually meant it, but it was nice of him to incorporate eighth-seeded clubs like the Miami Heat, who barely survived a play-in matchup with a offensively-challenged Chicago Bulls club on Friday, and the Minnesota Timberwolves, who almost had an internal mutiny on their hands last weekend when center Rudy Gobert got into it on the team's bench with Minnesota forward Kyle "Slo-Mo" Anderson.

If either Miami or Minnesota takes more than a game off their first round opponents (the Milwaukee Bucks and the Denver Nuggets, respectively), I'd be surprised. 

The Atlanta Hawks also seem to have a slim chance of actually besting the Boston Celtics in their 2-7 matchup in the East. Given that James' Lakers are the West's seventh seed, the 19-time All-Star wants to keep his 43-39 club in the conversation as legitimate playoff contenders, despite being first round underdogs against Memphis.

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